Factors Intricate the Adoption of e-Commerce by Small-medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania

Abstract

E-commerce can enable medium, small-sized enterprises in emerging markets to gain greater bargaining power for innovation in Tanzania’s economic growth, despite its limited capital and mobility. The rationale for the e-Commerce definition emanates from the fact that Tanzania has lagged behind in acquiring, adopting and using e-Commerce. Many factors could be responsible for the low usage of e-Commerce among the SMEs in Tanzania. In order to determine the factors that inhibit the adoption of e-Commerce, SMEs were confronted in their quest to indicate the factors intricate the adoption of e-Commerce, among those were: Organizational factor, Environmental factor, Political and legal (regulatory policies) factor and Communication factor, followed by lack of ICTs tools, lack of financial resources, online security and several other reasons. At the same time, the research provides insights into understanding e-Commerce adoption by SMEs in the context of Tanzania.