In studies undertaken under the third theme of approaches to Internet adoption, it is widely acknowledged that small businesses tend to be-gin by adopting relatively non-complex Internet
Trang 1Internet, including particularly the IT already in
place, and the IT skills in existence in the
organi-VDWLRQ 0HKUWHQVHWDO ([WHUQDOLQÀXHQFHV
have also been found to be important, and might
include demands from customers and/or suppliers
(Mehrtens et al., 2001), governmental pressure,
and/or pressure from competitors (Scupola, 2003)
Drawing on research undertaken to date into the
IDFWRUV LQÀXHQFLQJ ,QWHUQHW DGRSWLRQ LQ VPDOO
businesses, the present study seeks to identify the
reasons underlying the decision to participate in
a community Web site project, and comparisons
DUHPDGHZLWKWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKHDIRUHPHQWLRQHG
investigations
8QGHUWKHVHFRQGWKHPHRIEHQH¿WVGHULYHG
from Internet adoption, it has been reported
that small businesses have been slow to realise
WDQJLEOHEHQH¿WVEXWFRQWLQXHWRXVHWKH,QWHU-QHWLQDQWLFLSDWLRQRIIXWXUHEHQH¿WVUHDOLVDWLRQ
(Daniel & Wilson, 2002; Poon & Swatman, 1999)
,Q WKLV VWXG\ WKH EHQH¿WV EHLQJ UHDOLVHG IURP
participation in the community Web site project
are considered, and comparisons are made with
H[LVWLQJOLWHUDWXUHRQVPDOOEXVLQHVVEHQH¿WVRI
Internet adoption
In studies undertaken under the third theme
of approaches to Internet adoption, it is widely
acknowledged that small businesses tend to
be-gin by adopting relatively non-complex Internet
applications (such as electronic mail or a basic
information-only Web site), and then progress
to more complex applications (such as online
ordering and payment facilities) depending on the
needs of the business In some literature, a linear
progression is envisaged (Daniel et al., 2002; DTI,
ZKLOHRWKHUVDOORZIRU³leapfrogging” of
Internet applications as appropriate to the
busi-ness, suggesting instead a nonlinear approach
to adoption (Rao et al., 2003) In the present
study, an effort is made to determine the nature
of each business’ Internet adoption pathway and
to ascertain at what point in that pathway their
participation in the community Web site project
occurred The study further examines the impact
of participation in the community Web site project
on the subsequent Internet adoption behaviour of each small business
'UDZLQJRQWKHSURFHHGLQJWKHPHVLGHQWL¿HG
in the literature, the objectives of the present study are, in summary, to:
• Establish the motivations of the small busi-nesses in the village for participating in the online business directory component of the community Web site project and to ascer-tain the point in those businesses’ Internet adoption pathway that participation in the project took place;
'HWHUPLQHWKHEHQH¿WVEHLQJGHULYHGIURP their participation in the project;
• Identify any problems they have encountered
as a result of their participation;
• Establish the impacts their participation has had, or is having, on their further Internet adoption plans and decisions
In pursuing these objectives, it is anticipated WKDWWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKHVWXG\ZLOOPDNHDWLPHO\ and relevant contribution to existing understand-ing of small business Internet adoption decisions and processes, especially those studies that have considered the routes to Internet adoption behav-LRXUDQGRXWFRPHV0RUHRYHUWKH¿QGLQJVVKRXOG
be of value to other small businesses, as well as
to those developing models of Internet adoption pathways to provide guidance and advice to small businesses
OVERVIEW OF THE COMMUNITY WEB SITE
As indicated in the introduction to this chapter, the community Web site under investigation aims to provide an opportunity for business and local community / charitable organisations (e.g., youth clubs, volunteer groups, churches, and so on) to promote their products, services, and/or
Trang 2activities to the population of a village in the UK
This community Web site project forms parts
of a wider community initiative to foster closer
social bonds within the village and to encourage
active participation of villagers in local activities,
as well as to stimulate villagers’ support for local
business and service enterprises
In cases where individual organisations in the
village have their own Web site, then links are
provided to these from the community site In
this respect, the site functions like a Web portal
Features of the community Web site include
ar-chives of news of past events in the village, and an
online discussion facility for villagers to express
their views on local matters and exchange ideas
In addition, the site contains information about
local community service facilities (e.g., health and
welfare provision) and updates on local political
and council matters
As well as the aforementioned features, the
site contains an online directory of businesses
