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Behavioral Influences on E-Commerce Adoption in a Developing Country

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Article  in  Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries · August 2007

DOI: 10.1002/j.1681-4835.2007.tb00213.x

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EJISDC (2007) 31, 4, 1-15

BEHAVIORAL INFLUENCES ON E-COMMERCE ADOPTION IN A DEVELOPING

COUNTRY CONTEXT

Faith-Michael E. Uzoka Alice P. Shemi

Information Systems Group Information Systems Group
Department of Accounting and Finance Department of Accounting and Finance
University of Botswana, Botswana University of Botswana, Botswana
uzokaf@mopipi.ub.bw shemiap@mopipi.ub.bw
Geoffrey G. Seleka
Information Systems Group
Department of Accounting and Finance
University of Botswana, Botswana
selekagg@mopipi.ub.bw

ABSTRACT
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is rapidly gaining a prominent place in the global
marketing matrix. The volume of transactions that are carried out over the Internet globally is
extremely huge. It is estimated that in the next decade, e-commerce activities would be a
major source of foreign exchange, and a key indicator of national development. Studies show
that e-commerce development in developing countries, especially in Africa is comparatively
very low. Infrastructural, economic, and management factors have been previously identified
as contributing to the low level of e-commerce development in developing countries. This
study focuses on behavioural factors in the adoption of e-commerce in developing countries.
The results of the study show that perceived advantages, Internet and complexity,
accessibility, and management support have statistically significant influence on the adoption
of e-commerce, while perceived disadvantages and other facilitating conditions do not
significantly affect the decision to adopt e-commerce. The study results tend to agree with the
theory of planned behaviour, but attitude seems to weigh more than subjective norm and
perceived behavioural control.

Keywords: E-commerce, Developing Countries, Behavioural Factors, Technology Diffusion,

Planned Behaviour.

1. INTRODUCTION
There has been significant research on electronic commerce, but majority of the studies have
focused on the developed countries such as the United States of America, Canada, and
Western Europe (Garcia-Murillo, 2004). However, most of the world’s population exists
outside the borders of these countries. Little emphasis has been placed on studying the
adoption and diffusion of e-commerce in developing countries. These countries tend to lack
the infrastructural, economic, and socio-political framework for the development of
electronic-commerce in comparison to developed countries. However, some developing
countries have initiated strategic moves aimed at achieving an appropriate level of e-
commerce development.
A number of studies have applied the theories of diffusion of innovation (Rogers,
1983) and of planned behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) to e-commerce adoption
especially in developed countries. This study adds to the literature of the application of the

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theory of planned behaviour in developing countries by investigating behavioural factors

affecting the adoption of e-commerce in Africa, using Botswana as case study. Attitudinal
issues are also thought to play a significant role in e-commerce adoption, especially in a
society like Botswana that is said to be xenophobic. Xenophobia could affect behaviour or
attitudes of people towards something new and different (Campbell, 2003). Attitude is
defined as an individual’s positive or negative feelings about performing target behaviour
(Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). It is related to behavioural intention because people form
intentions to perform behaviours toward which they perceive to affect them positively. The
diffusion of innovations theory (Rogers, 1983) suggest that the different dimensions of
attitudinal belief toward an innovation can be measured using the five perceived attributes,
namely; relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability.
Botswana is one of the developing countries of Africa with a fair degree of e-
readiness. A recent study (Ifinedo, 2005) shows that Botswana has an e-readiness of 2.47 on a
five-point scale, only behind South Africa (2.78) and higher than the African mean of 2.22.
Africa shows a very low level of e-readiness in comparison with other regions in the world,
which stand as follows: USA – 4.36, G7 (Group of seven developed western nations) – 3.91,
and East Asia – 2.99. The Global Competitive Report (World Economic Forum, 2007) has
placed Botswana as the 8th most competitive African economy. However, not much study has
been carried out on the level of e-commerce development and attitudinal factors that
influence the adoption of e-commerce in Botswana. Majority of studies conducted on both e-
commerce development and attitudinal factors that influence the adoption of e-commerce
were in developed nations (Hawk, 2004), while predictions point to a significant growth in e-
commerce in developing countries in the first decade of the twenty first century (McConnel,
2004).
In Section 2.0 we review some previous works related to e-commerce development
especially in developing countries. Section 3.0 outlines the research framework, while the
methodology of the study is shown in Section 4. The results of our analysis are presented and
discussed in Section 5.0. In Section 6.0, we present some conclusions/policy implications.

