Evolución del gen FOXP2 como ejemplo de selección positiva en el linaje humano

The origin of e-commerce predates the Internet. Early development of e-commerce began in the early 1960s, although most applications associated with innovations surfaced around 1970s in form of electronic funds transfer (EFT) (Turban, King, Lee, & Viehland, 2004). Later, another innovation was introduced, known as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which allowed business transactions such as purchase orders or invoices to be passed electronically from one organisation to another using standard procedures and documents (Turban et al., 2004; Papazoglou & Ribbers, 2006).

The Internet, a network of computer networks, began in 1969 by the US government to facilitate academic and scientific research (Senn, 2004, p.86). The rapid evolution of the

32

Internet and its graphical component, the World Wide Web (Senn, 2004, p.86) in the 1990s and thereafter (Hauben, 2004), enabled organisations to share and exchange information because it was more affordable than the previous medium of EDI (Turban et al., 2004).

In year 2000, a dot.com crash was experienced whereby several US internet-based businesses collapsed (Teo & Ranganathan, 2004). Since then, there has been hype amongst organisations, governments and practitioners, on finding the best ways to employ ICT with minimum loss and failure of systems. Over the years, the number of Internet users has increased tremendously (Senn, 2004, p.386) thereby facilitating the exchange of goods and services amongst businesses (known as B2B e-commerce), and between organisations and individual consumers (B2C e-commerce). However, the growth of e-commerce has been seen to be slower than that anticipated earlier with B2B becoming more popular than B2C (Humphrey et al., 2003; Gibbs, Kraemer, & Dedrick, 2003).

The use of e-commerce has been very popular in the corporate world with large firms of developed country regions reaping benefits whilst its development in small and medium-sized firms has been slow (MacGregor & Vrazalic, 2004). This study focuses on small and medium-sized e-commerce adoption issues in developing country contexts as a follow-up to calls for further studies due to inadequate representation in literature (Kapurubandara, 2009; Molla & Licker, 2005b).

The next section reviews literature on the potential benefits of e-commerce adoption. 2.1.2 Potential Benefits of E-commerce to SMEs

The benefits of e-commerce for SMEs have been a concern for governments and researchers alike due to the significance of this sector to their national economies (OECD, 2004; Van Akkeren & Cavaye, 1999). Senn (2004, p.387) outlines some of the benefits for engaging in e-commerce for organisations as well as individuals, as follows:

1. Geographical reach; there is no barrier for participants as they are able to reach any geographical location on the globe through communication networks.

33

2. Speed; the interaction between the participants of e-commerce happens within a short span of time.

3. Productivity; due to the fast speed of Internet transactions, participants of e- commerce can gain a lot of time that they can devote to other activities. This means being able to do more work than they actually anticipated, resulting in higher output. 4. Information sharing; any form of information; that is text, audio, video, graphics, or

animation can be transferred to all users that are connected to the network.

5. New features; the ability to add new features to the products and services, is another benefit for e-commerce users.

6. Lower costs; the cost of business transaction is cheaper than in traditional methods due to the nature of the Internet. Costs are lower also because producers can communicate directly with buyers, removing any middle men.

7. Competitive Advantage; It is argued that those companies that develop and implement an effective e-commerce strategy have business advantages over others in their industry that cannot offer similar products, services, or operating capabilities.

The actual uptake and realisation of benefits in e-commerce adoption has been in large corporations especially in developed nations (Eriksson et al., 2008; Martinsons, 2008). Research studies have noted that whilst some large firms have benefited greatly in e- commerce adoption due to the wide resources at their disposal (Kartiwi & MacGregor, 2007; Thatcher, Foster & Zhu, 2006), SMEs in developing countries lack a number of resources and competencies and the political and business environment in their countries provides little assistance to boost e-commerce adoption (OECD, 2004).