based in the village This directory is organised
thematically, including, for example, sections for
retail organisations, building and house
mainte-nance enterprises, and private health and welfare
providers Each entry in the directory includes
the name of the business, its postal address, other
contact details (e.g., e-mail address, where
avail-able), a link to the business’ own Web site (if it has
one), and a brief summary of what the enterprise
offers in the way of products and/or services It
is this online business directory component of
the community Web site that forms the focus of
the present study
Funding for the village community Web site
is obtained from a variety of sources, notably through sponsorship from some local businesses and the local council Funds are also generated from annual subscription fees paid by some local UHVLGHQWVIRUD³SHUVRQDOLVHG´HPDLODGGUHVVDQG mail forwarding service No charge is levied for local businesses to have an entry placed in the online business directory, and participation in the directory is operated on a voluntary opt-in basis Management, maintenance and updating of the Web site is undertaken by a small team of local volunteers, with Web content being supplied, as appropriate, by various local community organi-sations and businesses
Within the village community, comprising some 5,000 residents, the community Web site supplements an existing (paper-based) village magazine, distributed quarterly to the 2,000 or
so households in the village
RESEARCH METHOD
The exploratory nature of the empirical research conducted in the course of the present study favoured the case study approach (Yin, 1994) The unit of analysis in the study was the small business
The sampling frame for this study comprised the 77 small businesses listed in the online busi-ness directory on the community Web site under investigation Each of the businesses is being contacted by telephone and invited to participate
(employees)
Date founded
Case 2 Childcare service provider 8 1989
Case 3 Manufacturer & distributor of baby products 12 1993
Case 4 Home interiors retail outlet 5 1984
Case 5 Optician and eyewear retail outlet 9 1988
Case 6 Furniture manufacturer & distributor 4 1996
Table 1 Small businesses participating in the study
Trang 3in the study To date, data have been collected and
analysed from six small businesses having entries
in the online business directory Among the six
businesses that have participated in the study so
far, the retail, manufacturing and service sectors
were represented Table 1 provides a summary of
those six participating businesses
Data were collected about the small businesses
XVLQJWZRSULQFLSDOPHDQV ¿UVWDQH[DPLQDWLRQ
was undertaken of the entries in the online
busi-ness directory, and the busibusi-ness’ own linked Web
site was consulted (if available); and second,
in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted
with the owner-managers of the six participating
enterprises These interviews were conducted in
mid-2004
For the interview phase of the research, an
interview guide was prepared, and closely
fol-lowed in each interview A summary of the key
issues discussed in the interviews is provided in
Table 2
Interviews were recorded and later transcribed
To assist with accuracy, notes were also taken
by the investigator during each interview In
an effort to ensure consistency and validity of
¿QGLQJV LQWHUYLHZ ¿QGLQJV ZHUH VXEVHTXHQWO\ cross-checked, where possible and appropriate, with the community Web site content, as well as the individual Web sites (if any) managed by the individual participating enterprises
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
As indicated in Table 1, the enterprises participat-ing in the study all fall into the small business category (i.e., having under 50 employees), and indeed all except one of them (case 3) could be classed as micro businesses, that is to say, they have under 10 employees (Curran & Blackburn, 2001; Storey, 1994) Each of the enterprises had a basic entry in the online business directory, com-prising company name, postal address, telephone number, and fax number Those with an e-mail address also included this in their directory entry Those with their own Web site provided a link to the site from their entry in the directory With regard to Internet adoption, three of the small businesses already had their own Web site, one of which (case 3) was offering online ordering
The structure of each interview was as follows:
1. Collection of background information about the enterprise; collection of demographic data, including levels of existing IT knowledge and skills.
2. Gathering of data regarding the enterprise’s adoption of Internet technology (e.g
e-mail usage, having own web site, offering online ordering and / or payment facilities).
