E-Commerce in Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka

2. Literature Review

There have also been a number of perspectives investigated with regard to e-commerce adoption and SMEs in recent studies. Of particular interest is the study by Wymer and Regan (2011) who have investigated the influential factors in the adoption of e-business and e-commerce technologies by SMEs. Further to this, Grandon et al. (2011) have compare e-commerce adoption theories, While Neilson et al. (2010) have examined the international perspective of the development of e-business by wine industry SMEs, and Beynon-Davies (2010) has considered e-business as a regional development driver. Additionally, scupola (2009) has studied the perspectives of e-commerce adoption by SME s in Australia and Denmark, and Williams et al. (2010) have explored small business sale growth in the UK and internationalization links to web site functions.

Sterrett and Shah (1998) and Stockdale and Standing (2004) have argued that micro-sized SMEs can compete with larger organizations through e-commerce as their size enabled them to be more adaptable and responsive to changing condition. Effective e-commerce deployment thus means that enterprises are no longer restricted by geographical locations and are able to compete in new national and global markets, both for customers and suppliers (Damanpour, 2001: Dholakia and Kshetri, 2004). In terms of financial support, Schneider and Perry (2001) and Galloway and Mochrie (2005) have suggested that SME owner/managers require support from government and support agencies to enable an effective transition in mindset. Such support can take multiple forms including business advice and/ or financial backing in grants and loans.