Electronic Business: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (4-Volumes) P134 doc

Realistically, this study indicates that SMEs in Nigeria are yet to get WKH³K\SH´$O4LULP FLWHV.DODNRWDDQG Robinson 2001 where the phases of e-commerce HYROXWLRQDUHKLJKOLJKWHG7KH¿UVWSKDV

Number (N) Percent (%)

Preference for conducting business:

Face-to-face

Telephone / fax

The Internet

Others

63 29 14 11

100 43 22.2 17.5

Does your business have a web page?

Yes

No

5 58

7.9 92.1

Are you planning having a web page in the near future?

Yes

No

Undecided

Missing data

51 4 4 4

81 6.3 6.3 6.3

Does your business have Internet access?

Yes

No

Missing data

57 4 2

90.5 6.3 3.2

Which one in particular?

Email

WWW (web page)

Intranet / extranet

Others

Missing data

53 5 2 2 1

84.1 7.9 3.2 3.2 1.6

How often do you use the Internet (email, WWW etc.)?

Very often

Often

Sometimes

Never used it

35 23 3 1

56.5 37.1 4.8 1.6

Where do you (and your business) access the Internet?

Own business premises

Cyber café

Public places (library etc.)

Friend’s

Other places

8 49 1 2 2

12.9 79 1.6 3.2 3.2

Accepting the Internet as a source of business and business

information

Surely

Not too sure

It cannot be

No comment

56 5 1 1

88.9 7.9 1.6 1.6

Table 2 The Internet and SMEs in Nigeria

received Lastly, the use from two sources may

have impacted the results of this study

FINDINGS AND RESULTS

The response provided by the participants is

provided in Table 2

All the participants in this study accepted that

they prefer doing business face-to-face with their

customers Of which, 43% also picked the

tele-phone/fax as a medium by which business could

EHFRQGXFWHG7KLVLVFRQVLVWHQWZLWK¿QGLQJVE\

Duncombe and Heeks (1999), where direct contact

with customers is regarded as the most effective

method in business dealing for SMEs in Botswana

Though, in that report 70% use the telephone/fax,

which is more than what is obtained in this study

This difference is perhaps explained by the more

favorable telecommunication and infrastructural

indicators for southern parts of Africa (ITU, 2004)

In this study, only 22.2% indicate they could use

the Internet for doing business, in addition to

face-to-face dealings This might be a result of social

factors To illustrate this point, a proprietress

RIDFRQIHFWLRQDU\EXVLQHVVFRPPHQWV³,PDNH

wedding cakes and also participate in the

[wed-ding] ceremonies; my presence is a must for my

business…The Internet can’t help my business.”

Further, some scholars commentated about the

sociocultural imperatives that might somewhat

LQÀXHQFHWKHQHHGWRKDYHface-to-face business

dealings in SSA (see for example: Ojo, 1996; Okoli

& Mbarika, 2003; Sachs & Warner, 1997; Udo &

Edoho, 2000; Woherem, 1996) Essentially, the

societies in SSA thrive on informality in contrast

to the mechanistic preponderance that may exist

in the West (Ojo, 1996) Also, the fear of using

credit cards due to fraud or lack of experience with

such facilities are reasons why online business

may be lagging in the region (Ajakaye & Kanu,

2004; Chitu, 2003; Travica, 2002) Regardless,

DERXW  RI WKH UHVSRQGHQWV ³VXUHO\´ DFFHSW

that the Internet could be a source of business and business information

Likewise, assess to the Internet, in particular the e-mail seems to be from cyber cafés Very few organizations in this sample indicated that they have facilities such as intranets and extranets With respect to Web page ownership, only 7.9%

of our participants have such a facility A closer look reveals that entities directly involved in the technology-related business responded to having such Web pages In contrast, evidence from the developed countries, show pervasive use and ownership of Web pages by businesses—small and large (Beck et al., 2003; Lockett and Brown, 2003) In that respect, Walczuch et al (2000), ZULWH WKDW ³ RI 'XWFK ¿UP VPDOO EXVLQHVV had their own Web site by February 1999.” In the

