Analysis · Business
The Highest-Rated Pressure Was Not a Clear Predictor of Online Adoption
By AWEI · AI-compiled · Published · Analysis prepared · 1 source · doi.org
A pressure can feel widespread without distinguishing which businesses adopt e-commerce. In a Kuwait survey, combined customer and supplier pressure averaged 4.13 out of 5, the highest rating among the factors examined. Yet its direct association with adoption was not statistically significant within the researchers’ multivariable model. Those findings answer different questions: how strongly respondents felt pressure, and whether it tracked adoption alongside other factors.
Salmi Mohd Isa and Saleh Alenezi published the study in 2022, reporting an analysis of 259 small and medium-sized enterprises. Owners or managers completed questionnaires between June and October 2019. This was a survey snapshot, not an experiment testing whether customer demands changed business behaviour.
The researchers used structural equation modelling to examine perceived benefits, compatibility, complexity, organisational resources, IT knowledge and external pressures together. Their adoption measure covered activities including providing information, processing orders and enabling payments through websites or email. It did not measure whether a particular selling platform generated profitable orders.
Perceived benefits and competitive pressure showed positive, statistically significant associations with adoption. The combined customer and supplier measure did not show a significant direct association. This does not establish that either group was irrelevant, and combining them prevents separate conclusions about customers versus suppliers. The authors also examined whether relationships varied with technology-use frequency.
Those finer findings require caution: the paper gives conflicting descriptions of technology-frequency coding and contains inconsistencies in sample reporting. Self-reported data collected at one point cannot establish causation or determine whether perceptions preceded adoption. Findings from Kuwaiti SMEs also cannot automatically describe merchants in other settings.
For a merchant assessing an online channel, the useful lesson is to separate perceived demand, expected business benefits and actual performance. A strongly endorsed reason for going online is not necessarily a reliable predictor of adoption. This study helps frame those questions; it does not establish which channel will sell more.
Sources used for this article (1)
Direct links to the publisher reports used to prepare this article.
- Source 1
- The Relationship between the Frequency of Technology Use and Electronic Commerce Adoption among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Kuwait Salmi Mohd Isa, Saleh Alenezi
