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An exploratory study of small business Internet commerce issues
Simpson Poona,*, Paula M.C. Swatmanb
Research
An exploratory study of small business Internet commerce issues
Simpson Poona,*, Paula M.C. Swatmanb
a Department of Information Technology, Division of Business, IT and Law, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6153, Australia
b Interactive Information Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
Received 23 September 1997; accepted 23 July 1998
Abstract
Internet adoption by small business is important to the generation of critical mass for Internet commerce ± governments in the
G8 countries are setting up initiatives to ensure that small businesses adopt Internet commerce. This paper reports of a
qualitative study into why small businesses are online. The study found that the small business Internet commerce (SBIC)
phenomenon is still in its infancy, although small businesses are ®nding e-mail useful for business communication and
document transfer; the perception of long-term bene®ts and potential business opportunities is what is driving SBIC; at
present, the uptake of Internet-based ®nancial transactions is still slow; there is almost no integration between the Internet and
internal applications; and, ®nally, that SBIC seems likely to continue to expand in this sector of market only if small ®rms
actually experience tangible bene®ts in the future. # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
Keywords: Internet; Electronic commerce; Small business; Case studies
1. Introduction
Small business Internet commerce (SBIC) has
become an important topic in electronic commerce
research. Small businesses often face dif®culties and
hardship because of the lack of resources and their
fragility in the formative stage, although in many
countries this group provides the foundation for the
entire economy. In view of the fact that they frequently
constitute more than 90 percent of the total number of
businesses in some countries [9], the success of small
business has a direct impact on the national economy.
The de®nitions of Internet commerce are many and
varied. For the purpose of this paper, we have adopted
and modi®ed the description of electronic commerce
created by Zwass [25] to de®ne Internet commerce as:
. . . the sharing of business information, maintaining
business relationships, and conducting business
transactions by means of Internet-based technology
Over recent years, governments around the world
have funded test-bed projects to further Internet commerce
among small businesses (e.g. http//www.ispo.-
cec.be/ecommerce/g7init.htm.). These projects focus
on Internet commerce adoption, technology diffusion,
virtual business networks, societal issues and other
conventional E-commerce applications, such as business-
to-business transactions. At the same time, there
Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-8-9360-6072; fax: +61-8-
9360-2941; e-mail: spoon@murdoch.edu.au
0378-7206/99/$ ± see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
PII: S-0378-7206(98)00079-2
is a growing body of literature focussing on small
business and Internet commerce [1, 2, 3, 4, 14, 17, 21].
Despite variations in topic and approach, all of these
authors have concluded that small businesses are
increasingly using the Internet and that this will
radically change the way some small businesses
operate.
It is important to note that Internet commerce is
quite different from traditional computer applications
in that Internet commerce is inter-organisational and
supports multiple business functions (from human
communication to business transactions). This makes
it dif®cult to extend ®ndings from previous studies in
small business computer applications (e.g. [6, 7, 8, 13,
16, 19, 23]) to Internet commerce, because these
earlier studies concentrate on internal systems which
do not have an inter-organisational focus.
In order to explore current and new issues related to
SBIC, therefore, we conducted a multi-case study of a
selection of small ®rms actively engaged in online
activities. We extended the results from a survey of
SBIC in Australia [18] by inviting additional participants
to share their experiences of Internet commerce
with us interactively.
This study highlights arenas for future research by
focussing on `common' issues. The exploratory nature
of this study does not deal with any speci®c set of
hypotheses.
2. The sampling process
Twenty-three small businesses around Australia
participated in this study. Appendix A contains a
summary of each ®rm.
The sample was chosen across business sectors so
that we could investigate the existence of sectorindependent
issues. This was important to avoid observations
speci®c to a particular sector.
Additional criteria applied when selecting this
group included:
a need for each ®rm to conform to the Australian
Bureau of Statistics [9] description of a small
business: a non-public organisation, having not
more than 20 persons, and where the owner(s) have
ultimate control over the business direction and
decisions;
a willingness on the part of the ®rm owners to
disclose details of their business;
a requirement that the group should contain ®rms
from a variety of geographic locations around
Australia.
It turned out that many in this group belonged to the
`micro-sized' business category (having ®ve or fewer
persons within the ®rm).
3. Research method
Although Poon and Swatman [17] provided a pro-
®le of small businesses online, it was designed to
address several speci®c issues. Thus, any important
issue not covered directly by the survey was missed.
