Critical Factors in the Development and Introduction

of E-commerce: A Global Approach

Walid Al Natour

C1866627

Cardiff University

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements of the MBA

12th Sep 2019

1
 Abstract
Following the invention of the internet, several industries got disrupted and emerged
over time. E-commerce is one of these industries that emerged over time and started
to take high share from regular off-line shopping. Despite that, there is a significant
gap in e-commerce performance among countries. Several studies showed various
factors that may act as a barrier or enabler for e-commerce. However, none of these
studies proposed a pragmatic approach to assess the countries readiness to establish or
expand e-commerce based on these factors. This study aims to improve the process of
assessment for any possible e-commerce establishment or growth in the future, either
in developed or emerging country. Additionally, it offers a holistic and sequential
approach for e-commerce assessment differentiating it from previously published
studies.

Based on the literature review on e-commerce enablers and barriers, several questions
were developed to conduct six semi-structured interviews aiming to support the
explanatory nature of this study. A thematic approach was adopted to analyse
participants’ responses and identify the seven themes which are political and
economic, internet, logistics and shipment, payment methods, legal regulations, time
of moving and cultural stability. The results of this analysis proposed two categories
of factors, where the first factor’s category was called necessity factors where all of
them are mandatory to be fulfilled in order to establish an e-commerce business.
Moreover, second category were called the sufficient factors category, and it was
found that the more sufficient factors are satisfied, the more developed e-commerce
business is. Additionally, three tools were proposed based on this study to support the
pragmatic approach including “Battery Charge Model”, “Spiral Model” and E-
commerce Tier Matrix. Finally, further study is required to strengthen the proposed
tools and identify new factors that may impact e-commerce establishment and growth.

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Contents
Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………...2
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3!
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................... 4!
Table of Figures............................................................................................................................... 5!
Chapter 1 - Introduction .................................................................................................................. 6!
Chapter 2 - Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 8!
2.1!Political and Economic stability ...................................................................................... 10!
2.2!Telecommunication and technological infrastructure...................................................... 11!
2.2.1 Broadband, internet penetration rate and cost ...................................................... 11!
2.2.2 Internet Speed and Bandwidth.............................................................................. 12!
2.2.3 Device Penetration ............................................................................................... 13!
2.3 Payment method and transactions ................................................................................... 13!
2.4 Legal Regulations............................................................................................................ 16!
2.5 First Mover Advantages and Free Riders ........................................................................ 17!
2.6 Logistics and Shipment ................................................................................................... 17!
2.7 Social-Cultural and Religious Factors............................................................................. 19!
2.8 Social Media Penetration ................................................................................................ 20!
Chapter 3 - Methodology .............................................................................................................. 21!
Chapter 4 - Results ........................................................................................................................ 23!
4.1 Theme 1 - Political and economic stability ..................................................................... 24!
4.2 Theme 2 - Internet Services............................................................................................. 25!
4.3 Theme 3 - Logistics and Delivery ................................................................................... 26!
4.4 Theme 4 - Payment Methods........................................................................................... 27!
4.5 Theme 5 - Legal Regulations .......................................................................................... 27!
4.6 Theme 6 - Moving First or Becoming a Free Rider ........................................................ 28!
4.7 Theme 7 - Cultural and Social Stability .......................................................................... 29!
Chapter 5 - Discussion .................................................................................................................. 29!
Chapter 6 - Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 34!
References ……………………………………………………………………………………….35
Reflective Statement……………………………………………………………………………...49
Ethical Forms……………………………………………………………………………………..53

Table of Figures
Figure 1 - E-commerce evolution.................................................................................................... 8
Figure 2 - Global distribution of armed civil conflict; ICT Development Index .......................... 10
Figure 3 - Evolution of Payment Methods Over Time .................................................................. 14
Figure 4 - Social Media Users in billions ...................................................................................... 20
Figure 5 - Methodology steps........................................................................................................ 22
Figure 6 - Details of the interviewed sample................................................................................. 23
Figure 7 - Battery Charge model ................................................................................................... 24
Figure 8 - Internet affordability in emerging countries ................................................................. 25
Figure 9 - Spiral Model ................................................................................................................. 33
Figure 10 - E-commerce Tier Matrix ............................................................................................ 34

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Chapter 1 - Introduction
No one, including the most optimistic, would think that a product that was created
during the cold war between United States of America (USA) and Russia would have
the power to disrupt different industries, this product that has been referred to as the
Internet. When the internet was invented, it had one objective which is to enable the
communication in case the USA went under a nuclear attack, interestingly, some
consider this as a myth (Cohen-Almagor 2011). Whatever is the reason behind the
development of internet, it is hard to deny its impact and disruptive effect on several
industries such as business, education, hospitality, media and others (Cozzolino,
Verona and Rothaermel 2018). Additionally, it was found that the non-physical nature
of internet accelerates its booming evolution over a short time contrary to other
physical inventions like gasoline engine (Varian 2003).

Rapid and accelerated growth of e-commerce was hugely connected to the fast spread
and usage of the internet and information and communication technology (ICT) (Ilkin
2003). According to a report published by eMarketer in 2017, it was estimated that e-
commerce represents around 16% of total retail sales globally by 2021 (eMarketer
Report 2017). However, despite this significant share of e-commerce globally, it was
found that 70% of these sales are concentrated in the USA and China, while other
potential regions, including the Middle East and Africa (MENA) represented only 2%
of total worldwide e-commerce sales (Grab, Bothe and Gavril 2018). Additionally,
several empirical studies showed different factors that may act as either enablers or
barriers of e-commerce, those factors were mainly focusing on political, legal,
economic and infrastructural variables (Alesina 1992, Molla and Licker 2005).

Nevertheless, no pragmatic approach was proposed or shared in order to assess the

readiness of a country for e-commerce. Additionally, no clear differentiation was
presented and shown between emerging and developed countries requirements as per
the literature review.

Therefore, it was decided to use the explanatory research approach to enrich this area
by proposing three new tools to fill in these gaps and to propose a global approach to
identify and assess the critical factors of establishing and introducing e-commerce. The
first tool “Battery Charge Model” is focusing on enabling a fast skimming of the
country’s factors versus a set of factors that have been categorised as necessity and
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sufficient factors (figure 6). Conditionally to the country’s performance in the Battery
Charge Model, a decision will have to be concluded if further analysis is needed using
the second tool, such further analysis is conditioned by the satisfaction of all the four
necessity factors with no exception. The second tool is called the “Spiral Model”
(figure 8). It represents an elongated comprehensive list of factors that differentiate
between emerging and developed countries requirements in a pragmatic approach.
Lastly, the third tool “E-commerce Tier Matrix” (figure 9) represents a collection of
global parameters and indices that have shown to be impactful and significant on e-
commerce success. Such tool would allow any e-commerce business to compare and
position a country of interest based on its scoring with other countries.
It was believed that proper and wise usage of previously mentioned tools would
improve the process of assessment for any possible e-commerce establishment or
growth in the future. Additionally, it offers a holistic approach for e-commerce
assessment differentiating it from previously published data.