2. REVIEW OF RELATED WORKS

The development of e-commerce is dependent on the development of websites as the
websites are the main gateway to the Internet for any type of e-commerce. The evolution of
the number of www servers worldwide is a useful indicator of the growth of e-business. As at
June 2004 there were over 51,635,000 websites worldwide (I-Ways, 2005). It is suggested in
(Gary et al., 2004) that a necessary precursor to the success of electronic commerce is active
engagement of Internet activities by the population at large. Internet usage is well noticed in
the developed countries such as USA, UK, Europe, etc but not much impact in the developing
nations and more so Third World Countries (UNCTAD, 2004).
E-readiness is fundamental to the adoption of e-commerce. It represents the capability
of nations to create, diffuse, adopt and use various components of the networked economy.
The rankings of e-readiness survey have become an established benchmark for countries
seeking to harness the Internet’s potential to drive business efficiency, improve the provision
of public services and encourage the integration of local economies with the global economy
(Lane et al., 2004). Popular e-readiness variables include: connectivity and technology
infrastructure, business environment, consumer and business adoption, legal and policy
environment, social and cultural infrastructure, and supporting e-services (Economist
Intelligence Unit, 2006). It is noted (Mutula and Brakel, 2006) that e-readiness in developing
countries, especially in Africa is low when compared with those of developed nations, which

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may account for the low development of e-commerce in developing countries. Dada (2006)
carried out a study on e-readiness measures with respect to developing countries, and
concluded that the measures tend to focus on the wider environment while ignoring the level
of the organization. The study proposed a model that gives importance to both e-readiness
(the environment) and technology acceptance (the organization). Molla and Licker (2005)
proposed a model for e-readiness in developing countries based on perceived organizational
e-readiness (POER) and perceived environmental e-readiness (PEER). The study found out
that organizational factors have a greater influence on e-commerce adoption than
environmental factors.
E-commerce development has been staged into three (UNCTAD, 2001) as follows:
i. Readiness: This is the earliest stage of e-commerce development, which deals with
the readiness of people, businesses, infrastructure, and the economy as a whole for e-
commerce activities.
ii. Intensity: This second stage deals with the intensity with which information and
communications technologies are utilized within a country, and the extent to which
electronic commerce activities are undertaken.
iii. Impact: This is the last stage of e-commerce development, at which time e-commerce
begins to make impact on national economy and business activities in the country.
Most developing countries are either at the first (readiness) or second (intensity) stage
of e-commerce development (UNCTAD, 2001). Several factors have contributed to the poor
pace of e-commerce development in developing countries, especially in Africa. Such factors
include: consumer mistrust of local Internet service and products (Pavlou, 2003); uneven
diffusion of Internet across countries and poor ICT infrastructure (Rose and Straub, 2001),
(Garcia-Murillo, 2004), (Dutta and Roy, 2004); unorganized electronic marketing (Rovenpor,
2003); government policies and low credit card penetration (Hawk, 2004). Trust and
economic conditions explain more than 80% of variability in online shopping behaviour
(Mahmood et al., 2004).Tarafdar and Vaidya (2004) studied the strategic and environmental
imperatives of e-commerce adoption in India and identified three conditions under which an
organization adopts e-commerce; namely: external environment, organizational performance
and specific internal management compulsion. Jennex and Amoroso (2002) identified lack of
a planning process for e-business applications, development and testing concerns, and
branding issues among key inhibitors of electronic business, using Ukraine as a case study.
Vatanasakdakul et al. (2004) studied e-commerce adoption in Thailand, and observed that
immediate social and cultural expectations of e-commerce users are not met by e-commerce
technologies, which evolved from the western society and designed to meet the needs that do
not necessarily exist in most developing countries. This fact is supported by Kodakanachi et
al. (2006) who proposed an economic development model for information technology (IT) in
developing countries. The model includes: large foreign investments, government policies
and support for IT, social awareness of IT importance, and efficient use of IT.
This study proposed another factor which is not highly researched in developing
nations; the attitudinal and behavioural issues of the theory of planned behaviour. These are
also thought to play a significant role in e-commerce adoption. Ajzen (Ajzen, 1991) states
that an individuals’ intention to adopt an innovation is determined by three factors, attitude,
subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. The diffusion of innovation theory
proposed by (Rogers, 1983) provides five product or service categories that influence
consumers’ acceptance of new products or service. The factors are: relative advantage,
compatibility, complexity, trialability and risk. Rogers’ work has been applied in various
studies in the USA and Australia: In the USA, one would find the works of (Tornatzky and

