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CollECTeR ’06, 9 December, Adelaide

A Preliminary Meta-Analysis of SME-eBusiness Journal

Publications: Current Trends and Future Research Opportunities

Moving Beyond Adoption Factor Studies

Craig M. Parker and Tanya Castleman

Deakin University, Australia

craig.parker@deakin.edu.au

, tanya.castleman@deakin.edu.au

Abstract

Previous meta-analyses of SME-eBusiness journal research focuses on analysing adoption

factors, pre-2000 articles and a small number of journals. This paper departs from this

research by analysing 100 articles published between 2003 and 2006 in 41 journals on the

basis of the research approaches employed, countries and eBusiness technologies studied,

and research objectives focused upon. The paper presents preliminary insights into current

major research trends based on this analysis, such as the predominant focus on adoption

factor by many studies. It also identifies future research opportunities, and proposes a

research agenda which aims to progress SME-eBusiness research beyond adoption factor

studies by outlining research objectives to help SMEs overcome barriers and exploit drivers.

1. Introduction

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their adoption and use of various forms of

Electronic Business (eBusiness) has been the subject of considerable research, especially over

the last decade with the commercialisation of the Internet. A non-exhaustive search of the

literature uncovered at least 100 journal articles with a focus on SMEs and eBusiness – many

of which looked at Internet or website adoption and use in particular. It is therefore an

opportune time to conduct a meta-analysis of an indicative collection of recent SME-

eBusiness journal articles to identify trends and future research opportunities.

Recent meta-analyses relating to SMEs and eBusiness have focused on identifying and

analysing factors (drivers and barriers) which aim to predict or explain why SMEs (do not)

adopt different forms of eBusiness [see 1; 2]. Premkumar’s [1] meta-analysis in particular

only examined pre-2000 articles, and did not include non-IS journals or eBusiness journals

(eg, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development and Electronic Markets

respectively) which publish SME-eBusiness studies.

While such “adoption factor” meta-analyses are useful, they do not offer insights into

broader trends relating to the types of research (eg, research approaches and objectives) being

conducted and into the future research opportunities these trends might present. Jeyaraj et al’s

[3] recent meta-analysis addresses this to some extent when examining possible research

biases in adoption studies, but they studied primarily pre-2000 research on individual and

organisational adoption of IT generally, not recent SME-eBusiness focused research.

This paper makes an important contribution by addressing these limitations of past meta-

analyses because: it analyses 100 SME-eBusiness journal articles published from 2003 to

2006 (not pre-2000 articles); it includes non-IS and eBusiness journals (41 journals in total);

and it identifies current major trends in the research approaches employed, countries and

eBusiness technologies studied, and research objectives focused upon, rather than analysing

CollECTeR ’06, 9 December, Adelaide

adoption factors as in previous meta-analyses. It must be noted that this paper presents a

preliminary meta-analysis and indicative current major trends, because we did not analyse

articles from all journals and did not include conference papers and book chapters presenting

more recent work than is typically found in journal articles due to their publication lead times.

Most importantly, we believe, the broader meta-analysis presented in this paper has

resulted in the identification of future research opportunities we hope will promote research

which moves beyond the current tendency in the SME-eBusiness literature to focus on

observed adoption factors. Among these opportunities, we argue that an important future

research objective is to develop programmes, approaches and tools which can help SME

owners (and the external parties who might help them) to make informed decisions about

which eBusiness solutions are appropriate given the unique characteristics of each SME.

The paper is structured as follows. We firstly explain how we identified relevant journal

articles and discuss the limitations of our approach. We then present our analysis of the

articles, including current major trends and future research opportunities. We then outline a

future research agenda based on our article analysis. Finally, we present concluding remarks.

2. Approach to identifying SME-eBusiness journal articles

Articles used for the meta-analysis were selected on the basis that they were journal

articles involving conceptual or empirical work focusing on SMEs (or comparing them with

large firms) and eBusiness. The search for SME-related articles included terms such as small

business and small firm to find relevant articles. eBusiness included EDI, Internet, websites,

email, intranets, supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management

(CRM), knowledge management (KM), etc. The articles were identified using searches in

online research databases such as Emerald, ScienceDirect and EBSCOHost, where the

journals used were those predominantly available in full-text via our University’s library.

