Determinants of e-commerce adoption in Vietnamese small and medium sized enterprises.

Pham, Long ; Pham, Lan N. ; Nguyen, Duong T.T. 等

INTRODUCTION

In spite of the fact that the Internet has appeared for some decades, e-commerce becomes very popular only with the support of the World Wide Web (WWW) and its relevant technologies (Napier et al., 2001). In essence, e-commerce can be viewed as a process of purchasing, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or information through electronic networks, consisting of the Internet (Turban, Mclean & Wetherbe, 2004). In addition, firms are very likely to utilize the Internet to manage information and integrate e-commerce into their reengineered business processes (Mirchandani & Motwani, 2001). It is obvious that e-commerce is making favorable conditions for economies (especially for developing economies) to implement a shift from the labor intensive paradigm to a knowledge worker paradigm that is strongly expected to be dominant in the future (Mirchandani & Motwani, 2001). Among a variety of benefits reaped by firms, it is contended that e-commerce has been making significant contributions to reduction in costs of doing business, improved product/service quality, new customer and supplier penetration, and generation of new ways or channels for product distribution (Chaudhury & Kuiboer, 2002). Such benefits can be realized in not only large firms but also in SMEs (Huff et al., 2000).

There have so far been a number of studies concentrating on aspects of the technology adoption; however, there are few studying the adoption and utilization of e-commerce in SMEs (Grandon & Pearson, 2004; Mirchandani & Motwani, 2001; Riemenschneider, Harrison & Mykytyn, 2003). Nobody can deny the fact that SMEs play an important role in both developed and developing economies. It should be noted that various potential advantages can be created by e-commerce, but surprisingly SMEs' adoption of e-commerce has still been limited perhaps due to the fact that SMEs have different characteristics from large enterprises. Under the opinion of Seyal & Rahman (2003), distinct characteristics imbedded in SMEs consist of small management teams, strong owner influence, lack of staff in specialized areas such as information technology, multi-functional management, limited control over their business environment, limited market share, low employee turnover, a reluctance to take risks, and avoidance of sophisticated software or applications. Such characteristics lead SMEs to be very slow with respect to technology adoption and have more difficulties in taking advantage of benefits from the technologies than large enterprises (Grandon & Pearson, 2004; Poon & Swatman, 1999).

Vietnam is still a developing economy; however, it has utilized the Internet since mid1990s. Nowadays with the development of IT (information technology) infrastructure, Vietnam has been becoming a country with its high percentage of the Internet usage in South East Asia. The rapid development of communication and information technologies throughout the world generates motivations for the Vietnamese government to make more informed decisions about IT investments. Since 2000, the government has constructed many programs of information and communication development to facilitate more IT investments in Vietnamese organizations. Such programs are aimed at aiding Vietnamese SMEs to be more aware of IT improvements in general and e-commerce in particular. It is strongly believed that doing business internationally, entering into new markets and customers domestically and internationally, and realizing numerous advantages of utilizing the Internet for all business processes have

been making significant contributions to the advent of e-commerce in Vietnam. Furthermore, because of regional strategic importance of Vietnam in South East Asia, utilizing e-commerce is expected to bring about opportunities for Vietnamese SMEs to reap more benefits via the world's business globalization process. Hence, it is very urgent to build a success model for e-commerce adoption consisting of important factors that are very likely to have impacts on Vietnamese SMEs' e-commerce adoption. Thus, the objectives of this study are twofold. First, it will construct such a success model through a comprehensive literature review regarding e-commerce (technology) adoption that is suitable to the Vietnamese setting. Second, it will further propose a set of model hypotheses regarding causal relationships among relevant factors influencing the e-commerce adoption.

BACKGROUND

It should be noted that computer and communication technologies have been continuously upgraded that makes favorable conditions for sophisticated applications to become feasible. As technical impediments are eroding, it is extremely important to generate applications made ready for people to utilize. That is why there is a need for better understanding of reasons in which people are resistant to utilizing information technologies in attempts to establish practical methods aimed at assessing technologies, conjecturing how users will respond to them, and elevating user acceptance through changing the nature of technologies and processes by which they are implemented. In this regard, numerous intention models have been investigated under the perspective of social psychology in efforts to specify the determinants of user behavior.

