Title: A study to analyse the social, economic, cultural, and technological determinants of e-business adoption in small and medium enterprises of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Authors: Mir Shahid Satar; Ghadah Alarifi

Addresses: College of Administrative and Financial Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Riyadh – 13323, Saudi Arabia ' College of Business Administration, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh – 11564, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: The present study was formulated to identify the social, economic, cultural, and technological factors that determine the e-business adoption within SMEs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Following an extant literature review, a questionnaire survey was conducted across 76 SMEs in KSA through a quantitative non-experimental research design. The factors were ranked using the descriptive statistics, the reliability model, and the Relative Importance Index (RII). The results indicated that the five most significant factors determining the adoption of e-business within SMEs are: 1) perceived usefulness of the e-business; 2) centralised decision-making of SME owner/entrepreneur; 3) education level/skill gaps in the society; 4) lack of resources; 5) resistant to change behaviour of entrepreneurs. The outcome will pertinently enable the managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders of SMEs in devising suitable e-business strategies.

Keywords: SMEs; e-business; entrepreneurs; technology; e-commerce.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2024.140592

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2024 Vol.34 No.4, pp.491 - 519

Received: 03 Jun 2021
Accepted: 28 Aug 2021
Published online: 28 Aug 2024 *

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