As stated earlier, our objective was to gain preliminary, indicative insights into the current

major trends and future opportunities in SME-eBusiness research. For this reason, we only

included articles published between 2003 and 2006. This resulted in 100 journal articles.

Table 1 summarises the 41 journals from which the articles were identified and analysed. It

is not surprising that many of the articles came from journals dedicated to SMEs such as

JSBED and SBE, in addition to highly regarded IS and eBusiness journals such as EM, EJIS

and I&M. This table demonstrates that there are a wide range of publishing outlets for SME-

eBusiness research. In addition, it can also be seen that SME-eBusiness articles have been

appearing consistently throughout 2003 to 2005, with similar numbers of articles each year. It

will be interesting to see if similar numbers of SME-eBusiness articles emerge in 2006. It

should be noted that the search was not exhaustive and there are too few years covered for

insights into historical publishing trends to be commented upon.

There are a number of limitations of this approach to the meta-analysis. Firstly, the long

publication cycle of many journals (typically between 6 to 24 months) means that this

analysis reflects SME-eBusiness journal publications rather than the most recent research.

The latter would still be filtering through the journal publication processes. Including

conference papers and book chapters would have helped address this problem, but we wanted

to focus our analysis on publications which were likely to be of higher quality than those

typically found in conferences. Indeed, journal articles are often improved versions of

conference papers which incorporate feedback from conference participants and reviewers.

Secondly, the journals analysed did not constitute a complete list of articles on SME-

eBusiness research published worldwide during 2003 to 2006. For example, there might be

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journals not abstracted or available via the major online research databases we used (eg,

online-only journals), or journals which are not readily available electronically in full-text.

Table 1. Summary of journal articles identified

Journal Name ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 Total

Business Process Management Journal (BPMJ) 1 1

Competition & Change (C&C) 1 1

Communications of the ACM (CACM) 1 1

Decision Sciences (DS) 1 1

European Business Review (EBR) 1 1

Engineering Construction & Architectural Management (EC&AM) 1 1

European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) 2 3 1 6

Electronic Markets (EM) 1 3 6 10

Information & Management (I&M) 1 3 1 5

International Journal of Information Management (IJIM) 1 1

Irish Journal of Management (IJM) 1 1

International Marketing Review (IMR) 1 1

Info 1 1

Internet Research (IR) 1 1

International Small Business Journal (ISBJ) 2 2

Information Systems Frontiers (ISF) 1 1

Information Technology & Management (IT&M) 1 1

Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge (JAAB) 2 1 3

Journal of Computer Information Systems (JCIS) 2 1 3

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) 1 2 3

Journal of Electronic Commerce Research (JECR) 1 1 2

Journal of Enterprise Information Management (JEIM) 1 1 2

Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM) 3 3

Journal of Internet Commerce (JIC) 1 1

Journal of Information Technology Management (JITM) 1 1

Journal of Knowledge Management (JKM) 1 1

Journal of Marketing Management (JMM) 1 1

Journal of Organizational Computing & Electronic Commerce (JOC&EC) 2 2

Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management (JP&SM) 1 1

Journal of Property Investment & Finance (JPI&F) 1 1

Journal of Systems & Information Technology (JS&IT) 4 4

Journal of Small Business & Enterprise Development (JSBED) 8 9 2 19

Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM) 1 1

Logistics Information Management (LIM) 1 1

Management Decision (MD) 1 1

New Technology, Work & Employment (NTW&E) 5 5

Production Planning & Control (PP&C) 1 1

Qualitative Market Research (QMR) 2 2

South African Journal of Business Management (SAJBM) 1 1

Small Business Economics (SBE) 1 3 4

Supply Chain Management (SCM) 1 1

TOTAL 33 35 28 4 100

Despite these limitations, the use of recent, readily accessible journal articles via major

online databases still enabled us to generate useful preliminary, indicative insights into the

current, major research trends and potential future research opportunities. In addition, a larger

number of articles would have become unmanageable given the preliminary nature of this

study. For this purpose, we believe that the 100 journal articles identified were a sufficiently

large number and cross-section of journals for this exercise. Table 1 also shows that many of

the leading journals where we would expect to find SME-eBusiness articles are included.

