The Determinants of e-Trade Utilization and Its Impact on Exporter Performance in Korean SMEs

Abstract

Purpose - This paper tries to analyze the factors affecting the utilization of electronic trade of small and medium enterprises and examine how these factors affect the performance of small and medium enterprises. In addition, the leading factors affecting the level of e-trade utilization of small businesses were analyzed by dividing them into external environmental factors affecting the external business and internal resources of the companies themselves Research design, data, and methodology - With a sample of 223 small and medium-sized export firms from South Korea, this study investigates the antecedents of the utilization level of e-Trade such as information exchange, innovation orientation, absorptive capacity and trust by hierarchical regression analysis. Results - The results show that innovation orientation was shown to have a positive effect on e-trade utilization and absorptive capacity has a positive effect on e-trade utilization. Also, information exchange with stakeholders has a positive impact on e-trade utilization. Conclusions - Internal and external factors of companies have a positive effect on the utilization of e-trade. It also showed that the increased utilization of electronic trade had a positive effect on trade performance. Thus, the findings provide policy-makers with implications of the importance of activating e-trade, and furthermore, significant implications for exporter performance.