3. Establishment of the motivations for requesting an entry in the online business directory on the community web site
4. Determination of what the enterprise had anticipated gaining from having an entry in the online business directory
5. Determination of the actual benefits being realised by the enterprise from having
an entry in the online business directory
6. Gathering data about any problems the enterprise has encountered, or is encountering, with having an entry in the online business directory.
7. Determination of the impacts the enterprise’s participation in the community web site project has had on their Internet adoption and electronic commerce activities (e.g has it led to further adoption of Internet technologies; has participation in the community web site project deterred the enterprise from further involvement in Internet and electronic commerce-related activities?)
8. Collection of data regarding the enterprise’s future plans with regard to involvement in Internet and electronic commerce activities
9. Opportunity for interviewee to discuss any other issues relating to the enterprise’s involvement in Internet and electronic commerce activities.
Table 2 Interview guide
Trang 4(but not online payment) facilities via the site;
the other two Web sites (case 2 and case 5) were
VLPSOH³LQIRUPDWLRQRQO\´ RQOLQHEURFKXUH VLWHV
Four of the organisations had an e-mail address
which was included in their entry in the online
business directory Two out of the six enterprises
(case 1 and case 4) had only their company name,
address and telephone number listed in the online
business directory These two enterprises had
no e-mail facilities and did not have a company
Web site: their only Internet involvement was
their entry in the online business directory on
WKH FRPPXQLW\ :HE VLWH 7KHVH ¿QGLQJV DUH
summarised in Table 3
,Q FRPSDULVRQ ZLWK WKH ¿QGLQJV RI RWKHU
studies, the levels of Internet adoption evidenced
among the small businesses participating in the
present study seemed to be quite typical In
SDUWLFXODUWKHODFNRI³DGYDQFHGOHYHO´,QWHUQHW
adopters, offering facilities such as online
pay-ment, has been found among other samples of
small businesses In their study of Australian
small businesses, for example, Poon and Swatman
(1999) noted that Internet adoption in each
busi-ness was not very far advanced Similarly, in their
study in Singapore, Kendall et al (2001) found
widespread adoption of basic e-mail facilities and
informational Web sites, but little evidence of use
being made of transactional Web sites Findings in
Scupola’s (2003) study of Italian small businesses
were again broadly similar
In response to questioning about their
motiva-tion for participating in the community Web site
SURMHFWDQGWKHEHQH¿WVWKH\EHOLHYHGWKH\ZRXOG
derive from their participation, the following
¿QGLQJVZHUHREWDLQHG
• All cases stated that they anticipated that their entry in the online business directory would generate sales enquiries, and they hoped, lead to increased sales or contracts for work For those cases already operating a Web site (i.e., cases 2, 3, and 5), it was noted that a similar drive had been behind their original decision to launch a Web site for their business This aspiration of improved VDOHVSHUIRUPDQFHDFFRUGVZLWKWKH¿QGLQJV
of other studies
• For case 2, participation in the online busi-ness directory had occurred approximately two years after the launch of the company’s own Web site For case 5, participation in the project had occurred prior to the creation of their own company Web site, and their direc-tory entry was updated with the appropriate Web site link almost as soon as their own site was launched For case 3, involvement with the business directory occurred after the launch of their initial information-only Web site, but before the extension of their site to include online ordering facilities Ir-respective of the point at which participation
in the online business directory occurred
in the Internet adoption pathways of these three businesses, a key motivational factor underlying their involvement was the antici-pation that it would help drive more visitors
to their own company Web site Moreover, they each believed that it would not only
Email address
Web site (date launched)
Online ordering