The next discussion reviews the preparedness of SMEs to participate in e-commerce. 2.1.3 E-commerce Readiness for SMEs

In order to do e-commerce, an SME needs to have the necessary ICT infrastructure such as a personal computer, Laptop, Smartphone, and any similar device, and also be connected to Internet or other communications network. An essential element would be power to run any of this electronic equipment, which is easily available in developed nations but may not be so

34

for many SMEs especially in rural areas of the developing world. A formidable amount of e- commerce in the global SMEs is done through organisational websites (Eriksson & Naldi, 2008; Karakaya & Shea, 2008; Drew, 2003; Uzoka et al., 2007; Humphrey et al., 2003; Molla and Licker, 2005b; Rao et al., 2003; UNCTAD, 2001) as depicted from previous studies particularly in developed countries. Some forms of e-commerce activities are accomplished through newer ICTs such as cloud computing; mobile commerce applications and social networking services (Scupola, 2010; Constantinides, 2010).

In a comparative study among SMEs in the USA, Spain, Portugal and Poland, Wielicki & Arendt (2010) found that a nation’s ICT readiness greatly assists its SMEs to apply more knowledge-based ICT in their business. This may also greatly influence the e-commerce readiness of individual SMEs in their countries. Based on the global networked readiness rankings (GITR, 2012), most developing countries including Botswana have low networked readiness status, which might not adequately motivate their SMEs for e-commerce adoption. This study therefore assesses the e-commerce readiness and adoption prospects of SMEs in a holistic manner.

The next discussion shifts to globalisation issues related to SME e-commerce adoption. 2.1.4 Globalisation and Its Impact on SME E-commerce Adoption

Globalisation can be described as the ‘increasing interconnectedness of the world through flows of information, capital, and people facilitated by trade and political openness as well as information technology’ (Gibbs et al., 2003). Moreover, it has been noted that technology is both driven by and a driver of globalisation as these twin forces continually act on each other (Bradley et al., 1993 cited in Kraemer, Gibbs, & Dedrick, 2002). Globalisation and the dynamic developments in ICT, especially the Internet and other computer mediated networks have been cited as some of the drivers of e-commerce adoption (Gibbs et al., 2003; Kraemer, Gibbs, & Dedrick, 2005). These drivers have impacted on SMEs differently depending on the nature and characteristics of the firm and depending on the geographical location of the organisation. According to Gibbs et al., (2003), global e-commerce adoption has been leading with B2B, whereas B2C has been more of a local phenomenon. However, the findings by

35

Gibbs et al., (2003) may vary somewhat in different contexts of the world, especially in parts of Southern Africa where local consumers lack e-commerce infrastructure and other necessary resources.

Previous studies posit that globalisation provides opportunities as well as limitations for SMEs (Kraemer et al., 2005; Narula, 2004; Tiessen, Wright, & Turner, 2001). Some of the opportunities suggested by Kraemer et al., (2005) include ‘access to new markets that were previously closed due to cost, regulation, or indirect barriers; the ability to tap resources such as labour, capital, and knowledge on a worldwide basis; and the opportunity to participate in global production networks that have become prevalent in many industries.’ They further add that challenges come from foreign competitors entering firms’ domestic markets, and from domestic competitors reducing their costs through global sourcing, moving production offshore or gaining economies of scale by expanding into new markets. In order to compete in global markets, SMEs face serious challenges as these firms are less enabled in e- commerce competence and capacity, scope and development drive (Hultman & Eriksson, 2008). Kraemer et al., (2005) further state that globalisation challenges firms to become more streamlined or focused and efficient while simultaneously extending their geographic borders to new markets.

Several studies have been undertaken to assess the impact of globalisation, e-commerce and SMEs. One of the early studies to assess the impact of globalisation and e-business on SMEs in Italy was done by Piscitello & Sgobbi (2004). The researchers undertook twelve case studies in a textile district of Prato with the purpose of determining the challenges of globalisation among the SMEs. Their findings suggest that only a few firms in the district were actively pursuing the full range of opportunities provided by e-business.