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Chapter 2 - Literature Review
E-commerce is the process of trading and sending of data, services or goods using the
internet (Sila 2019). The emergence of internet played a major role in the development
of e-commerce, while the development of security protocols, Payment Card Industry
(PCI) and Security Standards Council (SSC) acted as the key sparks of e-commerce
evolution (Poladian, Dumitrescu and Tanase 2017). The first officially recorded
electronic order was performed at Pizza Hut e-store in 1994 (The Future History of
Payments, 2018). Following that, the clicks-and-mortar businesses or e-commerce
showed an exponential growth versus bricks-and-mortar businesses, such growth was
mainly attributed to the unique features that e-commerce possesses represented by its
ubiquity, global scope and universal standards. Interestingly, the evolution of e-
commerce embraced three different stages over time as shown in figure 1, which were
(1) innovation (1995-2000), (2) Consolidation (2001-2006) and (3) the reinvention
(2007 – present) (D’Andrea, Ferri and Grifoni 2014). Moreover, the development of
information and communication technology (ITC) allowed further data collection
during and after customer interaction. Such developments accelerated the maturation
of other technologies like Web 3. and enhanced interactivity, richness, information
density, personalisation, social media and technology (Jonsson et al. 2019).
Figure 1 - E-commerce evolution

(Source: D’Andrea, Ferri and Grifoni (2014)

Several types of e-commerce evolved over time based on the nature and focus of
involved organisations and actors (Laudon and Traver 2014). An exchange between a
business and a customer is known as B2C (Business to Customer), while, if it is
between two businesses with a supply chain focus it is called B2B (Business to
Business). Finally, if the exchange is between two consumers in a community, it is
called C2C (Customer to Customer) (Beynon-Davis 2013).

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Interestingly, a report published by eMarketer in 2017 estimated that e-commerce will
represent around 16% of total retail sales globally reaching up to USD 4.5 trillion by
the end of 2021 (eMarketer Report 2017). Despite the encouraging performance and
forecasting, it is important to show the other side of e-commerce world. Few years
following the dotcom boom in 1996, it crashed leaving only 10% in 2013 of those who
were established in 1995 (Laudon and Traver 2014). The lack of financial management
experience, pricing problems, management issues, poor user interface and customers
management experience played major roles in the failure of some promising e-
commerce startups (Guler and Tufan 2013). One year after launching in 2000, the first
global fashion e-commerce, Boo.com, was shut down despite the USD 128 million
fund that was raised (Stockport, Kunath and Sedick 2001). Failure was attributed to
both financial and management issues in addition to the limitation of used flash
technology at that time (Guler and Tufan 2013).

Currently, 70% of worldwide e-commerce is concentrated in USA and China, while

potential regions like the Middle East and Africa (MENA) represent only 2% of total
worldwide e-commerce (Grab, Bothe and Gavril 2018). Despite that, hugely untapped
opportunities in countries like India, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, South Korea
and Saudi Arabia were highlighted in the AtKearney Report (2017).

Pragmatic assessment for potential countries is crucial for the success of any e-
commerce business (Shemi 2012). Two composite measures were proposed by the
Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) in 2002 to assess the commercial readiness of any
country, including connectivity rating measures and other business environment rating
like economic and political stability measures. Three years following this proposal,
empirical data published by the marketing expert at Cleveland University, Prof
Rajshekhar G. Javalgi, proposed four key drivers that should be assessed to ensure
countries’ readiness for e-commerce and e-business which were (1)
telecommunication infrastructure, (2) market infrastructure, (3) user access
infrastructure, and (4) governmental and regulatory infrastructure. What is more
interesting is the work that has been published in 2007 parallel to the reinvention phase
of e-commerce (D’Andrea, Ferri and Grifoni, 2014) by Nir Kshetri, who classified the

9
factors of barriers and enablers, and staged these in to (1) pre-transaction, (2) during
transaction and (3) post transaction factors.

Based on the above, the literature review aims to evaluate each factor separately and
assess how it agrees or disagrees with published study results.

2.1!Political and Economic stability

Political stability and economic performance are robustly interrelated, as political

instability reduces attractiveness and limits infrastructure investments, while weak
economic performance would lead to political instability (Alesina 1992). Statistically,
countries’ GDP level was found to be significantly connected to economic growth and
hence to political stability, which was the highest significant influencer, among other
influencers on e-commerce (Dimictic et al. 2014, Geraldo and Gadroon, 2018).
Countries such as Yemen with around 30 million inhabitants scored 2 out of 10 in the
ITU ICT development index, an information society measuring and benching tool (The
World Bank Report 2015) and currently, it is unclassified as a result of its political
instability which impacted the development of information and communication
technology (Alsobaihi 2017, ITU ICT development index 2017).

Figure 2 - Global distribution of armed civil conflict; ICT Development Index

8.65

8.39
8.18

7.77

7.21

6.67
5.8
5.6

4.63
3.03

E!
IA

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N

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SA

!
K!

Y!

EN
A
A

YP
A

A
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U

KS
D
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IN
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IR

M
A

IN
A

EG
H
M
N

YE
C
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ER
C

The darker the blue is the more conflict Source: ICT Development Index report
and political instability is. (2017)
Source: Bauhaug and Rudolfsen (2015)

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High rates of inflation and unemployment are considered among the main reasons for
economic instability (Ozpence 2017). Thanks to economic and political stability that
put the United Arab Emirates (UAE) versus its neighbours into an advanced position
in e-commerce despite the overall delay in e-commerce introduction in the region
(Grab, Bothe and Gavril 2018).