Online payment
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Table 3 Existing Internet usage
Trang 5WKLVWUDI¿FZDVOLNHO\WRFRPSULVHDKLJKHU
proportion of relevant and appropriate sales
enquiries By relevant and appropriate they
meant enquiries emanating from members
of the local village population, rather than
:HEXVHUVIURPIXUWKHUD¿HOGZKRVLPSO\
came across their company Web site via
search engines and/or other Web browsing
mechanisms For cases 1 and 4, involvement
in the online business directory was their
only Internet involvement In case 6, their
only other Internet adoption prior to the
in-volvement in the online business directory,
was the use of electronic mail
• All of the cases indicated that one
attrac-tion of the online business directory was
that it provided them with a low-risk, no
cost opportunity to promote their products
and/or services among the inhabitants of
the local community Cases 4 and 6 deemed
this to be a particularly important issue as
the directory gave them the opportunity to
experiment with Internet usage (and most
especially the use of a Web site) and assess
its value to their individual businesses The
owner of case 4 elaborated on this issue by
suggesting that whilst government and
busi-ness support initiatives existed to provide
¿QDQFLDODQGWHFKQLFDODVVLVWDQFHWRVPDOO
businesses wanting to adopt the Internet into
their operations, considerable time and effort
needed to be invested to have a Web site set
up, and the return on that investment was
uncertain By contrast, the online business
directory initiative was deemed less risky,
and importantly for them, it necessitated a
much lower investment of time and effort
Cases 4 and 6 indicated that they viewed their
participation in the online business directory as
a precursor to further Internet adoption, in
par-ticular as a precursor to the establishment of their
own company Web site Each of them believed that
they were organisationally and technologically unready for Internet adoption, but viewed the establishment of the community Web site project
as an opportune moment to consider whether it ZRXOGEHEHQH¿FLDOIRUWKHPWR³JHWUHDG\´IRU Internet adoption, and to review what needed to
be done to ensure they were ready for it The owner of case 1, on the other hand, indi-cated that he had no intention of moving further into Internet usage He deemed Internet technol-ogy to be largely unsuitable for the nature of his business (a plumbing business) For communica-tion purposes, for instance, he believed that the use of a mobile telephone was more useful than electronic mail, as it enabled emergency enquiries WREHGHDOWZLWKSURPSWO\DQGHI¿FLHQWO\ZKHQ KHZDVDZD\IURPKLVRI¿FHEDVH7KHRZQHURI this small business further perceived no use for
a company informational Web site, or indeed for additional online ordering and payment facili-ties Instead, he simply wanted to use the online business directory on the community Web site
as a means of promoting his services to the local village community, and in so doing, to supple-ment his existing entries in various paper-based listings and directories The primary underlying motivation for his participation in the community Web site project was that it provided him with an online business directory entry free of charge The attitudes towards, and perceptions of, Inter-net adoption expressed by the owner of case 1 were similar to those reported of a non-adopting SME in the Internet adoption study documented
in Mehrtens et al., (2001): for the non-adopting SME in their study, the owner/manager believed that traditional methods of doing business were more appropriate in his industry sector (transport service) than the use of the Internet
7RVXPPDULVHWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKLVSDUWRIWKH VWXG\LWDSSHDUVLWVSHUFHLYHGEHQH¿WVZHUHDQ important factor motivating involvement in the online business directory project Unlike other studies of small business Internet adoption (see for example Mehrtens et al., 2001; Scupola, 2003), the
Trang 6small businesses in this study did not cite external
SUHVVXUH DV D IDFWRU LQÀXHQFLQJ WKHLU DGRSWLRQ
(e.g., pressure from competitors or clients)
Simi-larly, the issue of organisational readiness did not
seem to be an important factor here Indeed, on
