A preliminary study of ecommerce adoption in developing countries

• Published in: Information systems journal (Oxford, England) Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 3 - 32
• Main Author: Datta, Pratim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Developing countries; ecommerce adoption; Electronic commerce; facilitating conditions; Information systems; LDCs; networked readiness; social influence; Studies; technological opportunism; Technology adoption
• ISSN: 1350-1917; 1365-2575
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2575.2009.00344.x

What factors underlie the adoption dynamics of ecommerce technologies among users in developing countries? Even though the internet promised to be the great equalizer, the nuanced variety of conditions and contingencies that shape user adoption of ecommerce technologies has received little scrutiny. Building on previous research on technology adoption, the paper proposes a global information technology (IT) adoption model. The model includes antecedents of performance expectancy, social influence, and technology opportunism and investigates the crucial influence of facilitating conditions. The proposed model is tested using data from 172 technology users from 37 countries, collected over a 1‐year period. The findings suggest that in developing countries, facilitating conditions play a critical moderating role in understanding actual ecommerce adoption, especially when in tandem with technological opportunism. Altogether, the paper offers a preliminary scrutiny of the mechanics of ecommerce adoption in developing countries.