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

Theory of reasoned action (TRA) is a widely researched model under the perspective of social psychology, which is aimed at specifying the determinants of consciously intended behaviors (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). This theory consists of attitudinal, social influence and intention variables in order to conjecture behavior. Figure 1 presents relationships among the constructs in TRA. By utilizing TRA, it is assumed that the individual's behavioral intention (BI) to perform a behavior is jointly shaped by a person's attitude toward performing the behavior (ATB) and subjective norm (SN), which is the overall perception of what others think the person should or should not do. ATB and SN (used to conjecture BI) are much influenced by behavioral domain. In situations where attitudinal or personal-based influences are stronger, ATB is considered as the dominant predictor of BI, and SN has a little or no predictive power. However, in situations where normative implications are strong, SN is very likely to be the dominant predictor of BI, and ATB might be of lesser importance (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).

It is also hypothesized by utilizing TRA that BI is the only direct antecedent of actual behavior (AB). Additionally, BI is believed to correctly conjecture AB if three boundary conditions stated by Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) are hold: (a) the degree to which the measure of intention and the behavioral criterion correspond with respect to their levels of specificity of action, target, context, and time frame; (b) the stability of intentions between time of measurement and performance of the behavior; and (c) the degree to which carrying out the intention is under the volitional control of the individual.

However, TRA is viewed as a general model which does not mention beliefs that are predictive for a particular behavior. That is why researchers utilizing TRA are required to specify beliefs which are the most important for individuals with respect to the behavior under examination.

Researchers such as Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) and Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) distill five to nine salient beliefs via utilizing free response interviews with representative members of the subject population. The authors go further to recommend that modal salient beliefs for the population should be utilized via considering the most frequently elicited beliefs from a representative sample of the population.

TRA has thus far been successfully applied to a variety of situations to conjecture the performance of behavior and intentions. For instance, TRA is utilized to predict turnover (Prestholdt et al., 1987); education (Fredricks & Dossett, 1983); and breast cancer examination (Timko, 1987). In addition, a meta-analysis of research on TRA was implemented by Sheppard et al. (1988) and the authors contended that the power of TRA regarding its predictive ability is very strong in various situations.

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Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

In spite of the fact that TRA's predictability power is strong across studies, there exist some problems in situations where the behavior under investigation is not controlled in a fully volitional manner. Specifically, Sheppard et al. (1988) mentioned two problems rooted in the theory. The first problem is that one must differentiate among behaviors from intention. Doing so is not easy due to the fact that there are numerous factors besides one's intentions that are likely to determine how the behavior is performed. The second problem is that no provisions are clearly specified in the model in order to examine if the probability of failing to perform is due to one's behavior or due to one's intentions. In efforts to solve such problems, Ajzen (1985) extended TRA by adding another construct to the model, namely, perceived behavioral control. This construct is aimed at predicting behavioral intentions and behavior, and the extended model is named the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

It should be noted that TRA and TPB share many common things. In both models, BI is viewed as a main factor in predicting actual behavior. Furthermore, it is assumed by both theories that individuals are naturally rational and are able to utilize available information in a systematic manner to make their decisions. By taking control-related factors into consideration, it is assumed by TRA that the behavior that is being investigated is under total volitional control of the performer (Madden et al., 1992). Nevertheless, TPB extends TRA's boundary conditions towards more goal-directed actions.

Attitude toward behavior (ATB) can be considered as a person's general feeling of favorableness or un-favorableness for a behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Subjective norm (SN) can be defined as a person's perception that most people who are important to him/her think he/she should or should not perform the behavior in question (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Attitude toward behavior is a function of the product of one's salient beliefs that performing the behavior will lead to certain outcomes, and an evaluation of the outcomes, e.g., rating of the desirability of the outcome.

