Factors Affecting Egyptian Small and Medium Sized Owners’ Intentions to and Adoption of E-business

Abstract

The revolution in communications and information technology has played an important role in changing people's day to day life, this in fact has reflected on the way people performing business. Nowadays, modern business is being shifted from paper-based, and people-intensive systems toward electronic-based procedures using new communication tools. It is widely known that the adoption of new technology is not established from scratch, it is a product of cumulative factors and actions, that can be treated as a planned behaviour. In an analysis to investigate the intentions towards adoption of e-business as an entrepreneurial activity, this study relies on theoretical framework of Ajzen theory of planned behaviour. According to this theory human action is guided by three kinds of beliefs: beliefs about the future outcomes of the behaviour (behavioural beliefs), beliefs about the normative expectations of others and motivation to comply with these expectations (normative beliefs), and finally beliefs about the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the behaviour and the perceived power of these factors (control beliefs). Purpose- the purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the factors that determine the intention for adopting e-business among small and medium sized firms in Egypt. Design/Methodology/ Approach- A review of the literature on e-business, technology adoption and entrepreneurial orientation and behaviour. Develop an integrated model linking endogenous factors and exogenous factors that determine intention of adopting e-business. Originality/ Value: The paper is among the first studies to examine factors enabling/ hindering the adoption of e-business among small and medium sized firms in Egypt.