the contrary, since some of the participants were
clearly not ready for Internet adoption, from the
point of view of their IT knowledge and skills
The project had acted as a catalyst to help them
get ready for it
:LWKUHJDUGWRWKHDFWXDOEHQH¿WVEHLQJUHDOLVHG
from participation in the community Web site
project, the following points can be highlighted
IURPWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKHVWXG\
participat-LQJVPDOOEXVLQHVVHVWKHDQWLFLSDWHGEHQH¿W
of generating more enquiries and increasing
sales and/or contracts had been translated
LQWRDQDFWXDOEHQH¿WWKURXJKLQYROYHPHQWLQ
the online business directory Each business
reported growth in sales since the launch
of the directory, and most had been able to
track the source of a number of individual
enquiries and sales to a direct link with the
online directory However, none of the small
businesses had performed any detailed or
IRUPDOHYDOXDWLRQRIWKHHI¿FDF\RIWKHGL-rectory The online directory was applauded
by the enterprises because it had opened up
ZKDWZDVSHUFHLYHGWREHDQ³HDV\´PDUNHW-ing and sales generation opportunity
were already operating their own company
:HEVLWHDIXUWKHUDQWLFLSDWHGEHQH¿WRIWKH
online business directory was reported in
the study to have been translated into an
DFWXDOEHQH¿W WKHVHVPDOOEXVLQHVVHVZHUH
UHFHLYLQJLQFUHDVHGWUDI¿FRQWKHLURZQ:HE
site Again, following their own informal
investigations, these businesses believed
WKH\FRXOGDWWULEXWHWKLVLQFUHDVHLQWUDI¿F
on their own site to Web users tracing the
company Web site link via the online
busi-ness directory on the community Web site
So, for these small businesses, participation
in the online business directory was prov-ing to be a valuable means of increasprov-ing the HI¿FDF\ RI WKHLU H[LVWLQJ DQG HVWDEOLVKHG Internet adoption efforts
noted earlier, one motivation for placing an entry in the online business directory (for cases 4 and 6) was that it would provide an opportunity for them to determine if there was any value in further pursuing Internet adoption When asked about the actual EHQH¿WV EHLQJ UHDOLVHG IURP WKHLU SDUWLFL-pation in the community Web site project, both small businesses reported positive experiences, and indicated that they were consequently actively exploring the pos-sibility of launching a simple Web site to promote their products and services Case
4 also noted, that they were in the process
of setting up an e-mail account, but had not yet thought beyond a basic Web presence with e-mail link Case 6, on the other hand, indicated that if their basic Web presence proved a success, then they would consider moving into providing additional online facilities, such as online catalogue searching and online ordering However, online pay-ment facilities were deemed problematic by FDVH³IRUVHFXULW\UHDVRQV¶,QVXPPDU\ for both of these cases, the online business directory had provided some impetus for the owner/managers to consider further Internet adoption in an active way
and 6, participation in the community Web site project had encouraged the owner/man-agers to increase their own IT skills They had each started to attend IT courses, two
at the local community college, and one via
a government online training initiative In these small businesses, the owner/managers had seemed to recognise the importance of
Trang 7gaining IT skills in order to improve their
level of organisational readiness for Internet
adoption It has been found elsewhere that
the IT knowledge and skills of the owner/
managers is an important contributory
fac-tor to the readiness of a small business to
adopt Internet applications (see for example
Mehrtens et al., 2001) In this study, it seems
that the online business directory created an
environment in which some small businesses
at least, began to address the issue of their
adoption readiness (or unreadiness) and
ac-cordingly began to prepare for adoption
For case 1, a rather different situation was
evidenced: a perceived advantage of the
community Web site project in general, and
the online business directory in particular,
was that the owner/manager felt that through
his directory entry the business now had
a very basic online presence (giving the
³LPSUHVVLRQ WKDW LW ZDV PRGHUQ DQG s t
century”, without any need on his part to