2.2! Telecommunication and technological

infrastructure
Limited telecommunication infrastructure and technological resources could be
considered as key barriers for e-commerce institutionalisation (Tigre 2003, Molla and
Licker 2005). Besides, it was urged that inappropriate ICT infrastructure, ICT skills
and internet penetration could act as barriers for the pre-transaction stage of e-
commerce while credit card penetration and financial transaction laws could impact
directly the transaction process (Kshetri 2007). It goes without saying that internet
presence is a mandatory prerequisite for e-commerce. A recent work urged that basic
access to the internet in China boosted export performance even before the era of
Alibaba or broadband technology (Fernandes et al., 2019). Moreover, it was found that
localities with better broadband infrastructure have a higher growth rate versus those
with a lower degree of broadband infrastructure (Mack 2012), as broadband does not
only enable more accessible access to internet but also, facilitates faster searches,
comparison and surfing features (Dumicic, Bonic and Zmuk, 2018). Additionally, key
factors like internet penetration rate and subscription cost, internet speed and device
penetration were found to be important and impactful too (Koenig, Wigand and Beck
2002, Lawrence and Tar 2010).

2.2.1 Broadband, internet penetration rate and cost

It was found that the growth of services and industrial sectors to be positively
connected to the increased penetration level of broadband and the internet (Broadband
and the Economy Report – ODEC 2007). Further support for this argument was
presented in statistical analysis for thirty-one European countries showing that the ICT
development indicators, including internet access level, households with broadband
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access, fixed broadband penetration and internet users per 100 people were all
impacting on e-commerce (Dumicic, Bonic and Zmuk, 2018).

Low internet penetration in emerging countries is considered as a major barrier of e-

commerce rise (Elsaid 2017). Interestingly, the increased access to the broadband
network in India led to a significant growth in e-commerce sales volume (Agarwal and
Dixit 2017). However, Internet access and penetration in rural areas, especially in
emerging countries like China and India, is still considered as an additional barrier for
e-commerce growth (Li 2017, Rural E-commerce EY Report 2017). That is why
governmental solutions and support are needed in such areas, similar to what China
did after the success of Taboo Village e-commerce, where it invested in infrastructure,
offered e-commerce villagers cheaper mobile and internet access with 100 MB
broadband access (Carmen 2016). Comparatively, the Indian government started to
take a different approach by enabling more than forty new million users to access the
internet by establishing public WIFI access points in strategic locations (Rural E-
commerce EY Report 2017). Additionally, it was found that lower prices of broadband
service have a significant impact on e-commerce, according to a report that was
published by Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC) in 2015. This report
stated that a 60% internet adoption threshold was connected to an exponential growth
in e-commerce in all countries except KSA.

2.2.2 Internet Speed and Bandwidth

Continuous development keeps treating internet speed as moving target overtime;

simply, what was broadband yesterday is a narrowband today (ITU, 2003). Interned
speed can differentiate and impact either positively or negatively consumers’
experience for the same website (Minocha et al. 2005). For example, the usage of
flashy contents needs a high-speed internet connection to be functional and useful. A
study conducted by Amazon found that their sales declined by 1% by every 100 ms
delay in website loading (Singla et al., 2014). Economically, it was found that doubling
the speed of internet improves the GDP level by 0.3% and that an increase by 10% of
high-speed internet penetration leads to a 0.9-1.5 percentage increase in GDP level
(Apvloaie 2014).
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2.2.3 Device Penetration

Luckily today, telecommunication devices are offered in different forms like personal
computers, portable laptops, smartphones and tablets. (Demirdogmez 2015). The
importance of these devices lies in enabling internet access to conduct different
activities including e-commerce shopping (Oreku 2013). While desktop computers are
still the most popular used devices for internet access, smartphones’ popularity started
to surpass it in particular areas of the world (E-commerce Foundation Report 2018). It
was found that the popularity and convergence from desktops to smartphones was
driven by an increased need for mobility (Oreku 2013). Importantly, however,
smartphone penetration extends beyond easy access to internet, several unique features
of smartphones positioned it as a major cornerstone for e-commerce, as it offers a safer
access device, fewer complications compared to desktops, a location-enabled GPS
feature, and lastly, an additional payment tool (Oreku 2013, Dumicic, Bonic and Zmuk
2018, Shaw and Kesharwani 2019).

2.3! Payment method and transactions

There is no doubt that payment methods witnessed an exciting development over time
as shown in figure 3. Additionally, flourishing internet usage fuelled banks to start
developing new innovative products that support e-commerce (Wenninger 2000).
Currently, there are different channels for payment that could be used in e-commerce
in addition to cash including credit cards, direct debits, prepaid cards, E-wallets, online
banking, invoice statements, mobile payments and cryptocurrencies (The Payers
Report 2017).

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Figure 3 - Evolution of Payment Methods Over Time

Year Payment method

2017 Cross border payment system using blockchain
2017 Blockchain payment system for B2B
2011 Mobile wallet by google
2008 Publishing Bitcoins
2007 PayPass payments introduction
1998 Foundation of PayPal
1994 First online purchase
1994 First mobile payment using SMS
1974 Electronic credit card usage
1973 Usage of SWIFT code
1958 The first credit card was issued
1891 Traveller's check launched by American Express
1717 UK adopted the gold standard
1575 First minted coin in West
960 First paper currency
Source: The Future History of Payments (2018)

According to World Cash Report (2018), cash is still the most used and dominant
payment method despite the considerable advancements in electronic payment
solutions. Such dominancy of cash was attributed to its reliability, availability and
direct settlement feature in addition to the fact that no infrastructure is needed to use
cash which is not the case in electronic payments. Such fact would impose two
questions to cogitate, such as whether cash is a barrier or an enabler or e-commerce.
According to the World Bank, it was estimated that 1.7 billion worth of cash were
unbanked in 2018, which means that many people do not have access to banking
services and credit cards (Demirguc-Kunt et al. 2018), such sizable unbanked
population led to a snail-paced progress in payment systems (World Payments Report,
2018), especially in Africa and South America (World Cash Report, 2018).

Several empirical works urged that low access to credit cards would be considered as
one of the main barriers for e-commerce (Buhalis and Deimezi 2003, Lawrence and
Tar 2010, Shemi 2012, Zaied 2012, Grab, Bothe and Gavril 2018). For example, in
Saudi Arabia, despite the high internet penetration rate, low credit card penetration led
to a stagnant e-commerce performance (COMCEC Report 2015). This was not the

14
case in China, according to a study finding, where only 19% of credit card holders
used cards for e-commerce payments, taking in consideration that having more than
one credit card did not impact the frequency of use, further discussion explained and
referred that to the cash society nature of Chinese (Efendioglu, Yip and Murray 2005).

