Barriers to E-Commerce Adoption and Implementation Strategy: Empirical Review of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ghana

Most of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the developing countries are yet to espouse and witness the full potential of electronic commerce (e-commerce) in their business operations despite its popularity in the developed countries. SMEs indispensable role in economic growth regarding employment creation and their contribution to GDP is globally acknowledged. A successful adoption and implementation of e-commerce may be the catalyst for the economic growth of Ghana and many developing countries. Unfortunately, the application of e-commerce by the SME sector in Ghana lacks depth and has been scrimpy. Numerous reasons and factors account for the low adoption rate of e-commerce by Ghanaian SMEs. This study aspires to address this scantiness by investigating e-commerce adoption models to overcome the barriers that confront the SME sector in their quest to adopt and implement e-commerce. Unstructured and face-to-face interviews, web-site and document analysis were the methods of data collection. Quantitative approaches using questionnaires with 120 respondents were used for the data Original Research Article Modzi et al.; BJEMT, 13(1): 1-13, 2016; Article no.BJEMT.25177 2 analysis. To determine these factors, both adopters and non-adopters of e-commerce in the SME sector were tasked to select and discuss their major inhibiting factors in their adoption and implementation of e-commerce. Financial barrier was the most relevant among the six group of barriers. However, technical and Internet security prove to impede the adoption too. Thus to stimulate the adoption of e-commerce to increase productivity and enhance global competiveness, stakeholders and the government should invest in e-commerce and its components.