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Klein, 1982), (Moore and Benbasat, 1991), (Taylor and Todd, 1995), (Kolodinsky and
Hogarth, 2001), (Kolodinsky and Hogarth, 2001), while (Sathye, 1999) stated that theory of
planned behavior (TPB) has been successfully applied to various situations in predicting the
performance of behavior and intentions, such as predicting user intentions to use a new
software.
The decomposed TPB model uses constructs from the innovation literature (e.g.,
relative advantage, compatibility). It also explores subjective norms (e.g., social influence)
and perceived behavioural control more completely by decomposing them into more specific
dimensions (Tan and Teo, 2000). It provides a comprehensive way to understand how an
individual’s attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control can influence his or
her intention to use electronic commerce. With reference to (Ajzen, 1991), we can assert that
adoption and diffusion of electronic commerce by an individual consumer is determined by
three factors. They are (1) attitude, which describes a person’s perception towards using e-
commerce (2) subjective norms, which describe the social influence that may affect a
person’s intention to use electronic commerce technologies, for example if a friend uses it,
one may also use it; and (3) perceived behavioural control. Attitude is defined as an
individual’s positive or negative feelings (evaluative affect) about performing target
behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). It is related to behavioural intention because people
form intentions to perform behaviours toward which they have positive affect. The diffusion
of innovations theory suggests that the different dimensions of attitudinal belief toward an
innovation can be measured using the five perceived attributes; namely: relative advantage,
compatibility, complexity, trialability, and risk.
Tornatzky and Klein (1982) found relative advantage to be an important factor in
determining adoption of new innovations. In general, perceived relative advantage of an
innovation is positively related to its rate of adoption (Rogers, 1983). However, an innovation
is more likely to be adopted when it is compatible with individuals’ job responsibilities and
value system. Kaynak et al. (2005) studied factors affecting the adoption of e-commerce by
SMEs in Turkey. The study indicates that e-commerce adoption is significantly influenced by
its perceived usefulness, while the effect of perceived limitations was not statistically
significant. Also, industry specific factors did not statistically impact on e-commerce
adoption. Previous research has also indicated that an innovation with substantial complexity
requires more technical skills and needs greater implementation and operational efforts to
increase its chances of adoption (Cooper and Zmud, 1990). Rogers in (Tan and Teo, 2000)
argues that potential adopters who are allowed to experiment with an innovation will feel
more comfortable with the innovation and are more likely to adopt it. (Bauer, 1960) and
(Ostlund, 1974) introduced risk as an additional dimension in diffusion and adoption. A
common and widely recognized obstacle to electronic commerce adoption has been the lack
of security and privacy over the Internet (Shemi and Magembe, 2002). This has led many to
perceive electronic commerce as a risky undertaking.
While existing literature on technology diffusion and planned behaviour stress their
importance in behavioural factors, it is noted that these theories recognize the existence of
other facilitating factors, which in most cases, are existent (especially in the developed
world). In the developing world, these facilitating factors are either lacking or not properly
developed. This study focuses more on the relevance of behavioural factors as
complementing to other factors in determining the intention to adopt e-commerce in a
developing country context.

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3. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
Most innovation adoptions promote several dominant perspectives: managerial imperative,
organizational imperative, technological imperative, and environmental imperative (Molla
and Licker, 2005). Technological imperative models include the diffusion of innovation
(DOI). The DOI model Rogers (Rogers, 1983) sees innovations as being communicated
through certain channels over time and within a particular social system. The rate of adoption
is impacted by five factors: relative advantage, compatibility, triabability, observability, and
complexity. Similar to the diffusion of innovation model is the technology acceptance model
(TAM) (Davis, 1989) which considers complexity, compatibility, relative advantage, ease of
use, and usefulness as key in adoption adoption/acceptance of new technology. A similar
theory is the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991), which identifies three factors
that influence consumers’ acceptance of new products; namely: attitude, subjective norms
and perceived behavioural control. Managerial imperative models seek to explain innovation
adoption based on the innovativeness attributes of managers, their commitment to innovation
and their background (Hage and Dewar, 1973). Organizational models look at internal
characteristics of organizations as key determinants of innovation (Damanpour, 1991).
Environmental imperative models on the other hand, see external influences such as market
pressure, inter-organizational relationships, institutional forces and socio-economic forces as
determinants of innovation adoption (Munene, 1991).
TAM and TPB, both of which have strong behavioural elements, assume that when a
person forms an intention to act, that they will be free to act without limitation. In the real
world, there are many constraints such as limited ability, time constraints, environmental and
organizational constraints, and unconscious habits which limit the freedom to act (Bagoss et
al., 1992). A recent study (Venkatesh et al., 2003) produced the Unified Theory of
Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), which attempts to improve on the predictive
ability of other individual models by identifying communalities and capitalizing on the best
aspects of each model. The models unified in UTAUT include: Theory of Reasoned Action
(TRA), TAM, Motivational Model (MM), TPB, Model of PC Utilization, Innovation
Diffusion Theory, and Social Cognitive Theory.
This study adopts the TPB in investigating the behavioural factors influencing e-
commerce adoption. The components of TPB are attitude, subjective norms and behavioural
control. The TPB model is presented in Figure 1.

Attitude

Intention to Adoption of
Subjective Norm
adopt
ecommerce
ecommerce

Perceived
Behavioural Control

Figure 1: Framework for the Adoption and Diffusion of E-

commerce

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Based on the framework, the following hypotheses were proposed and empirically
tested:
H1: Organizational intention to adopt e-commerce is positively affected by the advantages
perceived to be deliverable from the adoption.
H2: The Internet and other technological complexities tend to impede on the ability of
organizations in Botswana to adopt e-commerce.
H3: The perceived disadvantages associated with e-commerce impact negatively on the
organization’s intention to adopt e-commerce.
H4: Internet accessibility tends to affect the ability of organizations in Botswana to adopt
e-commerce.
H5: A good level management support would encourage individual’s intention to adopt e-
commerce.
H6: Other facilitating conditions such as setup costs and human resource capital would
impact on the organization’s ability to adopt e-commerce

4. METHODS
4.1 Survey Procedure
The data collection instrument for this research is the questionnaire, which was administered
to product/service organizations in both public and private sectors of Botswana. Various
industries that have the potentials of e-commerce adoption in their businesses were included
in the population of the study. They include among others, manufacturing, financial services,
medical, agriculture, education, human services, mining, information and communications
technology, and government. The sampling frame is organized according to job positions in
the organization, which form sampling strata. The following strata are identified for the
purpose of the study: top level management, middle level management, operational level
management, technical staff, administrative staff, operational staff, others. Two hundred
questionnaires were distributed to staff of fifty establishments, which were randomly sampled
from the industrial cities of Botswana namely, Gaborone, Francistown, and Maun; with an
average of four persons sampled from each organization. The essence of stratifying the
establishment is to be able to get a good distribution of response from a cross section of the
organization; thus, increasing the validity of the results. One hundred and twenty six
questionnaires (63 % response rate) were properly filled and used for the purpose of analysis.
4.2 Measures
The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part captured the sample characteristics
such as respondent’s age, sex, type of organization, job classification, size of organization,
and age of organization. The second part of the questionnaire measures twenty six variables
identified as being relevant to the theory of planned behaviour. These experimental
(independent) variables are shown in Appendix 1; while level of e-commerce adoption (ECA)
constitutes the dependent variable. The adoption constructs were measured using multiple
items, which were measured on a five point Likert type scale (ranging from 1=strongly
disagree to 5=strongly agree).
4.3 Analysis Procedure
The data analysis method involved two steps. The initial step was to assess the discriminant
validity of the instrument used to measure the variables in the theoretical model using the
multivariate technique of factor analysis by principal components. The purpose was to
establish the variables in the questionnaire that measure constructs relating to the theoretical
model. The factor analysis was carried out using SPSS 14.0. The method of rotation was the
varimax with Kaiser Normalization. Six factors were extracted using the M-criterium method

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on the basis of a Social Science rule which states that only the variable with loading equal to
or greater than 0.4 and percentage of variance greater than 1 should be considered meaningful
and extracted for factor analysis (Uzoka and Akinyokun, 2005). The primary goal is to obtain
some factors each of which would load on some variables affecting Internet adoption with a
view to determining the impact of each variable on the adoption of ecommerce in Botswana.
Multiple regression analysis was further carried out in order to test the hypotheses relating to
the effects of the behavioural factors obtained in the exploratory factor analysis. The
regression also serves to obtain the explanatory power of the factors on e-commerce
adoption.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data analysis for this study was carried out using SPSS 14.0. Table 1 shows the
following sample characteristics: respondent’s sex, age, and position in the organization; age
and size of organization. The results show that majority of the respondents were males
(63.5%) whose modal age ranges between 25 and 39 years (63.5%), and who were mostly
middle level management staff (24.6%). The organizations were mainly medium sized
(46.0%). Most of the organizations sampled had existed for 5 and 19 years (total of 50%).

No. Percent
Respondent’s Age
<25 20 15.9
25-39 80 63.5
40-60 24 19.0
>60 2 1.6
Respondent’s Sex
Male 80 63.5
Female 46 36.5
Position
Admin Staff 19 15.1
Mid Level Mgmt 31 24.6
Op. Level Mgmt 19 15.1
Op. Staff 16 12.7
Tech. Staff 17 13.5
Top Level Mgmt 16 12.7
Other 8 6.3

Size of Organization
Small 32 25.4
Medium 58 46.0
Large 32 25.4
Uncertain 4 3.2

Age of Organization
Uncertain 3 2.4
<5 31 24.6
5 -9 32 25.4
10 – 19 22 17.5
20 – 29 23 18.3
30 – 40 14 11.1
> 40 1 0.8

Table 1: Sample Characteristics

Exploratory factor analysis was carried out in order to attempt to factor the
experimental variables into factors. Principal component analysis was utilized in the analysis,
while the rotation method was the varimax method with Kaiser Normalization. The Bartlett’s
test produces a χ2 of 1434.978 [>>500] with a significance level of 5.477E-139 [<<0.05],
which shows that the sample taken from the total population under study is adequate. The

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KMO test produces a measure of 0.781[>0.5], which further confirms the adequacy of the
sample. The results obtained from the Bartlett’s test and KMO test also indicate the
suitability of the application of factor analysis. The results of the factor analysis are shown in
Table 2, which shows the rotated component matrix with the loadings that are extracted and
considered relevant to the constructs highlighted in bold. The cut-off for loadings was 0.4.
The exploratory factor analysis shows that twenty four out of the twenty six variables loaded
on six distinct factors, accounting for a total of 61.392% of the variance in the data. Two
variables were dropped in the analysis because they exhibited cross loading. The Cronbach’s
alphas for the factors indicate good reliability values [α > 0.5].
Component
PercAdv IntCompx PercDisad Access MgtSupt FacCond
EBR .842 .016 -.004 .142 -.040 .154
AIM .832 .176 .010 .056 -.007 -.099
ANM .772 .287 .259 .056 -.109 .114
CMR .771 .178 .024 .038 .039 .015
QRC .745 .302 -.054 .131 .093 .063
ICS .660 -.080 .113 .024 .039 .316
COI .507 .047 .065 -.208 .385 .211
LKE .053 .812 -.047 -.040 -.136 .050
WDS .228 .674 .098 -.078 .020 -.197
WDP .129 .658 -.190 .038 .268 -.015
CDN .198 .580 -.027 .110 -.078 .148
CLI .178 .567 .174 -.167 -.118 .334
HCO .038 .002 .764 .128 .115 -.077
MRN .134 -.109 .735 -.155 .339 .073
ISI .008 .192 .627 .238 .342 .184
DAI .101 -.126 .603 .321 .272 .110
CAS .028 .049 .597 .355 .031 .272
CCL .109 .044 .066 .816 .092 -.013
CAI .174 -.088 .142 .768 .208 .129
TRI -.033 -.064 .249 .436 .395 .018
SMC -.024 -.041 .298 .262 .858 .003
LFD .264 .240 -.056 -.007 .713 .377
LSC .008 -.033 .252 .321 .084 .776
HRS -.051 -.079 .379 .354 .313 .632