UK, the body tasked with promoting the spread

of e-business by SMEs in the country has long overtaken the target of getting 1.5 million SMEs online Furthermore, 50% of our respondents plan

to have Web pages in the future Realistically, this study indicates that SMEs in Nigeria are yet to get WKH³K\SH´$O4LULPFLWHV.DODNRWDDQG Robinson (2001) where the phases of e-commerce HYROXWLRQDUHKLJKOLJKWHG7KH¿UVWSKDVHLQYROYHV SMEs having some sort of Web presence regard-OHVVZKHWKHUWKH\NQRZZKDWWKHEHQH¿WVDUH7KH study suggests that a majority of Nigerian SMEs are yet to get on this initial phase of e-business HYROXWLRQOHWDORQHH[SHULHQFLQJWKH¿QDOVWDJH

of using online business to strategically increase SUR¿WVDQGFXVWRPHUYDOXH

Regarding access to the Internet, about the same number of people in this survey responded

to having Internet access, which is similar to the results in Duncombe and Heeks’ (1999) study Fifty-seven percent of our responding SMEs have Internet access, of which e-mail is the commonest—slightly more than half of the respondents have/use e-mail Approximately

XVHWKHHPDLO³YHU\RIWHQ´DQGXVHLW

³RIWHQ´ $QG WKH UHVXOWV LQGLFDWH WKDW ,QWHUQHW access for SMEs in Nigeria seems to be from

cyber cafés as in other SSA countries

(Oyelaran-Oyeyinka & Adeyas, 2004; Mbarika et al., 2002)

Mbarika, Kah, and Keita (2004) have discussed

the diffusion of cyber cafés in SSA as the

pos-sible signs of better tomorrow in opening Africa

up to the rest of the world The current situation

of Internet access from cyber cafés in Nigeria is

encouraging (Ajakaye & Kanu, 2004) following

the liberalization policy in the telecommunication

sector (Ajayi, 2003) Other sources through which

the Internet could be accessed by Nigerian SMEs

include own premises, which incidentally is found

among medium-sized organizations, and as was

mentioned above, among technological-related

business Public access is not common Overall,

about 30% of the respondents use the Internet to

promote their services and product A follow-on

interview revealed that a few of them occasionally

communicate with suppliers especially partners

(foreign) using e-mails; in addition to participating

in online yellow pages registration and so on A

respondent working for an oil services company

QRWHV ³:H XVH WKH ,QWHUQHW LQ FRPPXQLFDWLQJ with our local customers and overseas partners

as well; if for example, we want to check out and order some products.”

In general, the results in Table 3 show that those involved with small business in Nigeria search Web pages and conduct research (business-related

or otherwise) more than any other activities They also randomly search the Web for information, which has highest area of usage for the Internet

by our respondents This evidently is consistent with anecdotal evidence of what Nigerians do in the cyber cafés (Ajakaye & Kanu, 2004) Moderate usage is seen for activities relating to offering in-formation for customers, internal communication, contacting governmental agencies and receiving order from customers The least areas of usage for the Internet by Nigerian SMEs concerns ac-tual e-commerce, e-banking and entertainment purposes Oyelaran-Oyeyinka and Adeya (2004) had similar breakdowns in their study

7DEOH7KHVSHFL¿FXVHRIWKH,QWHUQHWE\60(VLQ1LJHULD

What does your business use the Internet

for?

Frequency Percent (%) Promotion of product and services 21 33.3

Obtaining information from suppliers 28 44.4

Offering information to customers 16 25.4

Receiving inquires/orders from customers 9 14.3

Furthermore, the respondents indicated the

extent to which they believe the Internet could

EHQH¿WWKHLUEXVLQHVVHV7KHLWHPVDUHDQFKRUHG

on a Likert-type scale ranging from strongly

agree (5) to strongly disagree (1) The result is

shown in Table 4

)LUVWWKHEHQH¿WDVVRFLDWHGZLWKUHGXFLQJGLV-tance barrier and facilitating access to

internation-al markets rates highest Also, our respondents are

of the view that the Internet would allow them to

gather useful data, increase their productivity and

sales in that order Communicating with partners

and suppliers rated well for our sampled SMEs

Lowering of their costs of acquiring new

custom-ers and obtaining information from government

VHHPWREHSHUFHLYHGDVDOHVVSRWHQWLDOEHQH¿WRI

using the Internet by our sampled SMEs

In the same vein, the reasons for not using the

Internet by SMEs in Nigeria that was rated by our

UHVSRQGHQWVLQGLFDWHGWKDW³ODFNRI,7VNLOOVIRU

e-commerce development” as the most crucial

This harks back to the general limitations for

the region as deliberated in the IS literature by

PDQ\VFKRODUVVHH,¿QHGR2GHGUDHWDO

1993; Ojo, 1996; Ojukwu & Georgiadou, 2004;

