External and internal factors for increasing the use of electronic commerce in the SME sector in Latvia

Abstract

Several studies have found that e-commerce can have a positive impact on any type of business. Some surveys show that the use of e-commerce in Latvia is a problem for most companies in the SME sector; however, there is still a lack of in-depth research to justify the directions of action contained in strategic policy documents. The purpose of the article is to provide analysis of external and internal factors that affect the use of electronic commerce in the SME sector. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to identify the factors that most positively and negatively affect the e-commerce development of companies. Data from the expert survey were used to conduct the analysis with the AHP method. 17 experts from the state administration, academia and the business environment participated in the survey, who assessed the impact of various internal and external factors on the use of e-commerce in companies. Since the application of e-commerce in companies is one of the measures for faster recovery of the state of the national economy, including developing the export of the SME sector in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, recommendations have been prepared for public and commercial organizations to have a positive impact on the use of e-commerce in SMEs.