However, there is a primary difference between these two theories in the sense that TPB has added perceived behavioral control (PBC) as the determinant of behavioral intention, as well as control beliefs that affect PBC. In spite of the fact that it is not easy to evaluate actual control before behavior, it is asserted that TPB can measure PBC (people' perception of the ease or difficulty in performing the behavior of interest) (Ajzen, 1991). PBC is viewed as a function of control beliefs and perceived facilitation. Control belief is viewed as the perception of the absence or presence of necessary resources and opportunities in order to implement the behavior. Perceived facilitation is rooted in one's evaluation about the importance of such resources and opportunities towards gaining the outcomes (Ajzen & Madden, 1986).

PBC is added as an exogenous variable which are believed to have both a direct impact on actual behavior and an indirect impact on actual behavior via intentions. In addition, the indirect effect is grounded on the assumption that behavioral intentions are strongly motivated by PBC. That is why if individuals think that they don't have much control over implementing the behavior due to the fact that there exists a lack of needed resources and opportunities, their intentions to perform the behavior is very likely to be low even if they have favorable attitudes and/or subjective norms towards implementing the behavior. Based on an empirical study, Bandura (1977) contends that individuals' behavior is largely affected by their confidence in ability to implement the behavior. The structural causal relationship from PBC to BI presents the control's motivational influence on actual behavior via intentions.

It is assumed that the direct path from PBC to AB presents an individual's actual control over his or her behavior implementation. This is supported by Ajzen (1985) in the sense that. Firstly, if intention is kept unchanged, attempts needed to implement the behavior are very likely to elevate with PBC. One example is that if there are equally strong intentions to learn how to ride a bike between two persons (assume these two persons try to do so), then the person who is confident in mastering this activity is believed to be more likely to ride the bike than the other person who really suspects his or her ability to do so. Secondly, PBC is often believed to work as a substitute for actual control and moreover perceived control is considered as a realistic estimate of actual control, so PBC is thought to predict AB.

Like TRA, BI predictors' relative significance varies with the behavioral domain. It might be recognized that only ATB has a significant impact on BI in some applications while in other applications, ATB and PBA are significant, and in still others, ATB, SN, and PBC make significant contributions to the conjecture of BI (Ajzen, 1985). In the same vein, the relative importance of PBC and BI in conjecturing AB also varies with the domain of behaviors and situations. It is contended that both BI and PBC are very likely to make significant contributions to the conjecture of goal-directed actions. However, one predictor may be important than the other in a specific situation (application) and only one of the two might be found significant.

It should be noted that in many situations, TPB has been very successful in predicting the performance of behavior and intentions, such as predicting user intentions to utilize a new software (Mathieson, 1991), to implement breast self-examination (Young et al., 1991), to stop using caffeine (Madden et al., 1992), to implement an unethical behavior (Man, 1998), and to implement wastepaper recycling (Cheung et al., 1999). Furthermore, Madden et al. (1992), Man (1998), and Cheung et al. (1999) have shown that TPB has a better predictive power of behavior than TRA.

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Decomposed of Theory of Planned Behavior

It is contended by Taylor & Todd (1995) that in order to better understand the relationships between the belief structures and antecedents of intention, it is required that decomposing attitudinal beliefs be conducted. It is argued by Shimp & Kavas (1984) that the belief's cognitive components can be hardly organized into a single conceptual or cognitive unit. In the same vein, Taylor & Todd (1995) showed, based on the diffusion of innovation theory, that the attitudinal belief has three main characteristics embedded in an innovation, namely, relative advantage, complexity and compatibility, which are likely to influence adoption (Rogers, 1983). In other words, Taylor & Todd (1995) indicated that if TPB is decomposed (the decomposed model of TPB), it would have better explanatory power than the pure TPB and TRA models. Thus, in our study, we argue that e-commerce is viewed as a technological innovation and thus the decomposed TPB model is believed to bring about a more satisfactory interpretation of adoption intention.

It is worth noting that relative advantages refer to the extent at which an innovation offers benefits blurring that its precursor and may consist of factors, such as economic benefits, image, enhancement, convenience and satisfaction (Rogers, 1983). It is thought that relative advantages are positively related to the rate of adoption of an innovation (Tan & Teo, 2000).