The ®ndings of that survey showed `who uses the
Internet' and `what tools do they use', but fell short of
addressing `what do we need to know to understand
SBIC'. To explore this question, an interactive
approach was needed.
The merits of multi-case study have been discussed
by other information systems (IS) researchers. Benbasat
et al. [5] point out that such approach is suitable
for investigating ``certain types of problems: those in
which research and theory are at their early, formative
stages; and sticky, practice-based problems, where the
experiences of the actors are important and the context
of action is critical.'' The way to conduct multicase
study, as Yin [24] suggests, is to do it the same
way as multiple experiments ± to produce a `replication
logic', rather than the `sampling logic' obtained
from survey data.
Earlier studies (e.g. Ref. [4]) on SBIC have also
made use of multi-case studies to gather data. We
designed this multi-case study as a series of interviews
and site visits. Where site visits were not feasible,
telephone interviews were carried out. Each interview
lasted for about an hour and the discussions were
written up and veri®ed with the participants for accuracy.
A set of open-ended questions were used to focus
the discussion. Each interview was accomplished by:
gathering information on the background of the ®rm
and how it got started on using the Internet;
asking the participants to provide examples of
Internet commerce activities and the bene®ts they
have gained so far; and
10 S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18
examining how the ®rm has changed since it
adopted Internet commerce.
Each interviewee was either the director of the ®rm
or someone directly involved in running the business
(in the case of a partnership).
Despite these attempts to gain the best possible
quality of information, there are still a number of
limitations to such an approach:
there is a lack of quantitative evidence (e.g. ®nancial
®gures) because most participants were not
prepared to reveal these data;
the results are the interpretations of the authors
based on observations and inputs from the interviewees;
and
this is a biased sample which contains those willing
to tell their stories (an inevitable result in such a
commercially competitive area).
However, we attempted to overcome these limitations
by:
comparing the ®nding with other, similar studies in
this area for anomalies; and
probing for further explanation when faced with
inconsistencies or illogical arguments during the
interview.
4. Results and analysis
The data analysis process involved identifying patterns
in the case study reports. These patterns included
issues raised repeatedly across interviews, commonly
found Internet commerce activities, or opinions which
kept re-appearing. Then, we consolidated these patterns
into a small number of categories which form the
sub-headings of the present section.
4.1. Internet commerce benefits
Among this group of ®rms, bene®ts gained from
Internet commerce can only be described as `perceived
bene®ts', that is, bene®ts are based on individuals'
experiences. Such a de®nition is not an
objective measure (as, e.g., the results of a ®nancial
analysis would be), but it is important to the process of
driving ongoing Internet commerce activities. This is
particularly important when there is little these ®rms
can `cash out' on a regular basis through online sales
and transactions.
Iacovou et al. [11] repeatedly identi®ed that perceived
bene®t is one of the critical factors for EDI
adoption among small businesses. We, too, found that
perceived bene®t is a key reason why participants
adopted and continue to use the Internet.We classi®ed
perceived bene®ts into `direct' and `indirect' categories.
Direct bene®ts are readily quanti®able by
means of such techniques as ®nancial data, numbers
of new customers or other quantitative evidence.
Indirect bene®ts are not easily quanti®able but they
have a position effect on the business (e.g. customer
goodwill). Our evidence shows that these can be
further broken down into short- and long-term indirect
bene®ts. For Internet commerce, short-term bene®ts
should be realised within a few months, whereas longterm
bene®ts may take longer and can be unpredictable.
The relationships between these perceived
bene®ts are illustrated in Fig. 1.
Our ®ndings suggested that small businesses are not
reaping signi®cant short-term bene®ts from Internet
commerce. When participants were asked if they had
experienced direct, short-term bene®t from Internet
commerce (more than the connection costs), the
answer was mostly `insigni®cant'. A common such
bene®t is saving of time during information search and
retrieval once the company knows how to start and
where to go (e.g. the URL of the information sought).
Even those who admit gaining short-term bene®ts
(e.g. direct sales), are aware that such bene®ts are
marginal, and often circumstantial (e.g. inconsistent
sales). In fact, sales and online transactions have been
two of the most disappointing issues among this
group. Many believe that either their offerings are
not easily purchased over the Internet, or that they
require some form of face-to-face interaction (e.g.
consultations) in addition to the Web presence.
Looking forward to long-term, indirect bene®ts is
the key motive for ongoing Internet commerce activities.