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka & Lal, 2004; Woherem,

1996) The next factor in the relative ranking order LV ³¿QDQFH´ ZKLFK %HOLDPRXUQH/XW]  contends as the major determinant of ICT diffu-sion in developing countries The cost of buying computers and other ICT equipment is thus linked with this reason One manager working for an Agric-based business made comments regarding FRVWVRISURFXULQJ,&7HTXLSPHQWDVIROORZV³7R

do buying and selling online, our company needs facilities [computers, telephones etc.]; we’re a small business, we can’t afford to invest such huge VXPVZKHQLQIDFWRXUEXVLQHVVFDQEHQH¿WIURP this spare cash.” In the same fashion, a majority

of the feedback received indicate that computer [the Internet] usage in business is not a norm for businesses in the country—low critical mass 6LPLODUO\ ³WHFKQLFDO FRPSOH[LW\ RI XVLQJ

IT in business,” which plagues a majority of small business everywhere, also ranked highly

as a hindrance, here To illustrate this point, D IHHGEDFN IURP DQ ,7 FRQVXOWDQW UHDGV ³7KH

IT market place in Nigeria is still growing; for example, we ourselves in this business are only beginning to build Web pages for ourselves and others, just imagine what can others [without the

IT skills] do with the Internet … My inference

7DEOH7KHEHQH¿WVRIWKH,QWHUQHWIRUSMEs in Nigeria

Standard deviation Max

of the effects arising from emerging technology

and business models is that it may take time to

consolidate as customer knowledge, IT support

and infrastructure improve in Nigeria.” This

re-mark underscores the limitations of technological

environment in Nigeria

The cost of owning and subscribing to

tele-phones lines in Nigeria rates highly as a reason for

not having the Internet by Nigerian SMEs In fact,

SSA countries are among the most disadvantaged

in the world on such indictors (Dutta et al., 2003;

ITU, 2004) Further, the policy of the

govern-ment on e-business being unclear also ranked

moderately high Other moderately ranking

reasons include factors relating to energy supply,

knowledge and awareness, suitability for business

and security reasons A respondent’s comments

above expressed doubts as to how the Internet in KHUEXVLQHVVFRXOGEHRIDQ\VLJQL¿FDQFHDQRWKHU manager/co-owner of a Business Center notes WKDW³,I\RX>RQH@GREXVLQHVVZLWKWKH,QWHUQHW would NEPA [National Electric Power Author-ity] understand and improve power supply?” She mentioned that due to the poor power supply, her business had to procure a generating plant to pro-vide electricity Lastly, the slowness of the Internet DQGWKHGLI¿FXOW\ZLWKLWVXVHUDQNHGDPRQJVWWKH least reasons why Nigerian SMEs do not have the Internet in their business operations In general, the study by Walczuch et al (2000) with respect WREDUULHUVDQGEHQH¿WVRI,QWHUQHWFRPPHUFHIRU

a developed nation—Holland—in the late 1990s

is comparable with some of results in this study See Table 5 This may suggest a commonality

Table 5 Reasons for NOT having the Internet used by SMEs in Nigeria

Likert scale ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1)