CollECTeR ’06, 9 December, Adelaide

3. Major current SME-eBusiness research trends and future opportunities

In this section we identify major current trends emerging from our meta-analysis of SME-

eBusiness articles by examining the eBusiness technologies and countries studied, the

research methods employed and the primary research objectives of the articles. This

preliminary analysis enabled us to identify commonalities in the literature and to determine

opportunities for future research. Given the preliminary nature of this analysis and space

limitations, it is beyond the scope of this paper to do more detailed analysis, such as

comparing (for instance) the research objectives with research approaches employed. It

should also be noted that while the results are mostly broken down by year, the articles

analysed do not cover a sufficiently long period for reliable historical trends to be analysed.

3.1. A predominant focus on observational research approaches

The majority of the research approaches employed by researchers in the SME-eBusiness

articles analysed were, not surprisingly, observational in nature. It was encouraging that both

qualitative and quantitative studies of varying types were published, including single case

studies. A summary of the research approaches used in the articles is provided in Table 2. It

should be noted that studies which involved (semi-structured) interviews purely to develop a

survey instrument were not categorised as “combined qualitative and quantitative studies”,

because the findings from the interviews were not reported in these articles.

Table 2. Summary of research approaches employed

Research Approach(es) ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 Total

Conceptual / literature review only 2 4 1 7

Qualitative only studies – 32 articles

Semi-structured interviews 5 5 10

Case studies 9 5 3 1 18

Case study (longitudinal) 1 1

Action research (longitudinal) 1 1 2

Case studies and semi-structured interviews 1 1

Quantitative only studies – 45 articles

Postal/email survey 7 15 15 2 39

Postal/email survey (longitudinal) 1 1

Phone survey 1 2 3

Website survey (longitudinal) 1 1

Postal/email and website survey 1 1

Combined qualitative and quantitative studies – 16 articles

Postal/email survey and case studies 2 2

Postal/email survey, website survey and case study 1 1

Postal/email survey and semi-structured interviews 3 2 2 1 8

Postal/email survey and semi-structured interviews (longitudinal) 1 1 2

Phone survey and semi-structured interviews 1 1 2

Website survey and semi-structured interviews 1 1

Total 33 35 28 4 100

It can be seen from Table 2 that only seven studies reported results from longitudinal

research, such as comparing survey results over time, or studying SMEs and their eBusiness

use over time. This finding suggests there is an opportunity for longitudinal quantitative and

qualitative studies examining temporal issues affecting SME eBusiness use.

More significantly, perhaps, another issue emerging from this analysis of research

approaches is that the SME-eBusiness articles analysed primarily observe eBusiness use and

adoption among SMEs. There are comparatively few examples in which the primary

objective of researchers is to take an active (rather than observational) role in encouraging

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and supporting SME use of eBusiness. Some notable exceptions were Ihlstrom & Nilsson and

McGovern & Hicks’ [4; 5] action research studies where they assisted SMEs with eBusiness

projects and knowledge development, and Hari et al’s [6] knowledge management education

CD developed for the construction industry. This issue and related future research

opportunities are explored further in section 4 where we discuss a proposed research agenda.

A further issue with the existing focus on observational research approaches is that many

of these studies (especially surveys) rely upon SME owner/manager perceptions. Jeyaraj et al

[3] point out that, in the context of individual and organisational IT adoption, there is some

evidence emerging that perceived system use does not correlate with actual system use. This

suggests that research approaches which focus on an SME respondent’s perception of

eBusiness use might not produce reliable insights into actual eBusiness usage or practices (eg,

strategy development). Future research approaches which observe actual behaviour (eg, case

studies and action research) might address this. It is recognised that such observations are

more difficult and less generalisable than surveys, but they offer a way to verify whether any

differences between perceived and actual use/practices exist in the SME-eBusiness context.

3.2. eBusiness technologies and applications studied

Further indicative insights were gained when examining the eBusiness technologies and

applications empirically studied by the journal articles analysed, as summarised in Table 3.

The articles were categorised based on the eBusiness examples specified by authors or, if this

was unclear, based on the description in their results. This proved to be a challenge in some

cases where authors referred merely to the Internet, Web (or websites), eCommerce,

eBusiness, ICT, IS/IT, etc when reporting their empirical findings, rather than the specific

technologies or applications used (or not) by SMEs. The conceptual/theoretical papers, which

have been separated in Table 3, tended to fall into this generic, non-specific category also.