Contrarily, security concerns related to customer transaction details and personal

information were accused of impacting the electronic payment option negatively and
favoured cash option (Choudhury and Choudhury 2010, Seitz et al. 2017, and Ng
2018). Additionally, further work showed other factors, such as poor internet
security and speed (Makame, Kanng and Park 2002, Koenig, Wigand and Beck
2002), the lack of trust in state institutions when it comes to electronic payment
impacting both reliability and fairness (Unkic, Kulasin and Hojkuric 2019), the lack
of protection for consumers conducting electronic transactions (Agrawal and Wu
2015), and fear from fraudulent activities, sociocultural factors, financial illiteracy
apparent safety (Addressing E-Payment Challenges in Global E-Commerce Report
2018). All above-mentioned factors make electronic payment option harder to attain
in some countries.

Until this moment, cash on delivery is still considered as the most used method
substituting different e-payment channels in several countries, especially in Africa,
India and South America (Kshetri 2007, E-commerce Foundation Report 2018). Even
in rich countries, cash could sometimes be the preferred method of payment. For
example, in the UAE, despite political stability, high-speed internet and mobile
penetration, 80% of consumers still prefer to pay cash on delivery which increases
operative risk, retailers’ cost and currency liquidity (Grab, Bothe and Gavril, 2018 and
Addressing E-Payment Challenges in Global E-Commerce Report 2018). Importantly,
adaptation of e-commerce services to country-specific situations is needed. Cash
payment cannot always be considered as a barrier for e-commerce, for example, when
Uber allowed cash payment in India, an exponential increase touching the ceiling of
45% was noticed outside the core services area (World Cash Report 2018). That is
why e-commerce businesses in emerging economies started to overcome the financial
structure issues by enabling both cash on delivery and collection at postal offices
options (Martinsons 2008). Egypt, in turn, adopted a different method as response to
the low penetration rate of credit cards and high demand on cash on delivery by
15
creating local payment methods like Fawry, Bee card, Orange pay and JumiaPay (E-
commerce Foundation Report 2018).

Finally, the continuous enhancement of technology and higher mobile penetration

facilitated new options for payment that does not need the physical credit card payment
infrastructure, known as mobile payment or m-payment (Simone and Sabbadin 2017).
Such payment method does not only allow for easier access to electronic payment
methods but also benefits those without a credit card account (Addressing E-Payment
Challenges in Global E-Commerce Report 2018). Moreover, it opens up commercial
opportunities even in countries where broadband penetration is low (Economist
Intelligence Unit Report 2018). Simply, m-payment could be considered as a real
enabler option especially in countries that lack a developed broadband infrastructure
(Oreku 2013).

2.4 Legal Regulations

When it comes to e-commerce, different legal issues may flag. Such issues could be
present in different forms, including intellectual property, cyber-attack, copyright
infringements, domain name and import regulation (Menasce 2000, Kshetri 2007, and
Jehangir et al. 2011). Furthermore, it was urged that underdeveloped legal and
regulation systems would act as a primary barrier for e-commerce (Le and Koh 2002,
Javalgi et al. 2005, Brejdak and Szymura-tyc 2013, Unkić, Kulašin and Hojkurić 2019)
a fact that was proved statistically by positioning legal and regulatory barriers as the
second one (Zaied 2012, and Ndyali 2013). Contrarily, it was found that appropriate
legal and institutional environment based on clear policies would generate more trust
and would provide a sense of protection (Makame, Kang and Park 2002, Wang 2014).

In that sense, ASEAN countries are trying hard to fill in these legal and regulation
gaps, despite that and due to difference in their legal approaches, absence of
independent and well-resourced regulators and lack of harmonisation, these efforts are
not showing tangible results (Review of e-commerce legislation harmonisation
UNCTAD 2013). Conversely, in the USA, different states were able to go a long way
with more tangible improvements as a result of uniformity and harmonisation
(Ramanujan and Kesh 2004).

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2.5 First Mover Advantages and Free Riders

Deciding to move the books retailing industry to its online platform granted Amazon
several advantages over its competitors. Global trust, accurate forecasting and
consumer habits understanding were among the key advantages that Amazon gained
(Hietala 2017). However, being a first mover also has its disadvantages too, especially
when it comes to the followers or free-riders that they enjoy the readiness of market
and become more prepared for future uncertainties (Lieberman 2005). To conclude,
moving time to market is crucial for any e-commerce, it is advisable to assess several
parameters before deciding current patents in the market, consumer’s behaviour,
switching cost, market standards and infrastructure, used technology and buyer
education level (Hietala 2017).

2.6 Logistics and Shipment

Fast and accurate delivery are crucial parameters in e-commerce efficiency, difficulties
related to postal code, distribution channels and delivery methods are to be considered
as major barriers for any e-commerce, such problems are highly prevalent in emerging
countries compared to developed ones (Lawrence and Tar 2010). Logistics factor is
one among the key factors that should be deemed well before establishing e-commerce
business (Odedra-Straub 2003). Out of eight factors, four logistics and shipment
factors are considered seriously by consumers while shopping online, including the
offered number of delivery options (7%), ability to pick up at convenience places (8%),
return policy (11%) and delivery speed (15%) (UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper
2014).

Sink et al. (1996) classified logistics activities of services provider into five key
categories which are (1) Transportation, (2) Warehousing, (3) Inventory control, (4)
Ordering process information system and (5) Packaging. It was urged that weak and
improper linkage between warehouses, transportation and delivery are among the key
issues that are impacting emerging countries (Alamro and Tarawneh 2011, Agrawal
and Wu 2015). That is the reason Amazon preferred to invest more in warehouses,

17
delivery and transportation (Moriset 2018). A decision that made half of the US
population enjoy living twenty miles away from Amazon’s warehouses (Sisson 2017).

Currently, shipments to consumers are completed either via logistics service providers
like DHL, FedEx and Aramex or through major online retailers and e-fulfilment
providers similar to Jd.com, Amazon fulfilment and Alibaba. (Delivering the Goods:
E!commerce Logistics Transformation Report 2018). The increased growth of e-
commerce and shipments frequency, especially for small items, is imposing a negative
impact on environment and traffic safety, such negative impact is pushing
governments to exert more pressure on logistics and e-commerce companies to
develop sustainable techniques (Schoeder, Ding and Campos 2016). Another
governmental concern is related to the growth of gig economy in freight industry
which is allowing the unemployed population to fulfil orders, but at the same time, it
puts them under different risks (Mason and Harris 2019).

From firms’ and sellers’ perspectives, last-mile delivery offered a solution for
unbacked population by facilitating cash on delivery option, however, enabling this
payment option was found to be expensive as it increases the return rate and incurs
more cost decreasing the profitability (Delivering the Goods: E!commerce Logistics
Transformation Report 2018). Developed countries are facing a distinct issue
represented by managing the inflated return rate that touched the ceiling of 60% in
some countries (Thomson 2014). According to UPS, the returns process associated
cost may range between 20% to 65% of the total value of sold goods (UPS Report
2015).

Given its importance as a limiting factor in e-commerce, several investments and

financing efforts were carried out to find new solutions to overcome the different
challenges of logistics (Hofmann and Osterwalder 2017). Additionally, various
solutions are planned to be implemented to reduce the cost of last-mile shipping phase
which constitutes around 53% of the whole shipping process cost, such as the usage
of delivery robots and drones especially in rural areas as proposed by jd.com, in
addition to the use of 3D printers that would enhance the supply chain by producing

18
customised on-demand spare parts (3D Printing and the Future of Supply Chains 2016,
The Last Mile Retail Study 2018, PwC Analysis Report 2019).

Finally, no one can challenge the disruption that was imposed by e-commerce on the
delivery enterprise as well as post companies (Alamro and Tarawneh 2011). Several
innovative solutions already have been implemented like pickup stations and lockers
network inaccessible places (Hofmann and Osterwalder 2017, Morisot 2018). Robotic
Process Automation (RPA), which is a technology aims to replace the repetitive task
and traditional labour with automated bots and algorithms, the use of intelligent
transportation systems to improve efficiency and safety on road like that used in
Montreal, predictive maintenance and drones supervision aiming to stabilise delivery
times, warehouse robotisation, where autonomous machines or a cooperation between
robots and staff is implemented to improve efficiency and artificial intelligence that is
expected to have a potential impact of 3.2 out of 5 in transportation and logistics
industry by 2030 (Delivering the Goods: E!commerce Logistics Transformation
Report 2018).

2.7 Social-Cultural and Religious Factors

Personal contact is among the key success factors of retailing in developing countries
(Lawrence and Tar 2010). Buyers tend to treat shopping as a recreational activity
(Kurnia 2000), which makes buying goods online without touching and interacting
with it harder. For example, visiting malls in UAE is considered as an integral part of
population culture and character, where 6 out of 10 visits the mall every week (Grab,
Bothe and Gavril 2018). On the other hand, religious beliefs play an articular role on
consumer behaviour, for example in emerging world where Islamic religion is highly
dominant in different countries, it was found that having operations that contain
interest, gambling, non-halal products and conventional insurance operations would
impact any business in general including e-commerce (Dali et al. 2003). An interesting
example is the middle eastern leading e-commerce Souq.com that acknowledged that
factor by changing the name of Black Friday to White Friday trying to avoid attaching
the black colour to a scared day in a Muslim country (Scott 2014 and Google 2015).

19
In another context, both digital illiteracy and language were also considered as
impactful barriers for e-commerce (Lawrence and Tar 2010, Abbad, Abbad and Saleh
2011, Kshetri, Lawrence and Wang 2015). Less internet penetration and consequently
e-commerce was attributed to the lack of English language knowledge, taking in
consideration that this issue is impacting around 50% of emerging countries population
(G Javalgi et al. 2005, Unkić, Kulašin and Hojkurić 2019). Additionally, lower usage
of broadband and hence access to e-commerce channels was found to be directly linked
to digital illiteracy, especially in rural areas. (Organization of Islamic Cooperation
2015, Rural E-commerce: The Untapped Potential Report 2017).

2.8 Social Media Penetration

Since its launch, social media witnessed Figure 4 - Social Media Users in billions

2.62
steady growth and evolution in user’s

2.46
2.28
2.14
subscription count year over year
1.91
1.59

reaching to 2.6 billion by the end of

2018 (figure 4).
(E-commerce Foundation Report
2018). However, despite the huge 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018(F)

impact and importance of social media on Source: Global E-commerce Report (2018)

economic growth (Papachristou 2013) and digitisation (Hofmann and Osterwalder

2017), some countries like China, Iran, Cuba and Bangladesh are banning it for
political and security reasons (Tuncay 2018). Undoubtedly, the usage of Web 2.0 and
3.0 technologies in social media proved to have a favourable impact on e-commerce
where 5% of global sales were driven by social media channels in 2015 (Scheoder and
Campos 2016), as a result of decision-making process improvement (Hanafizadeh et
al. 2012). It was found that enabling consumers to purchase online using social media
Web 2.0 applications increased brand associations, allowed consumers to share and
read reviews, improved brand reputation and enabled an easier way of payment using
an e-wallet (World Cash Report 2018, Valerio, William and Noemier 2019, Shaw and
Kesharwani 2019).

20
Chapter 3 - Methodology
Several studies have covered wide range of factors that would impact the establishment
of e-commerce in both developed and emerging countries, these studies were more
concerned on classifying the factors into enablers and barriers without assigning a
pragmatic approach on how to assess them (Javalgi et al. 2005, Makame, Kang and
Park 2014, Sila 2019). This study is trying to take a different approach towards these
factors by proposing a new model, called the “Spiral Model”, where the factors will
be classified as a (1) necessity, (2) sufficient and (3) factor of excellence in addition to
two other tools that to be used before and after the Spiral Model. Such new approach
will allow us to segment countries based on their factors’ performance and score into
three different tiers (1) World Leaders, (2) Potential, and High Potential and (3)
Unready.

There is no doubt that e-commerce relies on the adoption level of technology which,
in turn, keeps evolving at a fast pace (Wentzel et al. 2011). Such dynamic nature of e-
commerce supports the adoption of an exploratory approach in this study rather than
conclusive one. Despite being a tricky approach, such chosen approach is expected to
offer new and interesting outcomes to avoid the repetition of results that were
concluded in the previous studies and to pave the way for further new future studies
(Swedberg 2018).

Data were collected through qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews. The main
reason for such approach was the explanatory nature of the study and the need for
flexibility in collecting of information and probing for hidden perceptions (Barribal
and While 1994, Dearnley 2005, and Kallio 2016). That is why while interview
questions were constructed to be used according to the laddering technique (Sørensen
and Askegaard 2007). Hidden tests and symbolic analysis questioning techniques were
used to unveil perceptions and get interesting cases and best practices. Despite that,
the limited number of participants and semi-structured interview make the results less
generalisable. Additionally, while the usage of a questionnaire was one of the other
possible methods that could be selected to conduct this study, there was a hesitation
that adopting such method would impact the exploratory nature of the study and would
21
hinder further in-depth discussion including best practices and hidden concerns.
Despite the higher probability to get more valid and reproducible results using
questionnaire method (Taherdoost 2016) with proper sample size and proper
questions, it was decided to adopt the semi-structured interview research method.

Six in-depth interviews were conducted in total. The sampling population included
active e-commerce managers and
associates in the fields of B2C and
B2B. Invitation for interviews was
sent to potential participants that were
directly or indirectly connected to e-
commerce industries like logistics,
shipment and payment industries. The
population sample was identified
through LinkedIn of managers and
snowball sampling approach at a later
Figure 5 - Methodology steps
stage. Only those who replied and
showed interest qualified for the in-depth interview either through face to face, Skype
or Zoom communication platforms. Interviews’ duration ranged between 30 minutes
to 45 minutes. All participants agreed to sign the consent form as it was a mandatory
step to qualify for the in-depth interview. An electronic transcript of each interview
was prepared separately for further analysis. Thematic content analysis approach was
used to interpret the collected interview data. Such method allowed the drawing of
patterns across the collected data, which was crucial to answer the study question and
to create new theoretical models (figure 5).

22
Chapter 4 - Results
Adopting across the case and with-in case qualitative analysis in this study facilitated
the extrapolation of seven main themes that will be discussed later ordered from the
most critical to the least critical (Ayres, Kavanaugh and Knafl 2003). Moreover, this
analysis aided in proposing three different categories of countries’ e-commerce
performance which are (1) world-leading, (2) Potential and high potential and (3)
unready countries. Such categorisation was based on the seven themes. The seven
themes themselves were classified into groups as shown in the proposed model (figure
9).

Figure 6 - Details of the interviewed sample

Years of Type of E-
Code Industry Position experience commerce
A Marketing and E-
Outdoor/Camping 2 years B2C & B2B
commerce team
B Renewables &
Digital manager 14 years B2C & B2B
Environmental Equipment’s
C Solar energy General Manager 20 years B2B
D Marketing and e-
Global Marketing agency 13 years B2C & B2B
commerce team
E communication &
Multi-national company 13 years B2C & B2B
Website designer
F E-commerce small scale
PhD student 3 years B2C
business

The first group is called the “Necessity Factors” where answering with “Yes” to any
factor would urge not to progress and in e-commerce business. While the second group
is called the “Sufficient factors” where answering with “Yes” would urge a potential
e-commerce enhancement in case it was established, taking in consideration that
sufficient factors have no value and impact in case any of the necessity factors was not
satisfied.

23
 Figure 7 - Battery Charge model

4.1 Theme 1 - Political and economic stability

Interestingly, all participants agreed on two crucial points. The first point insisted that
political stability is a mandatory condition that cannot be jeopardised or replaced at
any stage, as no firm is willing to invest in a country where uncertainty, ambiguity and
equity capital are at high risk. The second point was that political stability is a causative
factor for economic stability and vice versa. Participants A, C and D went beyond that
by extrapolating the impact of political instability on other key factors like
infrastructure level, foreign direct investment and people readiness to accept e-
commerce. Participant B urged that political instability could be on three levels,
including an active war involvement, banning from global interaction and
governmental instability. To support this argument, participant B shared the North
Korean example, claiming that despite political stability, it is still an unattractive

24
country for e-commerce due to its continuous involvement in regional and global
stresses ,in addition to the global isolation policies that it follows. Such two reasons
represent the first two of the four necessity factors that were discussed in the Battery
Charge Model.

4.2 Theme 2 - Internet Services

Internet service availability was not a point of contention in any interview. Simply
securing political and economic stability Figure 8 - Internet affordability in emerging
countries
without internet connectivity will

10.80%
act as a major barrier to establish
any e-commerce business. Internet

4.01%
2.68%

2.21%
factors were divided into three
1.53%

1.48%

1.12%

0.57%
0.33%

main levels including access to

basic internet, which is the fourth
A
IN

YA

EN
N

A
T

Y
IA
YP

KE
IN

EL
A

A
C
D
EN

M
C
D

ST
necessity factor, in addition to
H

IN

U
EG

R
KE

O
R

YE
B

TU
C

EZ
KI
JO

R
O

PA

EN
M

V
subscription price and bandwidth. Source: Source Worldwide web foundation report (2017)

It was urged that access to basic internet services even with low speed is enough as an
enabler for e-commerce, especially in emerging markets. The situation is different in
developed countries where faster internet and developed infrastructure are required
since customers there are more demanding and prefer to surf and check several reviews
before completing the purchase. Moreover, it was believed that the cheaper the offered
internet services and packages, the higher internet penetration rate would occur, and
hence a higher probability for e-commerce success could be predicted. Participant C
shared the case of Egypt, urging that despite the general delay of e-commerce in Egypt,
it has one of the highest electronic GPD in the Middle East due to aggressive price
competition between the three-internet providers, which are Vodafone, O2, and
Etisalat (figure 8). Such attractive packages allowed more than fifty million
subscribers to benefit from internet services and 3G including rural areas.

25
4.3 Theme 3 - Logistics and Delivery
Purchasing of goods online is only one step of several steps. Following this step,
several threads of actions take place in front- and back-end to complete the exchange
process and satisfy the customer. Having said that, logistics and delivery processing
of purchased items have been given a considerable weight being placed as the first
sufficient factors to starts with. Interesting consent among participants was notice
stating that in order to invest in a new country, two prerequisites should be satisfied.
The first prerequisite is the postal code system or at least any implemented system that
makes last-mile delivery easier and possible. The second prerequisite is the road and
transportation infrastructure. Not to forget mentioning that two important factors were
added by some participants are also important, such as international courier firms’
penetration in the country and fuel cost. It was clear from the discussion that such
problems are not major barriers in developed countries, as those countries are now
more concerned about the negative environmental impact of carbon dioxide emission
and excessive usage of plastic and other non-recyclable packaging materials.
Contrarily, consumer behaviour in emerging markets also has a profound impact on
the shipment process as customers are not willing to pay an additional cost for
shipment service.

Participant F supported this argument by claiming that 75% of consumers are willing
to wait for five days or more to get the free delivery option, such option could be good
for certain products where urgency is not a condition, while in case the product is
urgently needed, simply the online purchase will not proceed beyond the searching
step. Another example is from IKEA and the difference in delivery policy for online
purchased items. In the UK, purchasing large items would cost additional £39 to
deliver, while in some emerging countries where this could be a real barrier like in the
UAE, purchasing the same item will cost the customer nothing as long as the free
IKEA membership was activated. This approach shows how consumer behaviour may
impact e-commerce logistics and delivery strategies.

26
4.4 Theme 4 - Payment Methods
An interesting diversion in opinion between participants was witnessed when the
different methods of payment were discussed. Those who were originally from
developed markets insisted that electronic payments, access to credit card and banking
penetration are crucial elements for e-commerce in both developed and emerging
countries. Those who were coming from emerging markets, were more pragmatic in
their approach urging that, while electronic payment and its enablers are important,
cash on delivery could be the only enabler for other countries especially, in emerging
countries, since both low e-trust level and weak local regulations are playing a
significant role in abandoning the usage of electronic payment. However, this
argument was conditional to a proper and in-depth analysis of consumer behaviour and
profitability before activating this option.

Interestingly, all participant agreed on mid-way solutions by considering postal office

payments and capped credit cards as alternative solutions that would offer further
security and trust for different parties. Additionally, there was a call for establishing
new routes of payment like the usage of Cryptocurrencies.

Participant E mentioned that several companies started to accept bitcoins payments as

a competitive advantage versus competition. Accordingly, Expedia started to Bitcoins
payments option in 2014, claiming that they are offering a new option for its
customers. Contrarily, experts referred that tax avoidance could be the key driver that
motivates Expedia activate such options. Whatever was the reason, Expedia decided
later to stop this service due to the high volatility of Bitcoin.

4.5 Theme 5 - Legal Regulations

Based on business size, reachability and audience, three different dimensions were
identified in relation to legal regulations factors. The first dimension was focusing on
local regulations and how this would impact the trust and protection perception
between seller and buyer. The second dimension was focusing more on regional
agreements and broader policies. Participant C urged that the Brexit is going to create
a considerable trade disruption between Europe and the UK. The luxury of having

27
seamless ordering and delivery processes will be halted, things will be totally different
and more expensive in the post-Brexit era, affecting the whole supply chain process
unfavourably. Participant A in his turn confirmed the above claims, mentioning that
Brexit will impose a negative pressure on several key performance indicators for their
e-commerce business, such pressure accelerated the decision to establish a hub in
France to keep a certain level of competitive advantage and maintain customer
satisfaction.

Thirdly, it was proposed that global regulations are more of concern for huge and mega
businesses where exportation, importation and tariffs are considered as the major
elements that would impact the business performance and future growth.

4.6 Theme 6 - Moving First or Becoming a Free Rider

Balancing between the advantages and disadvantages of moving first is one of the most
common challenges that any firm could face. According to the participants, the game
in developed countries is different from that of in emerging countries. Currently,
natural filtration and selection are taking place for those who are entering the e-
commerce late. Participant E shared the example of Sears, an American giant retailer
established in 1892 that just announced its bankruptcy few days ago as a result of its
late entry and wrong strategies. Contrary to that, there was another consent among
participants, that countries in the Asia Pacific and Gulf regions are still able to offer
several significant advantages of first movers, but an important barrier and
disadvantage that should be taken in consideration is the cultural differences,
Participant E again, mentioned that Walmart learned it that the hard way in Japan with
Seiyu when both ignored the Japanese customer shopping and cultural behaviour
leading to a massive failure in the Japanese market. Such failure accelerated the
decision of Walmart to partner with a specialised and well-established local e-
commerce business called Rakuten.

28
4.7 Theme 7 - Cultural and Social Stability
As shown in the battery charge model, cultural stability factor is one of the factors that
goes parallel to all proposed sufficient factors. A striking divided in terms of
participant opinions was noticed regarding culture stability. Participants A, C and F
stated that it is hard to control the culture. Contrarily, Participants, B, D and E showed
an opposing opinion urging that cultural adjustment is necessary by establishing the
right strategies and allocating sufficient budgets. Participant A supported the argument
by referring to Uber case in the Moroccan market, urging that despite political and
economic stability in Morocco, both cultural instability and high attachments to
traditions acted as a barrier for Uber’s adoption in the Moroccan market. Not only this,
Uber drivers were forced to abandon it over time as they were subjected to different
types of bullying and physical harm by local taxis’ drivers under the embracement and
support of the Moroccan Drivers’ Union. Furthermore, the Drivers Union worked on
protecting itself by developing a new platform similar to Uber called “Fiddek”.

Participant D referred to Amazon’s experience in the UAE, claiming that Amazon

played it the right way to enter the new market after ensuring cultural stability. It built
on that by using two important localisation strategies. It enabled both English and
Arabic languages in their new website in addition to constraining products that are
listed in Amazon.ae to Halal products only. For example, searching for an alcoholic
beer at Amazon.ae will be directed to non-alcoholic beer search. Such adaptation for
local culture would embrace more trust with time and could be the first step to build
the biggest e-Halal market in the whole region in the future.

Finally, despite the difference in ranking the importance of culture stability across,
there was an agreement on the impact of English education and digital illiteracy.

Chapter 5 - Discussion

The outcomes of this study showed interesting points of conversion and diversion between
participants and previously conducted research studies. While the seven identified themes
political and economic, internet, logistics and shipment, payment methods, legal
29
regulations, time of moving and cultural stability match well with those identified before,
this study was able to add new and important elements on the micro-level, such
amendments paved the way to propose new models for e-commerce decision making in
the future (Alesina 1992, Molla and Licker 2005, Odedra-Straub 2003, Lieberman 2005,
Lawrence and Tar 2010, Lawrence and Wang 2015, Kshetri 2007, Grab, Bothe and Gavril
2018, Unkić, Kulašin and Hojkurić 2019). Previously, studies covered political stability
from a different angle and assessed it to governmental policies and regulations, lack of
legal environment and readiness of governmental institutions (Zaied 2012). Such a narrow
definition could be the reason why it was ranked statistically as the third barrier in terms
of importance after technical and legal factors (Zaied 2012). Both active war involvement
and isolation of foreign policy were proposed by this study to impose a profound barrier.
Such a proposal made the political stability as the first checking point of e-commerce
assessment and constitute the first two necessity factors out of four as shown in figure 7.
Secondly, it was urged that there is a clear and strong causative relation between political
and economic instability (Alesina 1992). What is important to be mentioned that those
countries that are looking to boost their economy today, should work harder to enable the
development of e-commerce (Hoq, Kamal and Chowdhury 2007) as no firm is interested
in investing in countries where uncertainty and capital risk are high. Based on that
economic stability was proposed to be as the third necessity factor.

