Small Businesses’ Acceptance and Adoption of e‐Commerce in the Western‐Cape Province of South‐Africa

This paper reports on research that was undertaken in Information Systems at the University of Cape Town on the acceptance and adoption of e‐commerce amongst small businesses in the manufacturing sector. It addresses how these small businesses in a developing country perceive the potential benefits of e‐commerce and looks at their consequent adoption of e‐commerce activities in their own organisations. This includes the businesses’ perception of the benefits and opportunities of e‐commerce activities and to determine whether these businesses have the necessary technological capabilities for e‐commerce adoption in place. A secondary aim of this research was to determine the current level of e‐commerce adoption by small manufacturing businesses in the Western Cape. This was achieved by circulating a questionnaire to test the perception of e‐commerce benefits and e‐commerce adoption levels amongst small manufacturing businesses in the Western Cape. If the global usage of the Internet for electronic commerce by SME's is compared with the South African case, this research clearly indicates that the available technologies are not adopted to the extent that is necessary for survival in a rapidly changing environment.