All participants have experienced some form of
new opportunity since connecting to the Internet (e.g.
an unexpected customer enquiry, forming a new business
network, or accidentally discovering something
which can positively/negatively affect their business).
Although there is no guarantee that these opportunities
will continue in any manner, the explosive
growth of the Internet makes this look both, possible
S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18 11
and promising. Our participants believed that if they
engaged in Internet commerce, they would be more
ready to capture unexpected business opportunities.
For example, the owner of Firm N was approached by
an overseas CD-Romproducerwanting to use hisworks
and prepared to pay him copyright for using them;
FirmWreceived overseas investors' enquiries concerning
local real estatemarkets; and FirmSon one occasion
used e-mail to send off designs to an overseas ®rm.
4.2. A medium for communication
All the twenty-three ®rms considered that the
most useful function of the Internet is as a medium
for business communication using electronic mail
(e-mail). Most of these ®rms feel that the Internet
succeeds in providing what the telephone or fax
services do not offer ± asynchronous communication,
overcoming time and geographic limitations and
enabling electronic document transmission. Cost savings
drove most participants to use e-mail in the ®rst
instance, although most participants did not include
set up and ongoing costs in their calculations of cost
and bene®t.
Most of the ®rms used e-mail to communicate with
customers. Even so, e-mail-based communication
constitutes only a relatively small percentage of their
total communications (often no more than 20% of
communications with external bodies). There are circumstances
where e-mail cannot be used, for example,
Firms L and O felt that they could not send con®dential
materials over the Internet because of legal and
privacy concerns. Other ®rms were unable to use
e-mail as a document transfer mechanism because
their documents are largely paper-based. Some (e.g.
Firm D) said that they needed to conduct highly
interactive discussions with their customers and, therefore,
required instant responses over the telephone
(whether the growth of interactive video conferencing
as higher levels of bandwidth become available will
affect this decision could not, of course, be determined
by this study).
E-mail is not widely used with suppliers (most ®rms
in the sample came from the non-manufacturing sector
and they seldom interact with `suppliers' in the conventional
manufacturing sense). The core business of
most of the ®rms participating in the case studies was
`value-adding' ± meaning that they use information
Fig. 1. A framework of bene®t in the context of small business Internet commerce.
12 S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18
and knowledge to create solutions for their customers.
For example, Firm D (a documentation consulting
company) provides professional services to large companies,
using their intellectual properties as input ± the
supplier of materials is actually the customer. This is
also true for many of the group of `Internet-spawned
businesses' (e.g. ®rms H and R), where the ®rm's
suppliers are also their customers.
Despite this lack of suppliers in the traditional
sense, many ®rms use e-mail to communicate with
business partners or contractors. Many participants
employ contract workers to keep themselves ¯exible.
Others have joint projects with alliance ®rms. For
example, Firm R (an Internet consultant) uses e-mail
to contact sub-contractors for job allocation. Firm T (a
small Human Resources company) uses e-mail to
share information with other human resources consultants
during head-hunting activities. Fig. 2 illustrates
how a small business interacts with its business
partners and customers.
4.3. A lack of systems integration
A common observation across all the twenty-three
cases was that there is no systems integration between
the Internet and ®rms' internal systems (apart from
®rms G and Q). Internal IS functions, such as order
processing are not integrated with Internet applications.
For example, if a customer sends in a purchase
order using e-mail, most ®rms need to process it
manually. While this does not impede ef®ciency at
present, further business growth would make this
approach uneconomical in the long term.
Common reasons for the lack of integration are:
The volume of structured messages is not enough to
justify automation on either ®nancial or developmental
grounds. At this stage, it is cheapest to
process messages manually.
Most of these ®rms do not have in-house systems
development expertise and there are few affordable
turn-key solutions available. Consequently, those
who cannot afford custom-built Web solutions use
what is available in the market.
There is no external drive to encourage or assist
integration, as there often is in EDI relationships
between small businesses and large organisations.
At present, even larger organisations are struggling
with this process using intranet solutions. As intranets
start to mature, there may be a resurgence of
the power relationships that have been seen with
EDI.
A well-quoted model [22] on conventional, ITinduced
business transformation suggests that systems
integration usually starts with internal applications.
This is followed by inter-organisational and, ®nally,
sector-wide transformation. Although Venkatraman's
model does not explicitly assume that these stages are
Fig. 2. E-mail usage between a small business, its customer and business partner.
S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18 13
sequential, this is implied by examples showing organisations
passing through these stages sequentially.
