Managers/Owners' Innovativeness and Electronic Commerce Acceptance in Chilean SMEs: A Multi-Group Analysis Based on a Structural Equation Model

• Published in: Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Authors: Grandón, Elizabeth E., Ramírez-Correa, Patricio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Curicó MDPI AG 01.09.2018; Universidad de Talca
• Subjects: Attitudes; Barriers; BUSINESS; COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING; Decision making; Developing countries; Economic growth; Electronic banking; Electronic commerce; Entrepreneurship; Hypotheses; Influence; Information technology; Innovations; Internet access; LDCs; Management information systems; Mobile commerce; Perceptions; Personality; Personality traits; Small & medium sized enterprises-SME; Small business; Structural equation modeling; Studies; Technological change; Theory; Theory of planned behavior; Chile; United States > US; China; Taiwan; Small and medium enterprises (SMEs); E-commerce; Innovativeness; Structural equation modeling; Adoption
• ISSN: 0718-1876; 0718-1876
• DOI: 10.4067/s0718-18762018000300102

Received 13 June 2017; received in revised form 22 January 2018; accepted 28 February 2018AbstractThe aim of this paper is to study differences in the adoption of e-commerce associated with the level of managers/owners' innovativeness. The background utilized to estimate the respondents' favorable reception of e-commerce is a model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, which has been extended to include perceived drivers and obstacles as antecedents of attitude toward e-commerce acceptance. Small and medium enterprises in Chile participated in the study. A Partial Least Squares multi-group test was employed to note differences between groups. The main conclusions of the study are: (1) the level of managers/owners' innovativeness differentiates between adopters and non-adopters of e-commerce of small and medium enterprises in Chile; (2) the Theory of Planned Behavior has been successfully used to explain the process of adoption of e-commerce among Chilean managers/owners; (3) there are significant relationships between both drivers and obstacles and attitude toward using e-commerce; (4) a strong and significant relationship exists between attitude and intention to use e-commerce. Results can be used by small and medium enterprises in developing countries to boost e-commerce adoption.