An empirical study of perceived strategic value and adoption constructs: the Ghanaian case

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the link between the determinants of perceived strategic value (PSV) of e-commerce and e-commerce adoption among Ghanaian small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), defined as businesses that employ a maximum of 200 employees. Design/methodology/approach - The authors randomly sampled SME owners/managers from the membership of the Ghana Club 100 (GC 100) and non-traditional exporters (NTEs). Established databases are not the norm in Ghana, and GC 100 and NTEs had membership databases that were accessible to the local co-author. Investigating e-commerce adoption issues among these companies was warranted. The authors used a structured instrument developed and validated in prior studies to collect the data in a face to face interview. A pilot study was conducted to ascertain the clarity and reliability of the questionnaire. Of the SME owners/managers: 200 were contacted; 112 agreed to participate in the study; 107 responses were obtained - representing a 53.5 per cent response rate. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 14. Findings - Factor analysis demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity and construct reliability. PSV construct resulted in four factors: Strategic Decision Support (SD), Information Management (IM), Organizational Support (OS) and Decision Aids (DA). This finding is both consistent and inconsistent with prior research. The adoption construct yielded five factors: Perceived Usefulness (PU), Ease of Use (EU), Compatibility (C), Organisational Readiness (OS) and External Pressure (EP). There was more congruence between our results and those of prior research. Research limitations/implications - Limitations stem from small sample size, the population and locale from which the sample was drawn. Practical implications - The study has research and practical implications, and these are discussed fully in the paper. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the knowledge of perceived strategic value and adoption of e-commerce by SMEs in an under-researched part of the world.