Our observations of SBIC, however, suggest that
there will not be any integration until a ®rm sees
signi®cant bene®ts from such a process, or until
turn-key solutions are suf®ciently affordable. The
integration process requires a small ®rm to re-think
its organisational processes but is likely to bene®t the
®rm through improved ef®ciency. This suggests that
the conventional integration model turns `inside-out'
when applied to Internet commerce. Fig. 3 shows a
model illustrating this modi®ed integration process for
Internet commerce.
4.4. Uptake of financial transactions over Internet
negligible
One of the reasons believed to be impeding the
widespread uptake of the Internet for commercial
activities is a lack of widely adopted transaction
mechanisms [10]. This is also re¯ected in the slow
rate of uptake of Internet-based ®nancial transactions
among this group. Apart from those who use their
homepages to sell products (e.g. ®rms E and U), few of
our participants used the Internet for ®nancial transaction
purposes. Even those who are selling over the
Internet transact only a very small percentage of their
total turnover over the Internet (often quoted as
between 3±10%).
All participants use traditional transaction methods
(i.e. cash, cheques and customer accounts), whether or
not they were also using an Internet-based payment
system. Participants' reasons for not using the Internet
for ®nancial transactions include:
Customers do not use the Internet for ®nancial
transaction because of lack of security. Even though
some customers are prepared to send their credit
card number over the Internet, most still prefer to
fax through their credit card numbers or send in a
cheque.
The traditional ways of transaction are robust and
sound. Since the transaction volume is not high,
cheque-based transactions and customer accounts
still seem suitable to most participants.
Most of the banks or ®nancial institutions are still
experimenting with Internet payment systems and
do not yet provide a full range of services on the
Internet.
There is a lack of drive from banks to carry out
extensive Internet-based ®nancial transactions at
the time of this study.
The experiences of this group indicate that unless
there is a clear advantage over traditional transaction
mechanisms, Internet payment systems will not be
favoured. Therefore, ®nancial institutions need to
build a strong case to small businesses why Internet-
based ®nancial transactions are better than the
current methods from the customer's point of view.
4.5. The influence of industry sector and product
characteristics
Given the samples used in earlier SBIC studies
which mostly comprise non-manufacturing ®rms, it
is logical to deduce that industry sector and product
nature might have something to do with Internet
commerce adoption. If a small business has a high
percentage of customers and competitors online, then
not adopting Internet commerce will be a competitive
disadvantage. This is the view expressed by ®rms
belonging to the IT (i.e. ®rms G and Q) or Internet
services sectors (i.e. ®rms F, H, J and R). In addition,
®rms in these sectors are more `Internet literate' and
IT is a part or the whole of their business. Internetoriented
®rms also need to `show-case' their expertise
to existing and potential customers. The nature of their
business also means that IT can help them to be more
effective in their operations. This drives them to
Fig. 3. The three stages of Internet-to-internal application systems
integration.
14 S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18
explore further opportunities for Internet commerce.
As an extreme example, the director of Firm Q even
suggested than an outage of the telephone network
might not be as quickly detected as the loss of Internet
services.
The nature of a product also appears to have an
effect on Internet commerce adoption. Most often a
small ®rm and its customers use the Internet during the
product acquisition and delivery stages. This is particularly
important for those in the IT and Internet
services sector. They also invest more in systems
which enable them acquire and deliver products more
effectively. For example, Firm G, set up a groupware
link-up with its customers, while Firm Q set up an
electronic delivery service to cut costs in delivery.
Firm F's customers can download products ondemand
and this company also uses the Internet as
a reach agent to offer remote services (e.g. systems
maintenance). Other participants, such as ®rms I, K,
and S, are using the Internet for document transfer (to
exchange auction item images, publicity proposals,
and design documents) because a document can be
delivered faster and is ready to be used immediately.
The effect of industry sector and product nature needs
to be studied further to identify the most important
attributes for Internet commerce bene®t.
4.6. Management as project champion
The importance of management support and enthusiasm
for small business IT success has been documented
in earlier studies (e.g. Refs. [6, 8, 15]).
Although their study was focused on large corporations,
Runge and Earl [20] report that the role of a
product champion is important for the successful
implementation of telecommunications solutions.
We found that direct management involvement was
common among our participants ± management not
only knows, but sometimes assumes a hands-on role in
Internet commerce activities such as answering customer
enquiries and webpage design.