Besides relative advantages, complexity refers to the extent at which an innovation is believed to be difficult to understand, to learn or to operate (Rogers, 1983). Further, it can be considered as the degree to which an innovation is rather difficult to understand and utilize. It is very possible for innovative technologies to have a higher rate of acceptance and usage by potential users if they are perceived to be easier to use and less complex. That is why, it is expected that complexity is negatively related to attitude. In many studies, it is shown that complexity plays an important role in the technology adoption decision (David et al., 1989).

Compatibility refers to the degree to which an innovation is aligned with potential adopters' existent values, previous experience and current needs (Rogers, 1983). It is proved by Tornatzkey & Klein (1982) that an innovation will have a very high probability of being adopted, if such an innovation is compatible with an individual's job responsibilities and value system. Hence, it is argued that compatibility is positively related to adoption.

With respect to the structure of normative belief, a number of studies have provided strong evidence to support for the decomposition of normative belief structures (Burnkrant & Page, 1988), while other studies, for example, that of Shimp & Kavas (1984) and Oliver & Bearden (1985), have been not successful to provide strong evidence to support for the decomposition of normative belief structures.

Furthermore, in the opinion of Ajzen (1985, 1991), PBC reflects belief regarding access to resources and opportunities needed to influence a behavior. PBC seems to include two components. The first is facilitating conditions (Triandis, 1980) eliciting the availability of resources needed to perform a particular behavior. Such facilitating conditions may consist of access to time, money and other specialized resources. As a matter of fact, when supporting technological infrastructures have become easily and readily available, e-commerce applications increasingly become more feasible. The second component is self-efficacy (Ajzen, 1991), or the confident in ability to behave successfully in a given situation (Bandura, 1982). A firm which has self-assured capacity to utilize computer networks and the Internet is very likely to adopt e-commerce. To put it another way, this component is related to comfort with utilizing the innovation.

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Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Introduced by Davis (1989), TAM is viewed as an adaptation of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)--especially adapted for modeling and understanding user acceptance of information systems. One of the primary goals of TAM is to bring about an interpretation of factors determining computer acceptance. TAM is expected to be capable of investigating user behavior in a large domain of end-user computing technologies and user populations, but at the same time, be both specifically and theoretically justified. It is ideal that one has a model that is useful not only for prediction but also for interpretation such that people from academic and practitional circles are able to show why a particular system might be unacceptable, and then appropriately corrective actions can be implemented. That is why TAM is mainly aimed at building a foundation for understanding effects of external factors on internal beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. To put it another way, TAM is established in efforts to gain such aforementioned goals via incorporating fundamental variables studied by prior research that are concerned with the cognitive and affective determinants of computer acceptance, and with the utilization of TRA as a foundation for establishing theoretical relationships among these variables.

It is obvious from Figure 2 that TAM focuses on two particular beliefs, namely, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceive ease of use (PEOU), which pays an important role under the perspective of computer acceptance behavior. PU refers to the degree to which a prospective user believes that utilizing a particular system will improve his or her job outcome. This argument is based on the meaning of the word "useful"--"capable of being used advantageously". In organizations, people are generally motivated by raises, promotions, bonuses, and other rewards to have good performance (Pfeffer, 1982). It is argued that a system which is perceived usefulness is very likely to lead a user to believe that there exists a positive use-performance relationship.

PEOU is defined as the degree to which a prospective user believes that utilizing a particular system will be free of efforts. This argument is based on the meaning of the word "ease"- "freedom from difficulty or great efforts". Effort is considered as a limited resource utilized by a person to allocate for various activities for which he or she is responsible. If other things are kept equal, then a system, which is perceived to be easier to utilize than another, will have a higher probability of being accepted by users.

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Extension of Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM)

Hu et al. (1999) conducted a study on the adoption of telemedicine technology by physicians via utilizing TAM. The authors have found relatively low explanation power of TAM regarding constructs: attitude and intention. Thus, they go further to suggest that it would be better to integrate TAM into other IT acceptance models or to incorporate additional factors in attempts to improve the utility of specificity and explanatory in a specific situation.

Researchers on information systems have started utilizing TAM to investigate possible antecedents of Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use towards microcomputer usage (Igbaria, Iivari & Maragahh., 1995). Nevertheless, there are some criticisms of the current TAM research, for instance, still few studies have been conducted to examine relevant factors influencing PU and PEOU (Gefen & Keil, 1998). To deal with this problem, three experiments were implemented by Venkatesh & Davis (1996) to examine the determinants of PEOU. The findings from their study indicated that general Computer Self-Efficacy has a significant impact on PEU at all time, while Objective Usability of the system has a significant impact on user's perception after the users experience directly with the system.

In addition, a TAM2 model was developed and tested by Venkatesh & Davis (2000) by adding numerous determinants to PU under the context of a new model. Theoretically, it is extended based on TAM and such an extension is aimed at explaining PU and Usage Intentions with respect to social influence processes (Subjective Norm, Voluntariness, and Image) and cognitive instrumental processes (Job Relevance, Output Quality, Result Demonstrability and Perceived Ease of Use). In their study, longitudinal data were collected from four different organizations operating in a large range of industries, organizational contexts, functional areas, and types of system being introduced. The findings from the study indicated that all the aforementioned social influences and cognitive instrumental processes have significant impacts on user acceptance of the systems.

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Triandis Model

Like TRA, TPB and TAM, it is assumed by Triandis model that there is an attitude-intention-behavior relationship. However, there are a number of additional relevant variables in Triandis model. In other words, as shown in Figure 6, Triandis model takes into consideration important constructs, such as habit, social factors and facilitating conditions. It contends that the probability of implementing an act is a function of (a) habit; (b) intention to implement the act; and (c) facilitating conditions. The intention of implementing a particular behavior is a function of the (a) perceived consequences; (b) social factors (including norms, roles and the self-concept); (c) affect (Chang & Cheung, 2001). Facilitating conditions are described as necessary resources and supports needed to implement a behavior, such as , time, money, expertise, hardware, software, and network connection to name a few. It should be noted that adding this construct has blurred the importance of TAM, which contends that usage is volitional and that there are no barriers preventing an individual from utilizing an information system (Mathieson et al., 2001). Hence, a number of studies of social and health behavior, and consumer behavior have been conducted based on Triandis model. Recently, Triandis model has been widely utilized in numerous studies to investigate the technology adoption, comprising of the adoption of personal computer, internet/WWW and Executive Information System (Cheng et al., 2002). For instance, Cheung et al. (2000) utilized Triandis model to examine the determinants of users' intention for using the Internet/WWW in working environments and for shopping.

In addition, the results from Chang & Cheung's study (2001) indicated that theoretical constructs embedded in Triandis model are very useful in explaining the intention to utilize the Internet/WWW. Moreover, they extended their model by consisting of constructs, such as perceived complexity, near-term and long-term consequences. Such extension offered a better fit. Specifically, the extended model elicits that affect, social factors, facilitating conditions, and perceived near-term consequences all have positive impacts on the intention to use the Internet/WWW. This can explained in the sense that firstly, under the modified model, it is assumed that perceived complexity is a person's perception, which is an internal factor, and should therefore be put under the construct of perceived consequences. Secondly, while the Triandis model posits that facilitating conditions only affect the actual behavior, the modified model postulates that perceived behavioral control affects both the behavioral intention and actual usage. Thirdly, on the basis of the past studies on TAM, the modified model postulates that perceived complexity has positive impact on affect. That is, the users will feel happier if they perceive the computer technology is easy to use. Fourthly, consistent with TRA that intention is a function of the subjective norm, the modified model assumes that social factors (including social norms and perceptions of the "significant others") have positive impact on affect (Chang & Cheung, 2001).