Access to the internet is an existential condition and a mandatory precursor for e-

commerce. If there is no access to the internet, customers can not reach to the online
platform, and this is the reason why this factor was on the top of proposed necessity factors
as shown in figure 7. The literature review showed a significant conversion in some areas
versus conducted studies. The first point of conversion was on the significance of having
a basic internet connection to enable e-commerce (Fernandes et al. 2019). The same point
of conversion showed an interesting diversion as the study showed that basic internet in
emerging countries could be enough to light up the first spark e-commerce, but it could act
as a barrier in developed countries since customer needs a fast and steady internet
connection to finalise the exchange deal by surfing effectively and in a short time. Another
point of conversion was highlighted showing how affordability of internet services and
smart devices would lead to higher penetration of e-commerce in emerging and developed
countries (Koenig, Wigand and Beck 2002, Lawrence and Tar 2010).

30
While satisfying all the four necessity factors is a prerequisite to establishing an e-
commerce business as per the study, e-commerce could still suffer from not satisfying the
proposed sufficient factors. It was found that non-optimal logistics and shipment services
would slow down the e-commerce development (Lawrence and Tar 2010). Additionally,
it was urged that investment in both traffic and logistics infrastructure is positively related
to e-commerce and considered as precondition for success (Dumicic, Bonic and Zmuk
2018). This was confirmed in conducted study by unanimity among participants who
claimed that an effective postal code system is still one of the major barriers in emerging
countries, while on the other hand, developed countries issue is represented by it pace to
adopt more sophisticated technologies to enable faster, accurate and seamless process of
shipment.

Some noteworthy conflicting opinions were found between the participants as those
that were based in emerging markets insisted on the need and importance of cash on
delivery option in addition to credit card option, while those that are based on
developed markets urged that there is no need for cash on delivery. The literature
review showed that cash on delivery option is an important solution for e-commerce
growth despite the long list of disadvantages, especially in rural areas where banking
services are limited. For example, Flipkart.com in India responded to the low
penetration of electronic payment by enabling cash on delivery option; this resulted in
an increase by 25% on user base within ninety days (Gnanasambandam et al. 2012).

Touching on legal and regulatory sides and According to Google’s Privacy Chief,
Peter Fleischer, “three-quarters of countries in the world have no privacy” (Abbad and
Saleh 2011 cited form BeSpasific 2007, p.1). Furthermore, it was urged before that
legal and institutional environment would improve trust (Makame, Kang and Park
2002) and sense of protection for consumers and e-commerce businesses (Wang,
2014). The study acknowledges the above claims and the importance of understanding
further elements like business size, reachability and audience. such understanding will
allow more quantification of the future impact.

31
Moving time to market was another dimension that the study added, it was found the
first mover could play a major role in developing the market's infrastructure and make
it readier for more investment in the future (Lieberman 2005), a fact that all
participants urged and agreed on especially for emerging countries where
infrastructure could be developed by the first mover. That is why a wiser and
purposeful assessment of firm capabilities should be carried out before deciding the
entry mode and time.

Another fundamental diversion was found between conducted study and previously
published work concerning social and cultural stability. Statistically, this factor was
deprioritised versus other factors like technical, legal and political (Zaied 2012). The
study results gave this factor a huge impact and ubiquitous feature as it may act as a
barrier for any other factor and at any stage. This is the reason why it was added
vertically on the sufficient factor list as shown in figure 7. Additionally, a conflict was
found between participants on the possibility of changing the culture and to which
extent. While some urged that is hard to be changed, others were biased towards the
ability to change over time, an argument that could be supported, as long as the e-
commerce is offering more centric approach and control by customers (Hall 2014).
This could be the reason why both platform’s language and digital illiteracy could act
as barriers, as they may decrease the control of customer during the shopping process
(Abbad and Saleh 2011).

32
Figure 9 - Spiral Model

Source: Author research and conclusion

Based on above analysis and discussion, two additional tools were proposed, the Spiral
Model, representing a comprehensive list of factors and elements and a pragmatic
approach to assess countries readiness to establish e-commerce (figure 9).
Additionally, E-commerce Tier Index, which is a tool that allows to position the
country’s e-commerce readiness compared to other countries based on different factors
performance (figure 10).

33
Figure 10 - E-commerce Tier Matrix

Source: Global peace index, The World bank, Newzoo's Global Mobile Market Report, World justice report
(2019), logistics index, legal index, FDI country attractiveness index (2018), Governmental openness, E-UNCTAD
B2C E-commerce index 2018 focus on Africa report and Economic freedom index (2019).

Chapter 6 - Conclusion

In conclusion, the fast introduction and adoption of the internet have disrupted several
industries. E-commerce is one of the emerging business that started to replace the
conventional way of shopping. Despite its accelerated growth and evolving share year
over year, it was found both USA and China alone are responsible for 70% of global
e-commerce sales, while other potential countries still suffering to catch up. Such
observation was an eye-opener to start asking, why some countries are doing fine why
others are lacking in e-commerce adoption. Numerous published articles and empirical
works showed that political, economic, legal, infrastructural and cultural factors are
highly connected to a country’s readiness and performance in e-commerce. Despite
that, none of these published works proposed a pragmatic approach or a detailed

34
checklist to assess the countries readiness to establish and introduce a new e-commerce
business. Based on these facts, this study aimed to fill in these gaps by proposing three
different tools while taking into consideration the weight and impact of each factor.

The seven identified themes through this study were mirroring the previously
identified ones in published articles. Despite that, none of the published articles placed
all the seven themes together and discussed these in a pragmatic way. The seven
identified factors ordered from the most impactful to the least were political and
economic stability, internet and communication infrastructure, logistics and shipment
services and infrastructure, payment methods and channels, legal regulations, first-
mover advantages and social media. Interestingly the culture and social stability
themes were given a ubiquitous feature as it may act as a barrier impacting any other
factor at any stage.

This study took a different approach by classifying these factors in two categories by
creating a new tool called “Battery Charge Model”. The necessity category factors
were considered as inevitable factors, and no go for e-commerce was advised if any of
the four factors was not fulfilled. The second category was known as the sufficient
group, where the more factors are fulfilled, the higher the success rate and excellence
are predicted for e-commerce. Second proposed tool was called “Spiral Model”. This
tool offered a detailed list of factors and their elements ordered from the most to the
least impactful. Finally, the “E-commerce Tier Matrix” was the third tool that enables
firms to position and identify its potential and to check how far it is from the next tier.
Such complementary, pragmatic sequential harmony between the three proposed tools
is expected to fill in part of gaps that were not addressed previously.

Finally, the explanatory-driven approach of this study dictated the importance of using
a qualitative method represented by semi-structured interviews. Despite the offered
flexibility in extracting insights, this method may impose some limitations, which
makes the results less generalisable and reliable. The small sample size would augment
this limitation. Despite this, it is still believed that the results this study offered could
act as a nucleus for future quantitative studies which could offer better guidance and
optimisation for the proposed tools.

35
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