The is a study to assess the state of e-commerce
adoption by the SMEs in Northern Malaysia and to
examine the factors that might hinder the adoption.
Quantitative Analysis of the data obtained found that
the general usage of e-commerce among the SMEs in
Northern Malaysia was low; most firms seemed to have
implemented only basic e-commerce applications.
Analysis of benefits realized found that most of the
SMEs only gained some of the benefits of e-commerce.
Benefits realized were in the areas of customer
service, market expansion, and back-end efficiency
and inventory management. SMEs who have adopted
e-commerce seemed incapable of improving their
overall performance and profitability. Examination of
the factors that might hinder the adoption of
e-commerce by the SMEs in Northern Malaysia was
factors related to organizational, governmental and
environmental barriers. Out of the three factors,
only the factor associated with environmental
barriers has a significant correlation with the
extent of e-commerce adoption. Regression analysis
confirmed that the factor related to environmental
barriers has significant negative influence on the
extent of e-commerce adoption.