A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

 Barrier 

 Management  issues 

 How can barrier be overcome? 

  

1   Psychological 

  

  

  

2   Operational 

  

  

  

3   Organisational 

  

  

  

4   Product/market 

  

  

  Source : Barriers from Hamill and Gregory (1997) and Poon and Jevons (1997). 

 Table  4.5 

 Issues in SME resistance to exporting

 More recent research suggests that SMEs have been relatively slow to adopt the Internet. 

Research by Arnott and Bridgewater (2002) tests the level of sophistication by which SMEs 

are using the Internet (see stage models in  Chapter   5   ). They find that the majority of firms 

are using the Internet for information provision rather than interactive,  relationship-  building 

or transactional facilities. Smaller firms are using significantly fewer Internet tools than their 

larger counterparts. Quayle (2002) has assessed issues considered by SMEs to be strategically 

important. In the UK, 298 SMEs were surveyed. Issues of marketing, leadership and waste 

reduction were given highest priority, and supplier development, financial management, time 

to market and supply chain management were medium priority. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 

lowest priority was given to technology, research and development, e-commerce, customer 

management and purchasing – all closely related to e-business. In further research, Meckel  et 

al.  (2004) analysed e-business adoption by several hundred SMEs in the northwest of England 

and found that fewer than 15% had formal, documented e-business strategies.  

  

  Political  factors 

 The political environment is shaped by the interplay of government agencies, public opinion, 

consumer pressure groups such as CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Email –  

www.

cauce.org

 ) and  industry-  backed organisations such as TRUSTe ( 

www.truste.org 

) that pro-

mote best practice amongst companies. 

  Political  factors 

M04_CHAF6542_06_SE_C04.indd   162

7/23/14   12:18 PM

---

163

Chapter 4  E‑environment

Political action enacted through government agencies to control the adoption of the 

Internet can include:

● 

promoting the benefits of adopting the Internet for consumers and business to improve a 

country’s economic prosperity;

● 

enacting legislation to protect privacy or control taxation, as described in previous 

sections;

● 

providing organisations with guidelines and assistance for compliance with legislation;

● 

setting up international bodies to coordinate the Internet (see Chapter 3).

Political involvement in many of these activities is intended to improve the economic com-

petitiveness of countries or groups of countries. Quayle (2002) summarises six strands 

of the UK government strategy for e-commerce which are intended to increase industry 

competitiveness: