Australian SMES' And E-Commerce adoption: Newer Perspectives

This chapter presents the results of a study on factors affecting adoption of e-commerce in small and medium size enterprises in Australia. The Tornatsky and Fleischer (1990) model is used in the investigation therefore the main group of factors taken into consideration are environmental, organizational and technological. Top managers employed in five companies located in the area of Brisbane, Queensland have been interviewed. The results are partially in line with similar studies on e-commerce adoption in SMEs. However many differences are also found. For example this study found that the external environment has an influence mainly through customers' requirements and pressure and availability of IT services, contrary to other studies that found that government and public administration have a big role. The organizational and technological contexts have also much relevance and include factors such as employees and CEO attitude.