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Journal Paper Review
3rd World Conference on Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneuship (WOCTINE)
What Hinder SMEs from Adopting E-commerce? A Multiple Case Analysis
Salma Dahbi, Chihab Benmoussa
Al Akhawayan University, Ifrane, Morocco
Most organization today recognizes the power of technology in meeting its goals. The author of
the paper What Hinder SMEs from Adopting E-commerce? A Multiple Case Analysis (S. Dahbi & C.
Benmoussa, 2019) discussed the topic vividly in such a way that it pointed out necessary elements and
factors considered by SMEs in adopting E-Commerce.
The author show present an exploratory investigation concerning the e-commerce adoption
among SMEs realizing the factors influencing their readiness to adopt such technology. According to
the author e-commerce adoption among SMEs is affected by technological, financial, cultural, and
organizational factors. The author also cited that the most critical ones are the financial and
technological factors, followed by the cultural and organizational factors.
The author also discussed the main objective of the study 1) what are the perceived
impediments for e-commerce adoption among Moroccan SMEs? 2) the barriers to SMEs adoption of e-
commerce 3) research approach chosen 4) analyses the findings of the study .the paper concludes with
some remarks and suggests areas for future research.
In the topic framework of analysis, the author discussed barriers to SMEs adoption of e-
commerce. The Framework for analysis categorized those barriers into organizational, technological,
socio-cultural, financial and external factors. An approach introduced by Levy and Ellis (2006), which
includes three steps was followed. These steps are the following: (1) input, (2) processing, and (3)
output.
In the topic methodology, the author identified research method as described by Yin (2009) was
adopted in the research. There are four (4) SMEs used in the case study. This method is used for data
collection based on the preliminary investigation of available resources such as business reports,
websites, media coverage and semi structured interview. The interviews were conducted with top
managers or generally the members responsible of the business development within the company.
These people were chosen because of the fact that these people are the leaders, and most
importantly the decision makers within an SME context
LEIZA LINDA L. PELAYO Journal Paper Review
MAITE Student
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The author also find out that all of the companies selected had websites that described their
business and the products and services they offer, however they do not provide online sales and
procurement , or online payment due to many factors that were indeed investigated in the research.
SMEs basically use systems for organizing their bills and the paperwork related to their customers so
that anytime they could check how much they have sold, what is the margin they reach, etc.
The author also cited some barriers that hinder SMEs in adopting e-commerce most of the
leader’s leader mentioned that though they are willing to implement e-commerce their employees are
still not ready yet to work with such technology. On the other hand, some of the SMEs uses
information technology in order to support their business process but all the implementation and
maintenance is outsourced to an IT specialist that works on a freelance basis. Other salient barriers
mentioned by the manager include the costs if implementing such technology, the costs of logistics,
the overall lack of financial resources, the customs regulation, but also the lack of any pressure from
competitors.
In addition, the Companies uses had faced many challenges when it comes to the adoption of
more advanced ICTs. Such challenges include reliability, resistance to change, and durability. Also, the
fact that they would need top train their employee emerge as a major barriers preventing them from
investing more advanced ICT. When it comes to the adoption of e-commerce in particular, the
company’s believe that it is not relevant to the company’s business culture as the industry works more
by word of mouth. Customer attitude towards using ecommerce was another barriers that emerged.
Lastly the author of the journal article concluded that a wide range of barriers belonging to four
main important categories hinder the degree of e-commerce adoption among Moroccan SMEs are
technological, financial, cultural and organizational one, with the technological and financial categories
being the most influential ones. The study also has number of limitations such as data for the research
was gathered from different Moroccan sectors. Another limitation involves the fact that the research
was mainly focusing on SMEs from the region of Fes and Marrakech, while SMEs from different regions
of Morroco could have been selected. The purpose is to generate insights and derive lessons on key
critical success factors of e-commerce implementation by SMEs operating in developing context.
LEIZA LINDA L. PELAYO Journal Paper Review
MAITE Student
