Effects of business-to-business e-commerce adoption on competitive advantage of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises

Abstract

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce adoption has experienced rapid growth in recent times and has become one of the fastest technology adoptions among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. A firm’s resource endowments influence its B2B e-commerce adoption levels that lead to competitive advantage being gained in proportion to that level of adoption. A questionnaire survey was used to collect data for this research, 315 usable responses were obtained from owners and managers of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Ghana. This research uses structural equation modelling to examine how different levels of B2B e-commerce adoption affects different types of competitive advantage. The main finding is that SMEs can achieve cost reduction that helps them save on costs in their operational activities through higher levels of B2B e-commerce adoption. Implications of the research, its limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.