Table 3. Summary of eBusiness technologies and applications investigated

eBusiness Technologies and Applications ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 Total

Conceptual / theoretical papers 2 4 1 7

eBusiness technologies unclear or unspecified (eBusiness generally) 1 3 3 7

Web generally 8 15 6 2 31

Web generally plus email 2 2

Internet generally 1 1 1 3

Internet use generally plus mobile phone 1 1

Many eBusiness technologies and applications (eg, research, sales, CRM) 12 6 4 1 23

Many eBusiness technologies plus EDI 4 3 3 10

Focus on supply chain technologies (plus possibly other technologies) 2 2 2 6

Knowledge management (plus possibly other technologies) 1 2 1 4

Electronic marketplaces 2 2

Teleworking 2 2

Broadband Internet 1 1

Online training 1 1

Total 33 35 28 4 100

The first major observation from Table 3 was the surprising tendency by many researchers

to treat the applications of the Internet and the Web collectively. This is problematic because

these technologies can be used for a plethora of quite different applications such as a sales

channel, product catalogue, payment channel, online brochure, etc. Treating the Internet or

Web collectively fails to consider that there might be different mitigating factors influencing

why SMEs (do not) adopt, or vary in their use of, specific applications of Internet/Web

technology – or if the applications are even applicable to particular SMEs at all. This

limitation of existing SME-eBusiness research must be addressed in future studies to ensure

CollECTeR ’06, 9 December, Adelaide

that the heterogenous applications of the Internet/Web are treated separately. The implications

of this for future research are examined in more detail in sections 3.4 and 4.

Another major observation is that, not surprisingly, there has been a strong focus by the

SME-eBusiness literature over the last few years on the Internet, websites and email. Table 3

suggests future research could target other eBusiness technologies and applications which

have received comparatively little attention, such as SME use of teleworking, online training,

mobile commerce, etc. We must emphasise, however, that it is likely that there are other SME

studies in these areas we did not identify due to the preliminary nature of this work, and that

more exhaustive article searches could determine the full extent of research in these areas.

3.3. A predominant focus on single country studies

Further current major trends in the recent SME-eBusiness journal literature emerged when

we examined the countries in which the authors conducted their empirical work, as

summarised in Table 4. Since our focus was on the country targeted for empirical

investigations, we did not categorise conceptual and theoretical papers based on countries.

Table 4. Summary of countries studied

Country) Studied ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 Total

Unclear 1 1

Not applicable (conceptual / theoretical papers) 2 4 1 7

Single Countries

United Kingdom 6 10 6 1 23

USA 5 5 4 1 15

Australia 4 1 4 9

Canada 1 2 1 4

Ireland 4 4

Italy 2 2 4

New Zealand 1 2 1 4

Scotland 2 2 4

Sweden 2 2 4

Hong Kong 1 2 3

South Africa 1 1 1 3

Taiwan 1 1 2

Turkey 1 1 2

Chile 1 1

Pakistan 1 1

Portugal 1 1

Spain 1 1

Two Countries

Australia and Sweden 2 2

Four Countries

USA, Germany, Denmark and France 2 2

USA, UK, Austria and Spain 1 1

Eight Countries

UK, Ireland, Finland, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain 1 1

Ten Countries

Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Singapore,

Taiwan, USA

1 1

Total 33 35 28 4 100

The first major observation from Table 4 is that a large proportion (nearly a quarter) of the

SME-eBusiness articles analysed concerned UK SMEs. This might reflect the government

funding which has been provided in the UK to stimulate eBusiness adoption and use by SMEs

in various areas such as Wales [eg, 7] and the West Midlands [eg, 8]. In addition, nearly half

the articles analysed investigated SMEs in the UK, USA and Australia. This suggests that

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there are future research opportunities and need for SME-eBusiness research in developing

and/or non-native English speaking countries, although it is quite possible that such research

is being published but not necessarily in English journals accessible via online databases.

Another major observation from Table 4 is that only seven of the articles analysed included

cross-country comparisons. Not surprisingly, the country combinations for which there were

two articles were written by the same authors: MacGregor & Vrazalic [9; 10] conducted the

two Australia-Sweden comparative studies; and Beck et al [11; 12] conducted the two USA-

Germany-Denmark-France comparative studies. Again, this suggests a future research

opportunity for further cross-cultural SME-eBusiness studies.

