E-Commerce Usage by the SMEs in Northern Malaysia

The is a study to assess the state of e-commerceadoption by the SMEs in Northern Malaysia and toexamine the factors that might hinder the adoption.Quantitative Analysis of the data obtained found thatthe general usage of e-commerce among the SMEs inNorthern Malaysia was low; most firms seemed to haveimplemented only basic e-commerce applications.Analysis of benefits realized found that most of theSMEs only gained some of the benefits of e-commerce.Benefits realized were in the areas of customerservice market expansion and back-end efficiencyand inventory management. SMEs who have adoptede-commerce seemed incapable of improving theiroverall performance and profitability. Examination ofthe factors that might hinder the adoption ofe-commerce by the SMEs in Northern Malaysia wasfactors related to organizational governmental andenvironmental barriers. Out of the three factorsonly the factor associated with environmentalbarriers has a significant correlation with theextent of e-commerce adoption. Regression analysisconfirmed that the factor related to environmentalbarriers has significant negative influence on theextent of e-commerce adoption.