become IT literate, or to introduce any form
of IT into his existing business operations
For this owner/manager, lack of time was
deemed to be his greatest barrier to IT
adop-tion
geo-graphical reach seemed to be important for
each of the participating small businesses
It has been widely suggested in the
litera-ture that, for business enterprises, one of
the most attractive aspects of the World
Wide Web is its broad geographical reach,
providing a key opportunity for products
and/or services to be promoted and sold
in overseas markets (Aldridge, Forcht, &
Pierson, 1997; Herbig & Hale, 1997; Kiani,
1998) It has been further argued that the
Web is, in this respect, particularly
attrac-tive for small businesses, as its use reduces
conventional costs of advertising in overseas
markets (Hamill, 1997), and thereby enables
VPDOOEXVLQHVVHVWR³FRPSHWHPRUHHDVLO\LQ
the global marketplace” (Quelch & Klein, 1996) However, the small businesses in the present study were interested not so much
in global, but local, reach Indeed in most cases (notably cases 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6), a cited EHQH¿WRIWKHLUHQWU\LQWKHRQOLQHEXVLQHVV directory was precisely that this directory had very much a local focus, namely the village in which the business enterprises were based
This matter of local reach was explained by the respondents by comparing their online business directory entries with those of other more conventional paper-based directories they were familiar with: it was noted that the paper-based directories operating in the YLFLQLW\ZHUHQRWVSHFL¿FDOO\IRFXVVHGRQ the village under investigation in this study, but rather covered a broader geographical area, encompassing two small towns and
a large collection of villages and hamlets Respondents commented that this meant that their entries in the paper-based listings RIWHQVHHPHG³ORVW´DPRQJDPXFKODUJHU pool of companies offering similar products and/or services This issue seemed to be a particularly important one for cases 1 and
2 (and to a slightly lesser extent also for case 5): the owner/manager of case 1, for example, stated that he frequently received enquiries via the paper-based directories to undertake work in locations at quite some distance from the village These enquiries were often not deemed worthwhile for him
to pursue, and he felt he had to turn down potential clients By contrast, enquiries that came to him via the online business directory typically came from residents in the village, and he therefore only needed to travel short distances between clients, and could thus undertake more assignments per day This,
of course, saved him both time and money (in reduced travel costs), and enabled him to earn more money through carrying out more
Trang 8assignments The owner/manager of case 1
further stated that he had always hoped that
the village would be able to have its own
paper-based directory of local businesses,
but he recognised that it was simply not
cost effective to do this; the online
busi-QHVVGLUHFWRU\VHHPHGWRSURYLGH³H[DFWO\
what [my] company needed: a local pool of
clients.” Similar sentiments were expressed
by the owner/managers of cases 2 and 5
With regard to geographical reach, a further
issue was mentioned in detail by one of
the respondents (case 3), and touched upon
EULHÀ\E\RQHRWKHU FDVH 7KLVLVVXHFDQ
SHUKDSVEHVWEHVXPPHGXSDV³ORFDWLRQDQG
cyberspace:” the owner/manager of case 3
felt, that their own company Web site was
³MXVW RXW WKHUH LQ F\EHUVSDFH´
FRPPHQW-LQJIXUWKHUWKDW³VRPHWLPHVSHRSOHIRXQG
it, sometimes they didn’t.” By contrast,
being part of the village community Web
site project, and in particular having a link
IURPWKH³YLEUDQWDQGEX]]LQJYLOODJH:HE
site” directly to the individual company
:HE VLWH ³ORFDWHG WKH FRPSDQ\ LQ D UHDO
SODFH´DQGKHOSHGWR³SXWLWRQWKHPDS´
7KH SHUKDSV UDWKHU LQWDQJLEOH EHQH¿W RI
this to the small business seemed to be that
they felt the enquiries they received were
from local people who had some sort of
immediate bond with the company because
of a shared physical location, and it was felt,
therefore, that they had an increased degree
of trust in the company and its products
The owner/manager of case 3 summarised
WKLVLVVXHDVJLYLQJD³VHQVHRIORFDWLRQWR
F\EHUVSDFH´DQGIXUWKHUQRWHGWKDWLW³KHOSHG
to personalise cyberspace.”