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Diffusion of Innovation

Innovation diffusion Theory (IDT) is a model developed to explain the process by which innovations in technology are adopted by users. According to Rogers (1995), an innovation can be defined as an idea, practice, or object which is perceived as new by an individual or an organization (Rogers, 1995). Diffusion refers to the process by which an innovation is communicated via certain channels over time among members of a social system. Thus, it is contended that IDT concentrates mainly on interpreting how new ideas and concepts are widely adopted.

IDT takes into consideration a number of attributes associated with technological innovations and these attributes are believed to influence

the innovations' rate of widespread adoption. The following are the definitions of these attributes by Rogers (1995):

+ Relative advantage: the degree to which an innovation is perceived to be better than idea it supersedes.

+ Compatibility: the degree to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.

+ Complexity: the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use.

+ Trialability: the degree to which an innovation may be experienced with on a limited basis.

+ Observability: the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others.

It should be noted that among the aforementioned attributes, only relative advantage, compatibility and complexity are consistently related to innovation adoption (Chen et al., 2000).

In addition, Rogers (1995) conducted a comprehensive review of about 1500 studies in which variants of IDT were utilized in order to examine technological innovations' adoption in a variety of settings, such as agriculture, healthcare, city planning, and economic development. Among the studies reviewed, some concentrated on how such attributes have impacts on behavioral intention and utilization. Later, Rogers (1995) devised his own IDT constructs via specifying the product attributes that are believed to have strongest impacts on adoption.

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

There are numerous definitions of what constitute a SME. Income and number of employees are strongly believed to play an important role in determining if a firm is a small business or not. For instance, SMEs has a maximum of 500 employees in Germany while it has a maximum of 100 employees in Belgium. In Vietnam, SMEs has a maximum of 300 employees.

It should be noted that there are differences between SMEs and large firms in many facets, such as in the information systems infrastructure and SMEs should not be viewed as a simple scaled-down version of large firms (Thong et al., 1996). It is argued that SMEs have to cope with much greater risks in IT implementation than large enterprises due to the fact that they do not have substantial resources for and training on IT (Cragg & King, 1993). In comparison with larger enterprises, SMEs have a general lack of computer knowledge, have inadequate hardware and software, and need to rely on outside resources, experience a lack of financial resources and technical support, have recruitment difficulties, and have a short-range management perspective imposed by a volatile competitive environment (Soh et al., 1992). Although in theory appropriate IS can help SMEs to develop their markets, to increase sales turnover and to raise profitability, severe constraints on financial and human resources often cause SMEs to lag behind large businesses in the use of information technology (Welsh & White, 1981). The benefits of e-commerce are not only for large firms, SMEs can also benefit from e-commerce.

The research findings based on environments of large firms cannot necessarily be generalized to SMEs (Lai, 1994). Since SMEs have distinctive and unique computing needs, as well as different technology acceptance patterns compared with large ones (Rogers, 1995), there is a need to investigate the applicability of the IT adoption models in general and e-commerce model in particular to SMEs.

While many developing countries are making rapid advances in integrating the necessary technological infrastructure to support new and innovative applications such as e-commerce, research related to e-commerce implementation is very scarce when it applies to developing countries.

China, for example, has the third largest Internet user population and is expected to emerge as the largest Internet and e-commerce market in the world. However, China is still slow in integrating e-commerce due to infrastructure deficiencies, particularly with regards to payment systems, government regulations, and telecommunications. Yet, in spite of these deficiencies, most Chinese business managers have a positive attitude toward e-commerce (Stylianou et al., 2003).

India is another country that is beginning to integrate e-commerce technology. Approximately 23% of the top 500 Indian companies have already initiated some form of e-commerce activities, and India's domestic e-commerce market is expected to expand from $65 million U.S. in 2000 to approximately $ 500 million U.S. in 2005. Nevertheless, e-commerce adoption in India has been relatively slow as there are still problems related to online authorization of credit cards, inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, and a relatively small online population (Sharma & Gupta, 2003).

