A longitudinal study into the integration of e-commerce in SMEs

Electronic Commerce applications represent business development opportunities for many organisations. However, few ECD (Electronic Commerce Development) approaches exist which comprehensively outline the major factors influencing such developments. This paper involves a longitudinal study into EC (Electronic Commerce) integration in SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprises). The study involves the examination of approaches utilised by SMEs for the adoption of EC. As highlighted many SMEs did not utilise a methodological approach to such developments. Hence organisational benefits were not attained and misperceptions regarding the technology became grounded. Additionally, the developed applications did not deliver effective business processes due to the non-identification of the relevance of BPR(Business Process Reengineering) and OL (Organisational Learning) undertaking of such developments. As a direct result, this paper sets out a comprehensive framework, for EC adoption whilst also incorporating BPR and OL in relation to ECD. The following research questions were identified: 1. To what extent is the provision of a framework for EC adoption in SMEs required? 2. How do you enable an organisation to work effectively as a direct response to the development, adoption, implementation, and deployment of an EC application? Ultimately, the paper illustrates how ECD approaches for the adoption of EC by SMEs need to be addressed and become more enhanced in their practical and theoretical approaches and proposes a framework to help address this issue.