Reasons for NOT having the Internet used in your

Lack of IT skills for e-commerce development 63 2 4.84 54 5

Technical complexity of using IT in business 63 3 4.11 79 5

Not clear government policy and support 63 2 3.97 1.15 5

Not many of many our customers use the Internet 63 1 3.60 1.01 5

The Internet is not safe for our business 63 1 3.32 76 5

'RHVQRWOHDGPRUHHI¿FLHQF\RUORZHUFRVWV 63 1 3.14 1.12 5

Does not lead to more sales in our business 63 1 2.62 73 5

SMEs with regard to Internet commerce for both

developing and developed nations

DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

So far, we have concentrated on bringing to the

fore, the factors affecting the adoption of

e-busi-ness by SMEs in Nigeria To that end, we used

the framework in Figure 1 to guide our discourse

This study seems to suggest that preparedness or

readiness for e-business is low for SMEs in

Nige-ria The business culture of Nigerians may have

an impact on e-business adoption and growth in

the country Notably, the desire to engage in

face-to-face business dealings surpasses the intent to

use ICT (telephone, facsimile, the Internet) This

revelation may not be conducive to the emergence

of e-business Clearly, our responding SMEs seem

to be cognizant of the fact that the Internet could

facilitate the breaking down of barriers due to

distance, and open the world beyond to them This

fact suggests that the external contextual factor

such as the norms, traditions or culture should be

looked into more closely if any e-business

engage-ment is to be widely adopted by Nigerian SMEs

+RZHYHUWKLVVWXG\LVQRWVSHFL¿FDOO\GHVLJQHG

WR¿QGRXWWKHPRVWVLJQL¿FDQWIDFWRUPLOLWDWLQJ

against e-business adoption in Nigeria

None-theless, the viewpoints held by our respondents

regarding business dealings seem to suggest that

face-to-face encounters are widely preferred

Furthermore, with regard to the state of

in-frastructural facilities such as power generation

in Nigeria, it was seen that the prevailing

condi-tion is far from being conducive or favorable to

e-business diffusion and adoption; at least among

SMEs With respect to the organizational context

factors, it was found that the sorts of skills and

awareness required for e-business adoption and

growth among Nigerian SMEs is lacking or not

widely available Though, such skills may be easily

found in larger SMEs, usually with much more

¿QDQFLDOUHVRXUFHVDQGVRPHWLPHVLQWHFKQRORJL-cal-related industries; for instance, IT-related or oil services Conversely, smaller businesses, say for example, family-owned or one-man business

do not seem to have the knowledge or awareness

or even the resources for engaging in e-business The barriers to adopting e-business in Nigeria stem IURPIDFWRUVUHODWLQJWRJHQHUDOODFNRI¿QDQFH and the lack of expertise in developing e-business Infrastructural facilities such as Internet access, telephone and computer costs ranked highly as hindrances to e-business adoption More so, respondents commented as to the seriousness of these factors for e-business adoption or growth in the country Also, not many of the SMEs in this survey have their own Web pages; perhaps as a direct consequence of the debilitating environment LQZKLFKWKH\¿QGWKHPVHOYHV

The capability of the country in terms of techni-cal, infrastructural and educational or awareness endowments is low Yet, there appears to be some willingness on the part of many a SME to have their own business Web pages Our data show that some already have such facilities Apparently, the ownership of Web pages is the starting point of e-business The external environment in regard of the enabling infrastructure looks promising with ubiquitous cyber cafés in urban centers in Nige-ria (Ajakaye & Kanu, 2004) In addition, many SMEs in the country appear to have found good use for the Internet as they carry out information searching and research purposes through it The question is: What can be done to further encour-age its use for e-business purposes in Nigeria?

&OHDUO\IRU1LJHULDWKHEDUULHUVDQGEHQH¿WVRI the e-business adoption and growth appear to be closely related; the solution of the barriers could yield positive results in the other

Fortunately, the onus of promoting e-business adoption and growth may rest with the Nigerian government being the most powerful entity in the country The socioeconomic and cultural underpinnings of the society may readily support the foregoing proposition (see Anandarajan et al

2002; Ojo, 1996) Nevertheless, it is worthwhile

to mention that the government has realized the

import of business and regularly promotes

e-business and e-awareness among SMEs in the

country (Ajayi, 2003; NITDA, 2001) The political

will to set the stage for e-business adoption and

growth, we believe rests with the government in

light of the progress seen in the ICT sector when

the Nigerian government liberalized its telecoms

sector Enabling infrastructure for e-business must

be in place so as to quicken the spread of

e-busi-ness, which equivocally could help speed up the

socioeconomic development of the country (and

the region too) More importantly, the effort of the

Nigerian government and other SSA governments

should be aimed at vigorously sensitizing the

populace towards accepting that the information

economy is already here; namely, some old ways

may have to be done with Apart from making

efforts to improve the infrastructural facilities

required for e-business adoption among SMEs in

Nigeria, another area that must not be neglected

is the need for assimilating new culture towards

business dealings To that end, awareness

cam-paigns and education may be required in helping

to spread e-business in the country

This study has implications for both theory

and practice In terms of theory, this chapter has

shown that some of the factors mentioned in IS

literature regarding e-business adoption (or ICT

use by SMEs) may in fact be applicable to SMEs

in a less developed part of the world For example,

organizational size, resources, employees’ skills,

(CEOs) leaders’ perceptions, infrastructural

sup-port (see for example Chau & Tam, 1997; Iacovou

et al., 1995; Poon & Strom, 1997; Scupola, 2003;

Thong & Yap, 1995) are some of the factors that

have been mentioned for SMEs in the developed

countries that were also seen to impact the

adoption of e-business (or ICT use) by SMEs in

Nigeria This contribution may be useful for the

development of theories in e-business research

relating to SMEs Second, this study complements

RUVXSSRUWV¿QGLQJVIURPFRPSDUDEOHVWXGLHVRQ

ICT and SMEs in SSA In particular, this present study highlights the import of norms, tradition in other studies in the region (Heeks & Duncombe, 2001; Okoli, 2003) Additionally, this article could entice other studies to further investigate the adop-tion and diffusion of e-business by SMEs in other parts of SSA, as the e-business hype develops As such, this study could be used as a guideline for such further investigations