and quality assurance was also discussed
E\DOORIWKHUHVSRQGHQWVDVDGLUHFWEHQH¿W
of doing business with clients who came
to them via the online business directory
The community Web site, according to the
respondents, was perceived by the local YLOODJH FRPPXQLW\ DV DQ ³RQOLQH YLOODJH green,” that is to say some sort of hub and meeting place for the villagers Businesses advertising on it were considered part of the village community, and known in that community, and thus to be trusted to pro-vide a quality service Again, this sense of community was not felt by the respondents when they participated in more disparate business directories and listings in a wider geographical area
$VZHOODVWKHEHQH¿WVDVVRFLDWHGZLWKSDU-ticipation in the community Web site project, the small businesses taking part in the study also LGHQWL¿HGDQXPEHURISUREOHPV,WVKRXOGEHQRWHG KRZHYHUWKDWHDFKFRPPHQWHGWKDWWKHEHQH¿WV generally outweighed these problems The most QRWDEOH DPRQJ WKH SUREOHPV ZHUH ¿UVW WKRVH small businesses not operating their own Web site wanted the scope of the online business directory
to be extended to enable them to incorporate more detailed information in their individual directory entry Information suggested for inclusion com-prised the business’ opening times, type of work undertaken, and so on Second, some concerns were voiced about the fact that the community Web site project was coordinated and adminis-tered by a group of volunteers from the village This reliance on the goodwill of volunteers was felt to pose a possible problem for the longevity and future sustainability of the project as a whole, thus casting a doubt over how long the small busi-QHVVHVZRXOGEHDEOHWRHQMR\WKHEHQH¿WVRIWKH online business directory
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
The primary reason for participation in the online EXVLQHVVGLUHFWRU\VHHPHGWREHWKHEHQH¿WVLW offered For the small businesses investigated
in this study to date, participation was rewarded
Trang 9held true for enterprises not engaged in any other
form of Internet adoption, as well as for those
which had already embarked on Internet
adop-WLRQYHQWXUHV$ULVLQJIURPWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKLV
exploratory study, a number of issues are worthy
of note and further discussion
First, whilst existing conventional Internet
adoption models typically cite having an e-mail
account and/or a basic informational Web site as
the Internet adoption starting point for many small
businesses (see for example Daniel et al., 2002;
5DRHWDO 6FXSROD WKH¿QGLQJVRI
this study suggest that for some small businesses,
a valuable starting point in Internet adoption might
simply involve placing an entry in a wider online
business directory The advantages are that it
car-ries a relatively low risk, it can be offered at low
cost (or, in the case of the site under investigation
in the present study, at no cost), and it requires
no IT knowledge or skills in the small business
itself As demonstrated in this study, a local online
business directory forming part of a community
Web site may provide, for some small businesses,
an environment and context in which they can
experiment with the Internet, and particularly
³WHVW WKH ZDWHU´ DERXW WKH YDOXH RI SURPRWLQJ
their products and/or services via the World Wide
Web For some also, such online directories may
act as a catalyst for further Internet adoption
In recognition of the role that such directories
might play in the Internet adoption pathways of
small businesses, it seems reasonable to propose
that existing models of Internet adoption might
incorporate, at the early, non-complex application
level (i.e., before the e-mail and Web site adoption
levels), a level comprising participation in a local
online business directory
Second, for those small businesses that are
DOUHDG\RSHUDWLQJWKHLURZQ:HEVLWHWKH¿QGLQJV
of the study indicated that participation in the
online business directory had the positive effect
of both increasing the number of visitors to their
own Web site, as well as increasing the proportion
RIUHOHYDQWVLWHYLVLWRUV,QWKHOLJKWRIWKH¿QGLQJV
of other studies that have suggested that there KDVEHHQOLWWOHGLUHFWUHDOLVDWLRQRIEHQH¿WVIURP Internet adoption for small businesses, the role
of online business directories in community Web site projects might usefully be further examined Support initiatives devised to help small busi-nesses optimise their Internet adoption ventures might, for example, encourage small businesses
to link their own Web sites to relevant online directories or local portals in order to increase the visibility of their site, and thus help increase WKHOHYHORIWUDI¿FWRLW
Third, the present study helped to address the issue, discussed elsewhere in the literature (see for example Mehrtens et al., 2001; Teo & Ranganathan, 2004), of encouraging traditional QRQDGRSWHUVRIWKH,QWHUQHWWR¿QGVRPHYDOXH
in using it within their own business operations
In particular, the study demonstrated that a lo-cal online business directory could provide a mechanism for traditional non-adopters to have