Among the twenty-three ®rms, all but two (®rms J
and P) interviewees were at the most senior level in the
®rm. Even in these cases, the interviewees had very
good support from management (e.g. ®nancial support).
The types of involvement varied ± ranging from
hands-on technical development (e.g. ®rms A, E and
N), to actively initiating Internet commerce projects
(e.g. ®rms L, O, P and T). This pattern was also
described by Barker et al. [4].
As did Runge and Earl, we found that most of these
champions did not have formal IT training, but rather
learned of the Internet through public media, friends,
business partners or even their children, and gradually
gained experience through experimentation. But one
thing is common, they all saw that their ®rms could
make use of this technology to open up new opportunities.
Those who belong to the hands-on group often
come from micro-sized ®rms (e.g. ®rms A, B, E
and N), although larger IT or Internet service ®rms
(e.g. Firm G) also build their own Internet commerce
solutions. There were also examples of micro-sized
®rms not directly involved in hands-on development
(e.g. ®rms I and W). Our observation suggests that
owners of very small ®rms are either interested in
experiencing Internet commerce activities or lack the
®nancial resources to pay for external services. For the
larger ®rms, management, in general, were not
directly involved in the development process beyond
the role of project manager (e.g. Firm P outsourced its
Internet commerce project to external contractors but
retained the project management role). Often they see
their role as manager and not technical staff.
4.7. Applying entrepreneurship to Internet commerce
The de®nitions of entrepreneurship are diverse but,
in general, include the ability to create, innovate, bear
risk, manage and achieve targets [12]. Entrepreneurship
is often used to explain why some small businesses
can compete successfully with larger
companies having better resources. Using this de®nition
of entrepreneurship, we observed that all participants
were applying entrepreneurship to Internet
commerce to varying degrees.
All participants were entrepreneurial, although they
are adopting different models. For example, Firm A
uses hit-rate statistics to update tour information based
on popularity; Firm B closed off its unpro®table
printing business and invested in its webpage and
electronic graphics arm; Firm I explored the feasibility
of setting up an electronic auction environment on the
basis of customer feedback; Firm L explored the
possibility of billing its clients using non-editable
electronic invoices; Firm N expanded its new business
S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18 15
by helping local galleries to host virtual exhibitions;
Firm U set up customised order forms for different
customers; and Firm W incorporated multi-lingual
advertisements into its webpage to attract overseas
buyers. They all saw an opportunity and re-aligned
their business to capitalise on the outcome. Whether
these efforts will eventually succeed is yet to be seen,
but these activities re¯ect the innovative and risktaking
attitude very effectively. One problem encountered
by most participants was that these Internet
commerce activities consume an enormous amount
of time and may actually interfere with a company's
ability to engage in its core business.
Truly effective entrepreneurship needs the assistance
of other factors to turn an idea into a success.
Firm C saw the opportunity to use the Internet as a
Table 1
Summary of the case study participants
Firm ID/business No. of persons/turnover a/years on net Products/services
A/local tour organiser 2‡a few contract guides/(3)/2 years budget local tours
B/graphics design specialist 4‡1 temp staff/(3)/1 year‡ graphics and visual design jobs; used to do
printing work as well
C/engineering drafting firm 9‡2 contractors/(3)/1 year‡ draft works for the building industry
D/documentation consulting firm 7‡ a few contract writers/(5)/2 years‡ corporate documentation services (e.g. corpo
rate manuals)
E/electronic consulting firm 3‡1 casual admin/(3)/1 year‡ designs and manufactures microelectronic
components
F/Internet business service consultant firm 18/(6)/1 year‡ establishes virtual business networks and
electronic yellow pages
G/IT consultant firm 21/(6)/3 years‡ IT solutions provider and project management
services
H/Internet and multimedia consulting firm 6(all P/T)‡a few contractors/(1)/1 year‡ Webpage design and multimedia solutions
I/philately auctioneer 4‡a few contractors/(5)/1 year‡ organises auctions of philately items
J/Internet and webpage consulting firm 4 (Director P/T)‡a few contract tech
staff/(3)/1
provides commercial Internet solutions and
services
K/public relations consultant company 2‡2 contract staff/(3)/1 year‡ provides publicity campaign services
L/legal firm 2‡4 admin assts/(4)/2 years‡ legal services
M/Govt-funded regional business
development organisation
22/(4)/1 year‡ provides information and service support for
regional businesses
N/self-employed IT consultant and artist 2/(1)/2 years provides IT consulting services and artworks.
