the problems Affecting electronic commerce Activities of smes
The basic problems affecting electronic commerce applications of SMEs are inadequacy of
cognitive learning and organizational strategy,financial and distribution problems specific to SMEs, restrictions in supply chain management,reluctance of organizational culture for electronic transformation, problems in the application of information technologies, lack of qualified personnel,resistance of top management against organizational transformation necessitated by applying information technologies, integration problem of new technologies with available systems,customers’ lack of trust towards electronic commerce, and their worries concerning privacy
Janenko (2003) believes that one of the most important problems SMEs face in electronic
commerce activities is “automatic success deception”.According to Janenko, many SMEs have automated several aspects of their work processes through websites and are convinced that success will come automatically (2003). Varianini and Vaturi (2000) have found out similar causes for the problems affecting digitalizing process of SMEs such as to sustain a fixed market information flow, not possessing a flexible organization
structure, not detecting clear targets, and lack of safety and integration. Farhoomand and Lovelock(2001) also, has discovered numerous negative elements affecting electronic commerce in SMEs such as poor income / outcome / profit model,
lack of competition advantage, insufficiency in providing benefits to customer, organizational problems, and the conflict between website and
current business partners.As stated by Kshetri problems affecting electronic
commerce negatively are mostly concentrated on economic and social areas (2007, p. 446).
Economic problems can be outlined as low level of information technology applications, inadequacy of Telecom infrastructure, lack of capital, low level of credit card usage. The social problems are low level of cognitive literacy, foreign language(mainly English) insufficiency, promotion and marketing problems of local websites.
According to Kshetri the problems affecting electronic commerce can be categorized
under three groups such as pre-electronic commerce, in electronic commerce processes,
and post-electronic commerce.Pre-electronic commerce problems are mostly related to the adequacy of a country’s cognitive infrastructure. Credit card usage nationwide and financial problems are observed in the electronic