an online presence (albeit quite a minimal one), DQGWRGHULYHVRPHEHQH¿WIURPWKDWSUHVHQFHRYHU more conventional approaches to the marketing and promotion of their goods and/or services As evidenced in this study, for some small businesses, participation in an online business directory may
be the extent of the Internet involvement they require or deem appropriate for their business purposes For others, of course, it may be that their involvement with such a directory might convert them to Internet adopters This issue does not appear to have been investigated elsewhere and arguably warrants further investigation beyond the scope of this study Such an investigation would be especially useful in the light of recent UHVHDUFK FKDOOHQJLQJ WKH QRWLRQ RI D ³RQH VL]H
¿WV DOO´ ,QWHUQHW DGRSWLRQ PRGHO DQG VWUDWHJ\ (see for example Martin & Matlay, 2001) From
a practical point of view, it would be useful too to examine the extent to which government Internet promotion strategies and small business Internet adoption support initiatives have considered the
Trang 10role that online business directories and
com-munity Web sites can play in helping traditional
non-adopters begin to explore the value of having
an online presence
$IRXUWKLVVXHWREHGLVFXVVHGIURPWKH¿QG-ings of the present study is that of geographical
reach and the small business: whilst global reach
is undoubtedly an important issue for many
small businesses, and the Internet has provided
an unprecedented boost to their international
marketing efforts, the notion of the Internet and
local reach should not simply be neglected As
this study has shown, for some small businesses,
the need is to use the Internet to help them
de-velop a deeper more targeted client base within
their own locality and community The study has
shown how a local community Web site, might
help facilitate that It is interesting to note that
much of the existing research literature on the
Internet and small business tends to mention only
the aspect of global reach, rather than deeper
lo-cal market penetration Again, government and
small business support agencies might usefully
highlight this aspect of the Internet’s value when
endeavouring to encourage small businesses to
engage in Internet activities
Having conducted this initial exploratory
VWXG\DQGLQVRGRLQJLGHQWL¿HGVRPHEHQH¿WV
and problems of community Web sites for small
businesses and highlighted the impacts such sites
might have on the Internet adoption behaviour of
small businesses, the intention now is to undertake
a more extensive study, involving more small
businesses and incorporating further community
sites and online business directories The purpose
of this follow-up study will be to investigate more
fully some of the issues arising from this study,
to explore further some of the ideas put forward,
and ultimately to develop and evaluate a model of
Internet adoption that incorporates the notion of
a local community Web site containing an online
business directory
CONCLUDING REMARKS
7KLV VWXG\ VRXJKW WR H[SORUH WKH EHQH¿WV DQG problems small businesses in a UK village are deriving from participation in a community Web site project, focussing particularly on the online business directory component of that project and
to investigate the impacts participation is having
on their Internet adoption behaviour The study has indicated that the small businesses believed the EHQH¿WVRXWZHLJKHGDQ\SUREOHPVDQGWKDWWKRVH EHQH¿WVLQFOXGHGWKHFDSWXULQJRIDPRUHUHOHYDQW local client base, low cost marketing available at minimal effort, and the opportunity to engage in low-level Internet adoption as a means of testing the water for further future involvement, if ap-propriate to their business operations It has been suggested that government small business Internet LQLWLDWLYHVVKRXOGQRWQHJOHFWWKHYDOXHRIWKH³OR-cal focus” for small businesses when promoting Internet adoption, and that furthermore, the notion
of community Web site and local online business directories might usefully be further explored by government agencies and small business support providers as a means of engaging a wider pool of small businesses in Internet activities, particularly the traditional non-adopters of the Internet A further, more extensive study, is now proposed and planned to pursue these matters in greater depth, with a view to developing an Internet adoption model that can accommodate community Web site projects and local business directories
REFERENCES
Aldridge, A., Forcht, K., & Pierson, J (1997) Get linked or get lost: Marketing strategy for the
In-ternet Internet Research: Electronic Networking
Applications and Policy, 7(3), 161-169
Curran, J., & Blackburn, R A (2001)
Research-ing the small enterprise London: Sage
Publica-tions Ltd
... Internetapplications (such as electronic mail or a basic
information-only Web site), and then progress
to more complex applications (such as online
ordering and payment... also been found to be important, and might
include demands from customers and/ or suppliers
(Mehrtens et al., 2001), governmental pressure,
and/ or pressure from competitors... adoption plans and decisions
In pursuing these objectives, it is anticipated WKDWWKH¿QGLQJVRIWKHVWXG\ZLOOPDNHDWLPHO\ and relevant contribution to existing understand-ing of small