Title: Internet adoption by rapidly internationalising SMEs: a further challenge to staged e-adoption models

Authors: Sharon Loane, Jim Bell, Kenneth R. Deans

Addresses: University of Ulster, Magee College, Ulster, Ireland. ' University of Ulster, Magee College, Ulster, Ireland. ' University of Otago, 6th Floor, Commerce Building P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

Abstract: There has been considerable recent interest in the literature on the impact of the internet on the internationalisation processes of SMEs. This contribution reports the findings of a four-country study on how internationalising Australian, Canadian, Irish and New Zealand firms utilise the internet. The findings suggest that SMEs in all countries use it extensively for communication purposes and make fairly widespread use of the internet for business processes, marketing and product development purposes, competitor analysis and market intelligence gathering. However, low usage is found in terms of online transactions and supply chain management. From these results, the authors conclude that many rapidly internationalising SMEs do not follow |stages| of internet adoption suggested by many of the extant e-adoption models.

Keywords: internationalisation; small firms; internet adoption; entrepreneurship; small business; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; Australia; Canada; Ireland; New Zealand; e-adoption models; online; world wide web.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2007.013252

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2007 Vol.4 No.3, pp.277 - 290

Published online: 14 Apr 2007 *

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