In Latin America, Chile provides a good case study as it has many characteristics that should make e-commerce initiatives a success (Grandon & Pearson, 2004). As of 2004, more than 20% of the Chilean population is Internet users, and approximately 22% of SMEs in Chile are connected to the Internet. This is critical as 80% of the Chilean economy is made up of SMEs and 49% of the employment in Chile is generated by SMEs. According to Grandon & Pearson (2004), The B2B segment accounted for most of the e-commerce in Chile in 2002 and the total sales was approximately $2,470 million U.S.--a 75% increase from 2001, while the B2C segment had the total sales of $40 million U.S. in 2002--a 30% increase from 2001.

The growth of IT in the world has also affected Vietnamese businesses. Considering Vietnam as a developing country, we cannot ignore the advent of e-commerce and the advantages of using this technology in Vietnamese businesses. During the last decade, IT has gained more attention in Vietnam. Since 1998, the widespread use of Internet has begun in Vietnam. Nowadays, people get more involved with the Internet in their daily activities. Accessing to wide variety of information without wasting time and money, make the use of Internet even more important than just checking email. Doing business with international partners, accessing to more international customers and becoming familiar with the advantages of using Internet in business processes, all resulted in the advent of e-commerce in Vietnam. Also due to regional strategic importance of Vietnam in South East Asia, e-commerce and its advantages to the Vietnamese economy seem essential. In short, e-commerce as a recent IS phenomenon could not be ignored by Vietnamese companies. Like other developing countries, Vietnam should open its gates towards the use of e-commerce.

In addition, the rapid growth of IT puts pressure on the Vietnamese government to make more informed decisions about IT investments. As a result, Vietnam's programs on information and communication development have been implemented. The results of such programs revealed the necessity of designing e-commerce development program, improving private sector, doing international benchmarking, expanding IT usage in economic and commercial activities and improving and supporting SMEs.

On the other hand, almost like other countries and also according to the Vietnamese government policies, SMEs are considered as the blackbone of the economy and since SMEs have long been found to be different from large firms in IT implementation, investigating e-commerce adoption models in Vietnamese SMEs seems essential.

This research is aiming to investigate an e-commerce adoption model in the Vietnamese SMEs setting.

Some Studies on SMEs' E-commerce Adoption

In spite of the fact that a number of studies have been implemented regarding IT adoption (see Table 1), e-commerce adoption in the context of SMEs has just recently gained attention by academicians and practitioners. Before 2005, almost all research on e-commerce adoption concentrated on how firms in developed economies integrated ability of e-commerce into their overall business processes. It is worth noting that the theories utilized in these studies are almost the same as the theories utilized in the previous studies of IT adoption. To put it another way, based on variables of IT adoption models, e-commerce adoption models have been constructed.

A research on e-commerce adoption was conducted by Mirchandani & Motwani (2001). In this research, the authors showed that a discriminate function is likely to precisely predict small businesses' e-commerce adoption. Furthermore, the authors examined differences between e-commerce adopters and non-adopters based on structured interviews with 62 top managers in small businesses. Specifically, eight factors of IS adoption tested in other studies (e.g., Cragg & King, 1993; Igbaria et al., 1997; Moore & Benbasat, 1991; Thong, 1999) were re-investigated for e-commerce adoption in small firms. These factors are: (1) CEO's perception of relative advantages from the IS; (2) compatibility between the IS and the firm's work; (3) time needed to plan and carry out the IS; (4) the firm's dependent degree on information; (5) the firm's competition nature; (6) employees' IS knowledge; (7) financial costs related to conducting and operating the IS; and (8) CEO's enthusiasm towards IS (Mirchandani & Motwani, 2001). After such re-investigation, the authors uncovered that factors that are very likely to have impacts on the e-commerce adoption are top management's enthusiasm, compatibility between e-commerce and the firm's work, competitive advantages generated by e-commerce, and employees' knowledge of computer. In addition, factors that are shown not to be significant are the firm's dependence degree on information, time needed to plan and carry out the e-commerce application, the firm's competition nature, and financial costs related to conducting and operating applications of e-commerce.