Also runs a stone fruit orchard
O/patent and trade mark attorney firm 10‡2 admin assts/(6)/3 years‡ offers patent registration and other related
services
P/barcoding and numbering standards
organisation
22 (some interstates)/(6)/2 years‡,
but already on a VAN
provides assessments on barcoding and
numbering for different industries
Q/IT and networking consulting firm 20 (incl. admin assts.)/(6)/5 years‡ provides IT consulting services and
implements solutions
R/Internet consulting firm 2‡a few contract staff/(3)/2 years provides Internet consulting services,
particularly in the database areas
S/printing equipment supplier firm 2‡1 admin assts/(4)/1 year‡ manufactures and supplies padprinting
equipment
T/human resource consultant-sole proprietor 2‡a few contract staff/(5)/3 years‡ provides `head-hunting' and human
resources consulting services
U/bookshop 16‡2 admin assts/(6)/1 year‡ sells academic and professional books
V/record label designer and retailer 1‡a few casuals/(1)/2 years designs record labels for non-mainstream
artists and provides marketing services
W/real estate property company 10/(5)/2 years Buys and sells real estates; also provides
Internet advertising services for vendors
a Amounts in US dollars per annum: (1), less than 60K; (2), 61±120K; (3), 121±240K; (4), 241±420K; (5), 421±900 K; and (6) more than
901K.
16 S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18
document transfer channel, which could have shortened
the project cycle and reduced costs. The owner
planned to use the Internet to send and receive drafting
documents between his company, his customers, and
his business partners. He failed to achieve this aim
because of resistance from both, his customers and
business partners. Although he lobbied hard to persuade
his trading partners to adopt his idea, he
believed that his ®rm did not have the `bargaining
power' to impart change within the trading relationship.
5. Conclusion
Using a multi-case study approach, we have highlighted
the issues of Internet commerce uptake among
Australian small businesses. The reason why our
participants are still connected to the Internet is not
because of tangible pro®ts but rather because of the
promise of future opportunities. In general, we found
management to be positive about Internet commerce
and keen to prepare for the future of full-¯own Internet
commerce. Although industry sector and product nature
seem to have an effect on a ®rm's Internet commerce
adoption strategy, further research is needed to
verify this. Standard applications (e.g. e-mail and
web-browsers) are used in SBIC, with little or no
Internet-to-internal systems integration and, again,
we believe that it would be fruitful to study the
implications of such integration in more detail. SBIC
currently means business communication support and
information access more than online banking and
payment systems. Finally, new developments since
this study was completed (such as the imposition of
very high charges on access to `banner advertising' by
search engine providers) suggests that the level playing
®eld may be about to become less level. How will
this affect small business connecting the World Wide
Web? Clearly, there are many unanswered questions
still to be explored ± we hope that this introduction
will pave the way for other researchers who wish to
build on these ®ndings.
How far into the future small business will fully
embrace Internet commerce is uncertain. But since
governments around the world are eager to see small
business bene®t from Internet adoption, there is hope
that small businesses might not miss out in this round
of IT revolution as they have tended to from the
technological revolutions of the last few decades.
Appendix A
Summary of the case study participants
Table 1.
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Dr. Simpson Poon is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at
Murdoch University, Western Australia, Australia. His research
interests include Internet commerce, small business and Internet
marketing. His publications appear in the International Journal of
Electronic Commerce, International Marketing Review and Journal
of Marketing Management. Dr. Poon is currently Director of the
Centre of Electronic Commerce Application and Research at
Murdoch University.
Professor Paula Swatman is the Director of RMIT University's
Interactive Information Institute, of cross-Faculty establishment
which forms the interface between the University's research and
consulting expertise in interactive IT and the commercial world.
She spent over 10 years working in the banking and information
technology industries and developing her interest in electronic
commerce, before moving into academic life in the late 1980s. She
is one of the founding directors of CollECTeR (Collaborative
Electronic Commerce Technology and Research) ± the interuniversity
E-Commerce research group. Her specialist interests lie
in Internet commerce, supply chain management, E-commerce
evaluation and the implications of the online economy. She has
published and presented widely in both, the academic and
commercial press and her publications have appeared (inter alia)
in the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, the Journal of
Information Technology, the Journal of Information Technology
and People, the International Journal of Electronic Commerce and
the Australian Computer Journal.
18 S. Poon, P.M.C. Swatman / Information & Management 35 (1999) 9±18