3.3. A predominant focus on SME adoption/use of eBusiness

More interesting current major trends in the SME-eBusiness literature were identified

when developing a preliminary, indicative classification of the articles based on the primary

research objective stated by authors or, where this was unclear, by our assessment of the

nature of the empirical findings to deduce the primary objective. The classification emerged

inductively through content analysis carried out by the first author. The first step involved

reading each paper, with particular emphasis on the article authors’ stated objectives in the

introduction and the lead-in to the empirical work (where applicable). The first author then

wrote a short summary of each article’s primary research objective in a word processed

document, and then identified broad themes using a condensation approach.

A major limitation of this approach is possible researcher bias, because the summaries,

condensation and resulting themes were not independently verified by a second researcher.

We believe, however, that the indicative trends identified serve as a useful starting point for

future studies looking to analyse the SME-eBusiness literature on the basis of research

objectives, since it appears that no previous meta-analysis of this kind has been conducted on

the SME-eBusiness literature. This future research could, for instance, involve more thorough

and independently verified content analyses of a greater number of recent (and even earlier)

articles and their research objectives. We have included below the complete list of articles in

each category identified to aid in future independent verification and replication of this work.

As stated in section 3.1, most articles analysed focused on observing SMEs with respect to

eBusiness. Indeed, the majority of the articles analysed were descriptive studies of eBusiness

adoption and/or use by SMEs, with many exploring a range of drivers, barriers and critical

success factors, or a subset of these factors. Table 5 summarises the foci of the studies.

There are a number of indicative insights which emerged when we compiled these

preliminary categories (or trends) in Table 5 regarding the article research objectives:

Firstly, it is apparent that the majority of the SME-eBusiness articles analysed focus

primarily on studying the SMEs themselves [13], with only brief (if any) research into the

supply-side of innovation diffusion [see 14 for a notable exception]. The need for more

research which specifically addresses this issue was evident in the few articles which did

explore to some extent the dissatisfaction with vendors and/or consultants by some SMEs. For

example, some SMEs did not know who they could trust regarding eBusiness knowledge, did

not achieve the anticipated benefits from eBusiness, or believed vendors/consultants cost too

much [see 13; 14-16]. In addition, Jones et al [17] also found conflicting expectations

between SMEs and ISPs/advisers, where SMEs expected them to provide eBusiness “how-to”

knowledge, but the ISPs/advisers did not have the ability or desire to provide it. Similarly,

only a few studies have examined the role of governments, industry associations, clusters and

business networks [13; 15; 18 are a few exceptions; 19; 20], but this is more of a by-product

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rather than a focus in many of these studies. This suggests there is a need for research which

also looks beyond SMEs themselves and focuses on the supply side of eBusiness, such as

how SMEs can gain eBusiness know-how and which sources are effective and trusted.

Table 5. Summary of research objectives

Category Description Total

Extent of eBusiness use Examining the extent of SME adoption of various eBusiness technologies

and applications. In some cases, the articles also looked at specific factors

such as firm characteristics which influenced this adoption [21-26].

eBusiness benefits / uses Identifying the (strategic) benefits and/or uses of eBusiness technologies

and applications by SMEs and, in some cases, the specific adoption factors

or barriers affecting these benefits/uses [11; 12; 16; 27-36].

eBusiness drivers /

barriers

Identifying the range of drivers (referred to in some articles as critical

success factors) of and/or barriers to eBusiness adoption/use by SMEs [7;

9; 15; 37-62] or the success factors for pure online SMEs based on lessons

learned from successful dot-coms [63].

eBusiness barriers and

networking/alliances

Comparing perceived eBusiness barriers against whether SMEs participate

in strategic alliances [10; 64], or looking at factors including eBusiness use

which impact on SME owner/manager decisions to participate in formal

networking arrangements [65].

Adoption factor subset Exploring of a subset of adoption factors (and in some cases the

relationships between these factors) and their impact on the adoption of

eBusiness technologies [1; 19; 66-83].

Adoption factor impact on

implementation /

performance

Examining a subset of adoption factors and their impact on the success of

eBusiness implementations [14; 84] or on the business performance of

SMEs [85].

eBusiness integration /

business transformation

Examining a subset of adoption factors (and in some cases the

relationships between these factors) and their impact on the extent of

eBusiness-enabled integration and/or business transformation [86-89], or

categorising SMEs in terms of their extent of eBusiness integration against

eBusiness sophistication [90].

eBusiness strategy Exploring the complex interrelationships between business strategy,

eBusiness strategy and firm performance [91-93] (in some cases proposing

models or reporting on the evolution of how eBusiness strategies are

formed in SMEs [17; 94-96]), or a subset of adoption factors and their

impact on how (if at all) eBusiness is used strategically by SMEs [20; 97].

eBusiness investment

justification

Investigating the approaches to eBusiness investment evaluation and

justification [98] or the benefits, costs and risks of eBusiness investment

by SMEs [99].

