The Influence of Internet Security on E-Business Competence in Jordan: An Empirical Analysis

Introduction

Several studies suggested that the internet has become a popular delivery platform for electronic business (Sheshunoff, 2000; Oyegoke, 1999; Birch, 1999; Evans & Wurster, 1997). Electronic business offered an easy access to their accounts 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Regardless of this convenience, adoption rates of electronic business in most developed countries have been very low. Therefore, of interest to ascertain and understand the factors that drive using e-business applications. Jordan, over a long historical period, is a country of commerce and its people are famous for their trading and business activities. When the internet project entered Jordan, the Jordanian business organizations faced challenging competition to have a pronounced presence on the web. The aims behind this growing attendance are commercial and for reducing communication costs. Most of the companies in Jordan started to build their own websites on the web and started using them to communicate with both current and potential customers.

Saeed et al. (2005) results illustrated that firms with high electronic commerce competence exhibit superior performance and that customer value generated through Web site functionality partially mediates this relationship. Additionally, firms have now started to realize the danger that comes from using this modern method of business, which is the difficulty of having a secure business. Laudon and Traver (2008) explained that the e-commerce environment holds threats for both consumers and merchants; therefore, unsecure operations can cause a firm to lose successful business. There are misconceptions must be overcome before it can be deemed suitable for electronic commerce. A few of the commonly expressed concerns include reliability, security, scalability, ease of use and payment (Ambrose & Johnson, 1998). Hence, security is one barrier but there is the real underlying factor.