Regarding practice, policy makers in Nigeria and other nations in SSA could avail themselves of this study to focus their attention on key items that could be explored in order to engender e-business adoption and diffusion in the region This chapter FOHDUO\LGHQWL¿HGWKHQHHGIRUFXOWXUDOFKDQJHLQ business dealings, awareness and education as well as the provision of relevant infrastructural DQG¿QDQFLDOVXSSRUWIRU60(V7KHVHDUHDUHDV where governments’ commitment and efforts FRXOGPDNHDGLIIHUHQFH6SHFL¿FDOO\WKH1LJHULDQ government as well as others in SSA could use WKH¿QGLQJVLQWKLVVWXG\DVDEDVLVWRLQFUHDVH their awareness campaigns concerning e-busi-ness as an engine of socioeconomic development and sustainability (Castells, 1999; Oyebisi, 2001; 7UDYLFD  $V ZDV QRWHG DERYH HI¿FLHQW LQIUDVWUXFWXUDO IDFLOLWLHV DQG IXQGLQJ ¿QDQFH could be catalytic in the process The general lack of IT skills among SMEs can be attenuated through greater government participation For instance, in Thailand the Ministry of Commerce

³DUUDQJHVIUHHKRPHSDJHZLWK85/HPDLODQG provides seminars and training programs for SMEs” (Lertwongsatien & Wongpinunwatana,

2003, p 69) The Nigerian government could woo IT multinationals to help provide relevant expertise to SMEs as is the case in the Republic

of South Africa (HP, 2002)

CONCLUSION

This chapter has attempted to discuss the factors affecting the adoption of e-business by SMEs in

Nigeria The choice of Nigeria is informed by

its economic size relative to other countries in

the SSA region and the position of SMEs within

its economy Essentially, this study represents

an important step in understanding the factors

affecting e-business adoption in one developing

region of the world (i.e., SSA) This study is

ex-ploratory in nature Findings of the study indicate

that e-business adoption may be hampered by the

prevailing norms, traditions or culture that has

preference for doing business, face-to-face As

such, the preparedness of Nigerian SMEs for

e-business may not, at this point in time, be seen as

high due to this external contextual factor Other

limiting barriers noted include general lack of

¿QDQFH,7VNLOOVDQGFULWLFDOPDVVIRUHEXVLQHVV

engagements Overall, the infrastructural support

in Nigeria is not conducive for e-business, though

there are improvements underway Nevertheless,

some SMEs possessing—skills and funds—and

some other favorable resources have started

e-business In general, the lack of knowledge about

HEXVLQHVVEHQH¿WVDQG¿QDQFHIXQGVDUHDPRQJ

the contextual factors inhibiting e-business

adop-tion in Nigeria Notwithstanding, Nigerian SMEs

seems to be aware that the Internet could help

them reach the world beyond and act as a source

of business and business information

There are practical and theoretical

implica-tions for this study, which include the need to

re-evaluate the commercial practices or values,

if any meaningful e-business is to emerge in the

country Secondly, strong government policy and

support may be required to provide the enabling

environment for e-business Such efforts may

re-late to the provision of infrastructural for support

e-business engagements In general, this study also

has implications for other SSA countries whose

conditions are similar with those in Nigeria

Theo-retically, a suggestion that e-business adoption

strongly hinge upon external, technological, and

organizational contextual factors for all SMEs

re-gardless of regions, may hold Though the impacts

of such may depend upon regional characteristics Finally, this chapter only provides an overview to the discourse of e-business adoption in Nigeria, future research may study in depth, using larger sample, the adoption and infusion of e-business in those SMEs in Nigeria that have already started SUDFWLFLQJHEXVLQHVVDQGWKH¿QGLQJVFRPSDUHG with relevant studies in the developed world This will ultimately enhance our understanding RIWKHIDFWRUVLQÀXHQFLQJHEXVLQHVVDGRSWLRQE\ SMEs, globally

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sales in that order Communicating with partners

and suppliers rated well for our sampled SMEs

Lowering of their costs of acquiring new

custom-ers and obtaining... business and regularly promotes

e-business and e-awareness among SMEs in the

country (Ajayi, 2003; NITDA, 2001) The political

will to set the stage for e-business adoption and