Website changes over

time

Examining the extent of changes which occur to SME websites over time

[100].

Government eBusiness

adoption measures

Arguing why the tendencies of government to use purely statistical

measures of SME eBusiness adoption is inappropriate given the

heterogenous nature of SMEs [101].

Knowledge sharing and

co-opetition

Exploring co-opetition among SMEs, issues regarding knowledge sharing

and the role of eBusiness for managing knowledge [102].

Role of external parties on

eBusiness adoption

Examining the role and potential impact of external parties such as

government-funded eBusiness advisors and intermediaries on SME

eBusiness adoption [13; 18], or the effects of interventions initiated by

researchers to improve eBusiness adoption by SMEs, such as providing

eBusiness consulting [4; 5; 8] and developing educational resources [6].

Secondly, a large number of studies focused on identifying adoption factors, which

suggests that there is a need for more novel SME-eBusiness studies which move beyond

adoption factors. To a large extent Wymer & Regan’s [61] consolidation of previous SME-

eBusiness adoption factor research into a single, coherent framework of factors should

obviate the need for studies aimed purely at identifying factors. The exception might be those

which examine other eBusiness applications. For example, Clear & Dickson [74] looked at

SME teleworking practices, Fisher & Craig [51] and Gengatharan & Standing [41] examined

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regional electronic marketplaces for SMEs, and Wong & Aspinwall [60] studied SME

knowledge management adoption factors. These studies identified some adoption factors

which were different to previous research due to the unique attributes of their respective

eBusiness domain. While adoption factor based studies are useful, we posit that the SME-

eBusiness research community has now reached a point where we can progress beyond these

well-established adoption factors and start to conduct research which will help SMEs to

overcome barriers and exploit drivers. Examples, in addition to innovation supply-side

research, might include researchers taking a more active, rather than observational, role in

helping to improve the relevance of eBusiness for SMEs, such as the studies summarised in

section 3.1 and Matlay & Addis’ [8] study of the impact of higher-education-based

consultancy on SME adoption of eBusiness. In section 4 we provide an overview of a

proposed research agenda which might help address this future need by SMEs.

Thirdly, we found that there is a tendency in the SME-eBusiness literature to treat SMEs as

a homogenous group, varying only on the basis of broad demographics such as size and

industry. Some authors [eg, see 8; 46; 56; 97; 101] point out, however, that individual SMEs

vary widely from one another in ways overlooked by many studies, such as strategic focus,

customer orientation, business growth, business processes, owner attitude, social networks,

etc. This is perhaps why studies which treat SMEs homogenously find conflicting results

concerning the correlations between owner, firm and environmental adoption factors and the

uptake of eBusiness technologies and applications [eg, see 61]. This should not come as a

surprise, we posit, because the heterogenous nature of SMEs (and of eBusiness – see section

3.2) implies there are a plethora of combinations of factors potentially influencing eBusiness

adoption and/or use by SMEs. The limited sample sizes in current SME studies could never

hope to discover correlations between a full set adoption factors (if indeed such a list could be

compiled) and the set of SME characteristics describing their heterogeneity. In addition, this

SME diversity also implies that the benefits of an eBusiness application could be perceived

and valued quite differently among SMEs due to their heterogeneity. The challenge for

researchers in future studies (as well as for practitioners) will be determining ways in which

we might match the unique combination of characteristics exhibited by a particular SME with

one or more eBusiness applications. This also suggests that only some (if any) eBusiness

applications might be appropriate for some SMEs, and that non-adoption decisions are

perfectly acceptable and appropriate.

This emphasises the importance of future research which explores how eBusiness solution

providers and advocates (including researchers themselves) can help SME senior managers to

understand and match the benefits of a specific eBusiness application with their unique

characteristics. A proposed research agenda to address this is outlined in the next section.

