Adoption of E-commerce in Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Commercial and Service Enterprises in Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

This paper addresses the study of the factors associated with the adoption of e-commerce and e-readiness at the micro, small, and medium-sized commercial and service companies located in Cordoba, Argentina. Given that few empirical studies published on the subject in Latin America are available, this paper represents a contribution to the knowledge of the state-of-the-art of e-commerce in the region. Taking as a starting point the theoretical model developed by Molla and Licker (2004), an exploratory- descriptive study was performed. New indicators are proposed to enrich the model and the analysis of the results. The data comes from a survey implemented in 108 companies in the Córdoba area, between September 2012 and February 2013. The main results indicate that the size of the companies and their level of maturity or experience in the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are the two most influential factors on the differences at the levels of adoption of e-commerce in enterprises.