Abstract
The use of information communication technology (ICT) in the industry is undoubtedly growing fast all over the world. Nevertheless, many of the small enterprises, particularly in the food and beverages (F&B) industry in Brunei, are still not adapting as rapidly as anticipated. Thus, this study aims to identify and explore the key factors influencing Brunei's small enterprises to adopt e-commerce in their business based on Venkatesh and Davis technology acceptance model (TAM) framework. In attaining this purpose, in-depth interviews have been conducted with six local small enterprises. It can be concluded that there are four main factors contributing to the influence to the adoption and use of e-commerce amongst Bruneian's small enterprises, which are perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, costs, and social influence.
TopIntroduction
In terms of volume and number of customers, e-commerce has expanded drastically worldwide due to the pervasiveness of the platform and the convenience it offers to users. Despite the small size of the country, Brunei Darussalam, according to We Are Social (2018) has the highest Internet and social media penetration among other countries in Southeast Asia. With internet penetration at 86%, Brunei has been continuously building up solid legal foundation for e-commerce activities (We Are Social, 2018). However, there is still a slow adoption of e-commerce in this country and given the tremendous growth potential, it is still considered infancy in Brunei. Recent study on the roles of ICT in the Bruneian context had been released by AITI which can be found in the Brunei Darussalam ICT Business Report 2019. Following the report being published, only 24% of Bruneian businesses possessed their own websites, with only 11% of these businesses have access to online payment. Some companies in Brunei have been implementing e-commerce over the past few years and are already benefiting from it. However, as established from existing studies, some MSMEs may not have incorporated much technical innovations due to:
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Internal reluctance to change and lack of top-level management support,
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Lack of IT expertise and difficulty in adjusting to modern IT systems,
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Economic considerations such as cost pressure from vendors, consumers, or rivals,
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Common e-commerce problems like security and privacy.
Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) as a whole play a very important role in the economies of many countries, and are central components of the economy of a developing world. MSME managers need to be creative and autonomous, with the goal of adapting to the developing world economy. They need to be open to new technologies to thrive, including applying advances of the Internet and e-commerce, both of which have become important resources for business management to achieve the outcomes they desire. (Briggs, Buchholz & Sharma, 2020)
With the Internet’s ability to alter economic activity, businesses can make use of this to replace conventional means of communication and process business documentation and information online to operate business operations while also to engage in business transactions virtually. However, due to above-mentioned e-commerce challenges, developing countries like Brunei have not been able to reap the full benefits of e-commerce investment. For instance, as said by Biz Brunei in their articles called “AiTi collaborates with Brunei’s online businesses to launch Cyber Shopfest” (Othman, 2018) they mentioned that people are still skeptical about making payment online.
Moreover, with the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic, MSMEs in Brunei are banned to have dinnings at eateries to curtail the spread of the disease, of which then forces these MSMEs to move into digital mediums and platforms in conducting their business with hope to attract more consumers during the pandemic. However, some of these MSMEs still have not yet adopted many technological innovations. There is also evidence that MSMEs sector is characterized by slow uptake of e-commerce which hinders the development and efficiency of business operations such as from a study by Kurnia (2016) which states that e-commerce innovations are not being invested well which cause the slow growth of businesses. With all that being said, questions were raised in relation to the topic of this research:
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What are the motivating factors influencing small business owners to adopt e-commerce in their operation?
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What are the challenges or issues that are hindering small businesses from adopting e-commerce in their business?
Finally, Venkatesh and Davis (1996) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used to guide this study to explore businesses use of e-commerce. TAM is a very popular tool used to better understand the use of IT from the users’ perspective. TAM is also commonly used to analyze reasons users are using various technological advances (Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989). This study is therefore, conducted based on TAM framework by exploring the factors affecting the adoption of e-commerce by small businesses focusing on the Food and Beverage (F&B) industry. The research was also guided by the objectives below:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Digital Adaptation: The ability to predict, or perceive, quickly evolving business needs, and adjust through new combinations of technology, process and workforce management.
E-Commerce Platform: A software application that allows online businesses to manage their website, marketing, sales and operations.
Technological Innovation: A new or improved product or process whose technological characteristics are significantly different from before.
Capital Formation: The addition of capital goods such as machines, tools, factories, transport equipment, materials, electricity, etc., which are used for future production of goods.
Internet Penetration: The portion of the population that has access to the Internet which is measured by the percentage of internet users in any country.