A Study On Barriers Of E-Commerce Adoption In Small Enterprises Of Assam

Abstract

The small business sector has been very dynamic and active in developing economies over the past decades. Small enterprises develop and industrialise rural and backward areas and provide employment opportunities for the rural population with low capital expenditure contributing to the country's socio-economic development. Small enterprises have characteristics that differ from large firms in that they are multitasking and independent in nature and vary across countries and cultures. The competitive nature of business requires that organisations, especially small enterprises, develop and sustain any potential competitive advantage. Increasingly, this requires that information technology (IT) tools help transform not just electronic transactions but internal systems and build customer relationships. E-commerce provides these benefits to businesses, improving efficiency and increasing revenue. It helps business by reducing costs, increasing market potential and providing new business opportunities. Despite this, e-commerce benefits are not realised in many developing countries due to low adoption rates. The rate of adoption of e-commerce by small enterprises is much slower than that of large organisations. This is mainly due to various constraints that small enterprises face in their operations. In the case of small enterprises, it is generally found that adoption of e-commerce is less focused due to these barriers. As such, the paper aims to examine the main barriers to e-commerce adoption faced by these small enterprises.