In a comparative study on barriers of e-commerce adoption between a developed country (Sweden) and a developing country context of Indonesia, Kartiwi & MacGregor (2007) found some differences in the groupings and priorities of barriers between the two contexts. Their key findings suggest that while Swedish respondents were more concerned with technical

36

issues, the Indonesian respondents were more concerned with organisational barriers. With regard to accounting for the number of barriers in e-commerce adoption, the researchers claim through their study that barriers to e-commerce adoption can be explained to be as a result of one of the three factors, as follows:

1. E-commerce is either too difficult, 2. Unsuitable to the business, or 3. Time and choice are a problem.

Therefore they recommend that even though previous studies have found varying sets of factors that inhibit e-commerce adoption, the three summed factors can be used to explain and predict barriers to e-commerce adoption in SMEs in developed and developing country contexts. For SMEs in developing countries, the perception that ‘e-commerce is difficult’ is usually found among SME managers who have little knowledge or are unable to appreciate the benefits of e-commerce due to lack of various resources. In closed value chain systems such as the garment industry reported in South Africa (Moodley & Morris, 2004), the reason for ‘e-commerce to be unsuitable’ may be applicable.

In the developing country context of Nigeria, Lal (2007) investigated the factors that affected the degree of adoption of new technologies in Nigerian SMEs with a globalisation perspective. Lal found that firm-level variables such as financial capacity and technological absorptive capacity influenced the intensity of the adoption of ICTs. Furthermore, the researcher posits that globalisation of the Nigerian economy also influenced the adoption of new technologies in SMEs. Therefore researchers all agree that SMEs need support from various stakeholders such as governments, multi-national corporations, and others, in order to improve their capacities and competencies for responding to globalisation challenges (Lal, 2007; Piscitello & Sgobbi, 2004; Tiessen et al., 2001).

In order to improve the position of SME e-commerce in the face of globalisation challenges, several studies have suggested a number of strategies, such as:

1. Developing resilience to re-focus e-commerce adoption strategy (Gunasekaran, Rai, & Griffin, 2011),

37

2. Creating various forms of collaboration amongst the SMEs (Mesquita & Lazzarini, 2008),

3. Improving training and education among SMEs,

4. Facilitating the formation of networks and clusters (Piscitello & Sgobbi, 2004), among many others.

2.1.5 The Digital Divide and E-commerce Adoption in SMEs

The digital divide is a term that came to be popular in the 1990’s, describing the gap in ICT knowledge and acquisition between the developed rich countries and the poor developing countries. The discussion in this study will draw from the Australian definition given by Standing, Sims & Stockdale (2004). They describe ‘digital divide’ as the gap between the level of sophistication in IT and e-business adoption and usage in rural compared with urban areas, and small and medium enterprises compared with large companies. With the rapid diffusion of Internet and other communication networks influencing e-commerce, researchers have been expecting a catch-up phenomenon among SMEs due to easy access and cost of Internet technology for e-commerce (Bell & Loane, 2010; Standing et al., 2004). However, the practice on the ground has not shown much appreciation among SMEs, both in developed (Chibelushi & Costello, 2009; Wilson et al., 2008) and developing countries (Olatokun & Kebonye, 2010), even though SMEs in developed countries tend to perform better due to their well-equipped e-readiness environment (Wielicki & Arendt, 2010).

Researchers have anticipated that the high diffusion of mobile telephony in most developing countries especially in Africa can narrow the gap between large and small business e- commerce adoption (Heeks, Jagun & Whalley, 2009). In a study among SMEs in Ghana, Frempong (2009) finds that SMEs are actively engaged in various forms of business using mobile telephony. Donner & Escobari (2010) provide an account of how SMEs use mobile phones to alter their internal business processes and extend business relationships beyond the traditional landline use. Despite the positive trends to e-commerce penetration through mobile telephone, the digital divide may still persist in form of other institutional barriers such as trade restrictions imposed by rich countries and powerful multinational corporations on poor developing countries. Some researchers express pessimism that SMEs may not be able to

38

respond to global and local demand for e-commerce because they are already resource- constrained (Winch & Bianchi, 2006).