Abstract
The potential of the internet to both geographically expand customer bases and provide a source of growth has led to a rapid embracement of the Internet by a majority of small businesses in the United Kingdom. However, many studies suggest that much of this adoption takes the form of simple websites representing little more than an electronic brochure. This paper investigates the level of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME)website adoption and functionality and how this relates to growth aspirations, specifically the geographical expansion of customer bases. One potential explanation for this slow uptake of true e-commerce is a lack of employees with basic and advanced IT skills. The possibility that IT shortages could explain the gap between the Internet's potential and the extent of involvement by a vast majority of UK SME is explored.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 40 - 74 |
Number of pages | 35 |
Journal | International Journal of E-Adoption |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2009 |
Keywords
- e-commerce
- sme
- it