E-Business Triggers

Abstract

E-business is key to export development for developing economy firms. There are however key barriers and facilitators to e-business adoption for small and large internationalizing firms the world over. This chapter sets to find out, by means of the testing of key hypothesis, the main barriers and facilitators of e-business adoption by Ghanaian export firms. We adopt a quantitative approach to this study and draw our study sample from a directory of active non-traditional exporters (NTEs) in Ghana. We find that an export firm’s international orientation, owner/management idiosyncrasies, e-sophistication of partners, export firm’s characteristics (age, number of employees and location) and weak government regulation have no significant influence on e-business adoption by Ghanaian NTE firms. On the other hand, competitive pressure (as measured by competition from Ghanaian export firms and growth in size of export operations) significantly facilitates e-business adoption. Internal resource constraints (measured by technological and financial resources for e-business adoption and business culture) and environmental bottlenecks (measured by lack of support from export sector regulators and export associations and high internet access fees carged by ISPs) also reduce the likelihood of e-business adoption by Ghanaian NTE firms. We find interestingly that Export facilitation (measured by pressures from GEPC and FAGE) and digitalization (measured by perceived importance of e-business in digitalizing export operations and improving export competitiveness) perceived to facilitate e-business adoption however exhibit significant negative relationships with adoption. We proffer some explanations for this unusual finding and provide general management implications for improving e-business practices amongst the various players in Ghana’s non-traditional export sector.