4. Overview of a proposed future research agenda

The appropriateness of an eBusiness supply-side focused research agenda which focuses

on matching the benefits of a specific eBusiness application with unique SME characteristics

can be seen both from a theoretical and empirical point of view. For example:

• Rogers’ [103] innovation diffusion theories emphasise the essential role of perceived

relative advantage as an innovation characteristic influencing the rate of adoption. He

also points out that the typical innovation-decision process initially involves gaining

knowledge about an innovation (eg, awareness and know-how knowledge) which leads

to an attitude toward the innovation, and then a decision regarding adoption.

CollECTeR ’06, 9 December, Adelaide

• Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an extension of the Theory of

Reasoned Action (TRA) which uses perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as

predictors of attitudes towards use and, consequently, intentions to use [69]. Perceived

usefulness is associated with perceived benefit, because it relates to the extent that an

individual (such as an SME owner/manager) believes a technology or application (eg,

an eBusiness application) will have a performance benefit [76].

• The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is also an extension of TRA and aims to

explain the link between attitudes and behaviour intention, which consequently can

lead to action such as the adoption of an eBusiness application [104]. Harrison et al

[104] explains that a positive attitude toward a behaviour (such as adoption of an

eBusiness application) is based on the degree to which the person believes mostly

positive outcomes (such as benefits) will occur.

• Venkatesh et al [105] developed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of

Technology (UTAUT) which combines eight models including TAM and TPB. Factors

such as relative advantage, perceived usefulness and outcome expectations (which are

all interrelated) underpin the UTAUT’s performance expectancy construct.

• Despite the heterogenous nature of SMEs, empirical findings in the SME-eBusiness

literature consistently show, perhaps unsurprisingly, that perceived benefits (or related

perceived value, relative advantage and usefulness) is one of the key factors correlated

with eBusiness application adoption [eg, see 1; 44; 61; 68 to name a few].

This suggests that unless SME senior managers (or employees) already have a positive

attitude toward eBusiness and know-how, eBusiness solution providers and advocates need to

convince SME senior managers that the SME can obtain benefits, and they need to promote

positive attitudes for potential adoption to occur. We therefore posit that a future research

agenda is needed which investigates and develops programmes, approaches and tools to help

SME owners (or the external parties who might help them) to determine which eBusiness

applications correspond with the unique characteristics of each SME. A brief overview of the

examples of the types of research needed to fulfil this research agenda could include:

• investigating whether it is feasible to formulate cost-benefit analyses (eg, worksheets)

which SMEs senior managers can use to assess the tangible benefits they can expect

from specific eBusiness applications against their unique combination of owner, firm

and environmental characteristics;

• examining whether there are expectation gaps between vendors/consultants and SMEs

in terms of their respective roles regarding education about eBusiness benefits,

performing market analysis work, assessing tangible benefits, etc – and, if so, how can

this expectation gap be addressed;

• investigating the impact of intervention strategies (including education, consultancy,

skills/advice resources, etc) employed by higher education institutions, government,

industry associations, accountants, etc aiming to convince SMEs of eBusiness benefits;

• studying the impact of social and business networks through which SMEs can gain

knowledge about eBusiness applications, the benefits, applicability to their firm, etc;

• developing an understanding of the knowledge sources which SMEs trust (eg,

employees, family, external parties) when considering eBusiness benefits and

appropriateness for their firm; and

CollECTeR ’06, 9 December, Adelaide

• evaluating the effectiveness of different educational programmes and approaches

aimed at helping SMEs to determine whether particular eBusiness applications can

help them achieve benefits and can match their unique characteristics.

5. Conclusion

This paper has presented a preliminary, indicative meta-analysis of SME-eBusiness

research which addressed problems with previous adoption-factor type meta-analyses by

analysing current (post-2000) journal articles from a range of journals in order to identify

trends emerging in the areas of eBusiness applications and countries studied, research

approaches used and primary research objectives focused upon. The paper highlighted a range

of future research opportunities based on these major trends identified, including the need for

research which considers the heterogenous nature of eBusiness applications and SMEs, the

supply-side of eBusiness diffusion, the temporal effects related to SME eBusiness use with

longitudinal studies, and the adoption and use of eBusiness in countries in addition to the

current focus on the UK and USA. Finally, the paper outlined a proposed research agenda

which will have important theoretical and practical implications, because we anticipate that

the research directions suggested will enable the practitioner and research communities to

take a more active role in promoting SME adoption of eBusiness, when specific eBusiness

applications are matched to the unique characteristics of SMEs.

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