Assessing the Factors Underlying the Adoption of E-Commerce Among B2B SMEs: A Two-Country Study

Introduction

Electronic means of advertising, communicating, buying, selling, and making payments are increasingly becoming the business norm. This growth is evident in the year-on-year increase in firms migrating to electronic commerce platforms for business operations. In 2019, e-commerce retail sales grew by 23.3% and were expected to represent 13.7% of global retail sales in 2024 (Stir & Zaiţ, 2019; Hwangbo et al., 2020). The rapid implementation of e-commerce platforms has led businesses to streamline their operations and improve their sales (Raimi & Uzodinma, 2020). Indeed, a study by Alsaad et al. (2018) reports that enterprises that have adopted Busines-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce in their business operations have seen an increase in sales compared to their counterparts that have not.

So, it is abundantly evident that both small and large businesses must employ e-commerce to survive rather than as a choice (Liu et al., 2021). Previous research demonstrates that B2B SMEs cannot become competitive and maintain profitability without adopting innovation at the appropriate market levels (Alsaad et al., 2019; Chiniah et al., 2019; Huang & Chang, 2019; Haryanti & Subriadi, 2020). However, research has revealed that B2B SME owners tend to be overly cautious regarding the application and implementation of innovation (Alsaad et al., 2019). Liu et al. (2021) pointed out that SMEs, which frequently lack the means to use traditional forms of trade, can benefit from the efficient adoption and application of e-commerce methods.

To overcome the inertia hindering the adoption of e-commerce among B2B SMEs, it is imperative to conduct research in this area. Consequently, e-commerce adoption has become an attractive area of research among scholars (Susanty et al., 2020; Ahluwalia &Merhi, 2020; Orji et al., 2022; Wirdiyanti et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2022). Despite the growing interest, it has been acknowledged that studies on e-commerce adoption among SMEs are scattered across different disciplines. Thus, further research is needed to examine the behavior of SMEs towards adopting e-commerce (Barkatullah, 2018; Oliveira et al., 2019; Chiniah et al., 2019; Huang & Chang, 2019; Haryanti & Subriadi, 2020). Therefore, the present study identifies several critical gaps in the literature that it aims to address.

First, research on SMEs must advance through theoretical development and empirical analysis. Advancing consensus on theoretical foundations of inquiry would contribute to emerging widely accepted concepts currently limited in the literature (Berente et al., 2019; Chiniah et al., 2019; Lai & Hwang, 2021). Such research is crucial as it deepens the understanding of e-commerce adoption. The dominant framework employed in the literature is the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework proposed by Tornakzky and Fleischer (1990). However, this framework has several limitations, including generic constructs instead of contextual drivers (Alsaad et al., 2019; Usman et al., 2019; Haryanti & Subriadi, 2020; Ugwuanyi et al., 2020; Azam et al., 2021). Therefore, scholars often adapt the constructs according to the specific study context, incorporating other theories to enhance rigor (Alsaad et al., 2019; Sipahutar et al., 2020; Haryanti & Subriadi, 2020; Mullins & Cronan, 2021, Ayawei, 2022). Moreover, some constructs exhibit inconsistent findings across different studies, indicating the potential existence of other factors.