Artificial Intelligence Adoption and Entrepreneurial Performance in E-Commerce Businesses

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in e-commerce activities such as customer analytics, process automation, recommendation systems and targeted communication. This study examines the associations between AI adoption, AI-enabled automation, AI-enabled personalization and entrepreneurial performance among e-commerce businesses. Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV), Dynamic Capabilities View and Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, the study develops an integrated model in which AI-related capabilities are linked to entrepreneurial performance. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed to a wider population of eligible e-commerce businesses; 400 complete and usable responses were obtained and retained for analysis. The study employs a quantitative, cross-sectional design and uses PLS-SEM to assess the measurement and structural models. The reported results indicate positive relationships between AI adoption, automation, personalization and entrepreneurial performance, with AI-enabled personalization showing the strongest association among the three predictors in the corrected structural model. The findings indicate that the performance value of AI depends not only on adoption itself but also on the manner in which AI is embedded in operational and customer-facing activities. The study contributes to digital entrepreneurship research by integrating general AI adoption with two application mechanisms automation and personalization within an e-commerce performance framework.