E-Commerce Adoption Factors Among Palestinian SMEs: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

State of Palestine is a country consisting of two main regions; the West Bank and Gaza strip. Palestine is considered a developing nation with continuous efforts to develop its economy using the application of information and communication technology (ICT) as an important tool towards that progress. Numerous studies were carried out on E-Commerce (EC) adoption, however, there are yet any studies that studied it inside Palestine. The objective of this study is to analyze the factors influencing EC adoption in Palestine, as the study considers the factors influencing said adoption to be technological, organizational, and information culture factors. A thorough analysis was conducted on each factor to gain a deep understanding of the status quo of EC adoption in Palestine. The study utilized a questionnaire survey to collect data from 50 participants picked from Palestinian SME’s operating in the ICT sector as data collected were descriptively analyzed. Based on the analysis, three major factors were found to be the most relative in regards to EC adoption; these are: IT readiness, technology trust, and information integrity. The findings of this study will benefit the government of Palestine, Businesses associations, and any organization looking towards successful EC adoption.

Keywords: electronic commerce; Information culture; small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs); TOE; Palestine.