E-business assimilation levels in Lebanon

Abstract

Developing countries are a potential growth site for e-business expansion and adoption. But despite this promising opportunity, Lebanon has been slow to adopt e-business and the gap between initial and advanced adopters (routinizers) is significant. This paper investigates the factors that explain the differences in e-business assimilation levels. The Perceived e-Readiness Model was adopted and then adapted to fit the Lebanese context. Quantitative data were collected from a large sample of 171 executives from three different industries: banking, retailing, and tourism. While comparing initial adopters to routinizers, our results have shown that routinizers choice to adopt e-Business was based on strategic planning, while initial adopters were mimetic followers.