Eigenvalues 6.190 4.341 1.891 1.483 1.288 1.140

% Variance 16.906 11.486 8.768 8.684 7.81 7.737
Cumm. % 16.906 28.392 37.16 45.844 53.655 61.392
Variance
Cronbach’s α 0.8893 0.7792 0.694 0.7606 0.7274 0.5965
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
A Rotation Converged in 8 Iterations.
Table 2: Rotated Component Matrix
Given below, are the six factors and variables that load on them.

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Perceived Advantages of Ecommerce: Improved and expanded customer service

(ICS), expanded business reach (EBR), access to international consumer markets
(AIM), quicker response to changes in the market (QRC), a new means of collecting
market research data (CMR), low running costs for the operation of the Internet
(COI), increased access to niche consumer markets (ANM)
Internet and Complexity Factor: Web design skills of company personnel. (WDS),
costs of development and computer networking technologies (CDN), limited
knowledge of e-commerce models and methodologies (LKE), company’s logistical
infrastructure (CLI), web developer’s promotional offers (WDP).
Perceived disadvantages of E-commerce: Concerns about online security (CAS),
Internet’s inability to convey sensual information (ISI), data integrity (DAI), and
media reporting of the negative aspects of the Internet (MRN).
Accessibility Factor: Company’s target customers’ levels of access to the Internet
(CAI), company’s target customers’ levels of computer literacy and Internet
awareness (CCL), and technical reliability of the Internet (TRI)
Management Support: Level of funding available for retail development on the
Internet (LFD), senior management’s level of commitment to e-commerce (SMC)
Other Facilitating Conditions Factor: Level of human resources available (HRS), and
low set up costs of on-line operation (LSC)
The factors show some level of agreement with the general factors proposed in the
theory of planned behaviour. The total variance explained by the extracted factors is 61.392
% as shown in Table 2. The remaining 38.608% variation is accounted for by extraneous
factors. Among the extracted factors, perceived advantages of e-commerce, and Internet and
complexity factor account for a considerable degree of variance (16.906% and 11.486%
respectively). The Internet and complexity factor impacts greatly on the level of e-commerce
adoption because of the low level of computer literacy and the inadequacy of available
human capital to operate Internet and e-commerce facilities.
The results of the multiple linear regression analysis are presented in Tables 3-5.
Table 3 shows the summary statistics, which shows adjusted R2 of0.305 and a standard error
of 0.834. A further ANOVA test (Table 4) was carried out on the regression results in order
to determine whether the association between the dependent variable (eca) and the combined
factors is statistically significant. An F value of 10.137 and a significance F of 0.000 was
generated from the ANOVA test. Thus the null hypothesis is rejected, implying that there is a
significant relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable (e-
commerce adoption).
R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
Model
1 .582 .338 .305 .83444
a Predictors: (Constant), FacCond , MgtSupt , Access , PercDisad , IntCompx , PercAdv
Table 3: Model Summary
Model Sum of Df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
1 Regression 42.349 6 7.058 10.137 .000
Residual 82.859 119 .696
Total 125.209 125
a Predictors: (Constant), FacCond , MgtSupt , Access , PercDisad , IntCompx , PercAdv
b Dependent Variable: ECA
Table 4: ANOVA

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Table 5 shows the regression coefficients. The t-values indicate that perceived
advantages, Internet and complexity, accessibility, and management support have statistically
significant predictive capability; which implies that they exert a significant influence on the
firm’s ability and decision to adopt e-commerce [|t| ≥ 2]. The perceived disadvantages and
other facilitating conditions are not statistically significant in a firm’s decision to adopt e-
commerce. H1, H2, H4, and H5 are supported, while H3 and H6 are not supported. The
regression coefficients show that management support factor exert the highest significant
influence (t=5.471, p=.000) followed by Internet and complexity factor (t=3.501, p=.001) and
the Internet access factor (t= 3.333, p=.001).
Unstandardized Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Beta
1 (Constant) 2.824 52.535 .000
PercAdv .175 .174 2.340 .021
IntCompx .261 .261 3.501 .001
PercDisad -7.998E-02 -.080 -1.072 .286
Access .249 .249 3.333 .001
MgtSupt .408 .408 5.471 .000
FacCond -7.086E-02 -.071 -.949 .344
a Dependent Variable: ECA
Table 5: Regression Coefficients
The results show that perceived advantages, Internet complexity, access and
managerial support affect e-commerce adoption. These are mainly organizational, cost and
infrastructural issues. This is consistent with previous findings by (Looi, 2005) and (Molla
and Licker, 2005). (Molla and Licker, 2005) found that at the initial stage of e-commerce
adoption, organisational and environmental factors affect e-commerce adoption in developing
countries. It concludes that human, business, and technology resource dimensions of
organisational e-readiness have a major effect on initial e-commerce adoption in developing
countries. These are referred to as ‘initial generation factors’ as they usually appear at the
initial stage of e-commerce adoption. Results of this study generally reinforce the idea that
these factors influence e-commerce adoption in Botswana.
The β coefficients show that ‘perceived disadvantages’ such as Internet’s
inability to convey sensual information, technical reliability of the Internet, quicker response
to changes in the market, e-commerce as a new means of collecting market research data,
increased access to niche consumer markets, and data integrity issues impact minimally on
the decision to adopt e-commerce. This is supported by (Cooper and Zmud, 1990) who have
classified the IT adoption process into six stages namely; initiation, adoption, adaptation,
acceptance, routinization, and infusion. According to this classification, these factors seem to
fit in the higher stages of the classification but not necessarily the first stage where
Botswana’s e-commerce adoption resides. Equally, ‘other facilitating conditions’ such as low
set up costs of online operation seem to have a negative influence on the adoption of e-
commerce. The respondents believe that the set up costs for online operations are high. This
factor is related to literature on the barriers of technology adoption (Aguila-Obra and Padilla-
Melendez, 2006). This is supported by findings that argue that costs of setting up e-commerce
infrastructure particularly in developing countries in Africa are generally higher than those in
developed countries such as USA, UK and Europe.
The factors being considered are beyond Botswana’s e-commerce level of adoption
and thus they confirm a minimal impact on the decision to adopt e-commerce. Furthermore,

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these issues are behavioural in nature as they portray some of the perceived advantages and
disadvantages of the Internet/e-commerce. The implication is that the theories of planned
behaviour may not be fully relevant in developing nations, such as Botswana. This could be
explained by the fact that key infrastructural and technological capital, which are
fundamental to the adoption of e-commerce are still not fully developed in developing
countries. The low level availability of such facilities would mask behavioural considerations
in the decision to adopt e-commerce.

6. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

The global economy has greatly been influenced by the introduction and adoption of e-
commerce by businesses. Since the beginning of the twenty first century, the level of e-
commerce activities has increased considerably. This research set out to determine the
influence of behavioural factors that impact on the development of e-commerce in developing
countries. Botswana was used as a case study, being one of the countries in Africa with a
good degree of e-readiness and one of Africa’s best performing economy (World Economic
Forum, 2007). The theory of planned behaviour (Molla and Licker, 2005) was applied in
studying the development of e-commerce in a developing country context. The results of the
study show that perceived advantages, Internet and complexity factor, accessibility factor,
and management support have statistically significant impact on e-commerce adoption, while
perceived disadvantages and other facilitating conditions have negative impacts that are not
statistically significant.
The study is a positive step towards validating the theory of planned behaviour
in a developing country context and also improving understanding on B2C ecommerce
adoption in Botswana. In order to improve on the level of e-commerce development in
developing countries, strong attention should be paid to infrastructural issues, especially in
the rural communities where the a good percentage of the population reside. Government
could encourage increase in Internet access, especially at the rural areas by providing
enabling tax allowances for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who are interested in
developing Internet infrastructure in the rural areas. E-commerce thrives on the utilization of
credit cards and other online payment systems. Cash driven economies like Botswana need to
develop a system of participation in the international e-market place by encouraging the
establishment of credit management firms within their economies. It is also noted that though
not statistically significant, perceived disadvantages of e-commerce seem to impact
negatively on the development of e-commerce.
These findings have a practical implication to both organizations and consumers alike.
There is need to educate organizations and sensitize the consumers on the benefits of
ecommerce. Organizations such as Botswana Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(BOCCIM) could take a leading role in practically training its members on what ecommerce
has to offer (Shemi and Magembe, 2002). Some of the training sessions could showcase
demonstrations on video or broadcast on television for their member organizations and the
public. This is important because at the level of intensity of development, it is believed that
behavioural issues would play a significant role in the adoption of e-commerce.
Another critical area that needs pragmatism is the regulatory framework for
ecommerce in Botswana. This needs to be made more available and be aligned to acceptable
world standards for ecommerce activity to increase in Botswana. Government and BOCCIM
can help accelerate B2C ecommerce adoption by selecting the best information, synthesizing
it, and disseminating it to the stakeholders (Moodley et al., 2003) through print and electronic
media. Realizing the potential utilization of ICT in accelerating development in the country,

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the government of Botswana, through the Ministry of Communication, Science and

Technology has spearheaded the development of a National ICT policy that proposes the
creation of electronic trading hubs to enable rural communities to efficiently trade with larger
consumers in the urban areas. Since B2C seems to be more of a local phenomenon (Gibbs et
al., 2002) in contrast to B2B which is globally driven, B2C which is “pulled” by consumer
markets that are mainly local and therefore divergent; it may be possible to derive practical
solutions from all stakeholders in the country. Other practical aspects that have been
mentioned in the national ICT policy and need revising are:-measures to protect online
customers from fraud, including ecommerce laws ensuring legality of online contracts and
transactions; changes to banking laws that will be necessary to ensure that credit card
transactions and foreign currency transactions are enacted and the deregulation of the
telecommunications industry.
The government of Botswana like many developing countries need to put in place
Government to Business (G2B) initiatives in its policies in order to maximize or encourage e-
commerce activities among the private sector (Swami and Seleka, 2005). Since the
government is an economic driver or leader in Botswana and indeed, many developing
countries, its policies and initiatives might significantly impact the diffusion of new
technologies in the country; in this scenario government is a role model.

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8. APPENDIX 1–EXPERIMENTAL VARIABLES

Dependent Variable: Level of E-commerce adoption (ECA)
Independent Variables:
a. Level of funding available for retail development on the Internet (LFD)
b. Senior management’s level of commitment to e-commerce (SMC)
c. Level of human resources available (HRS)
d. Web design skills of company personnel. (WDS)
e. Concerns about security aspects (CSA)
f. Costs of development and computer networking technologies (CDN)
g. Limited knowledge of e-commerce models and methodologies (LKE)
h. Company’s logistical infrastructure (CLI)
i. Company’s target customers’ levels of access to the Internet (CAI)
j. Company’s target customers’ levels of computer literacy and Internet awareness (CCL)
k. Technical reliability of the Internet (TRI)
l. Web developer’s promotional offers (WDP)
m. Low set up costs of on-line operation (LSC)
n. Improved information exchange with customers (IIE)
o. Improved and expanded customer service (ICS)
p. Expanded business reach (EBR)
q. Access to international consumer markets (AIM)
r. Quicker response to changes in the market (QRC)
s. A new means of collecting Market Research Data (CMR)
t. Low running costs for the operation of the Internet (COI)
u. Increased access to niche consumer markets (ANM)
v. High cost of running on-line and off-line operation. (HCO)
w. Concerns about on-line security (CAS)
x. Media reporting of the negative aspects of the Internet (MRN)
y. Internet’s inability to convey sensual information (ISI)
z. Data Integrity (DAI)

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