Riemenschneider and McKinney (2002) conducted a study in order to investigate executives' belief on e-commerce adoption in small firms. The authors show that e-commerce adopters and non-adopters were differentiated by variables of normative and control beliefs. With respect to the behavioral beliefs, it was proved that e-commerce upgrades information distribution and enhances information accessibility, communication, and speed to get works done, thus such factors also make contribution to differentiating between e-commerce adopters and non-adopters.

Lertwongsatien & Wongpinunwatana (2003) investigated SMEs in Thailand. In their study, they specified factors differentiating e-commerce adopters from non-adopters. Such factors consisted of organization size, top management support for e-commerce, existence of an IT department in a firm, perceived benefits and compatibility, and industry competitiveness.

Wong (2003) carried out a research on e-commerce diffusion in Singapore. The author showed that one of the outstanding reasons that firms had not adopted e-commerce was the fact that e-commerce was not considered necessary by top management. In addition, the author indicated that obstacles to e-commerce adoption existent in non-adopters included cost, security and lack of customers and suppliers' readiness.

Grandon and Pearson (2004) conducted a research to examine factors influencing SMEs' e-commerce adoption in the US and Chile. The authors have built a model aimed at explaining how perceived strategic value of e-commerce affects managers' attitudes towards e-commerce adoption. Based on an examination of two different streams of study--(1) factors of perceived strategic value and (2) factors of e-commerce adoption, the authors have developed and validated a predictive model specifying three factors as determinants of e-commerce's perceived strategic value and five factors as determinants of e-commerce adoption in SMEs. In addition, the authors show a significant relationship between e-commerce's variables relating to perceived strategic value and factors that are very likely to have impacts on e-commerce adoption in SMEs. Finally, they contend that the three factors as determinants of e-commerce's perceived strategic value have significant impacts on managers' attitudes toward e-commerce adoption in which organizational support and managerial productivity are considered as the most powerful factors.

A SUCCESS MODEL FOR E-COMMERCE ADOPTION IN VIETNAMESE SMES

Comparison of Theories

In spite of the fact that TAM, TRA, TPB, Triandis, and IDT concentrate on various determinants in efforts to interpret consumers' behavior in technology adoption, there are many common things shared by these theories. First of all, it is assumed by TRA, TPB, TAM, and Triandis that there is an attitude-intention-behavior relationship. Specifically, cognitive and normative or affective beliefs establish attitude, which are in turn believed to have effects on behavioral intention and actual usage of behavior. Secondly, there is no doubt that the perceived usefulness (PU) in TAM is something similar to relative advantage in IDT and, to a certain extent, similar to the perceived consequences in Triansis model. These constructs can be viewed as a cognitive component of individual's attitude. Contracts, such as PU, relative advantage and perceived consequences in various models further support for TRA that the beliefs about the consequences of the behavior are main factors in forming attitude towards the behavior. Thirdly, it is obvious that perceived ease of use (PEOU) in TAM is close to the construct of complexity in IDT. Fourthly, perceived behavioral control in TPB is defined as one's perception of if a behavior is under his control and if he is able to access to resources and opportunities needed to facilitate a behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Under this respect, facilitating conditions in Triandis model is related to perceived behavioral controls in TPB. Nevertheless, Triandis model contends that facilitating conditions only influence the actual behavior while the perceived behavioral controls in TPB influence both the behavioral intention and actual usage.

Construction of Model

Using the combination of two theories DIT (Diffusion of Innovation Theory) and TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), through reviewing a substantial amount of research on other IT adoption models, Grandon & Pearson (2004) identified organizational readiness, compatibility, external pressure, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as the most important factors affecting e-commerce adoption in SMEs. Their model is somehow based on TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment) framework which was proposed by Tornatzky & Fleischer to study the adoption of technological innovations (Tornatzky & Fleischer, 1990). It identified three aspects of a firm's context that influenced adoption and implementation. (1) Technological context--the existing and emerging technologies relevant to the firm; (2) organizational context --in terms of several descriptive measures: firm size and scope, managerial structure, and internal resources; (3) environmental context--the macro arena in which a firm conducts its business: industry, competitors, and dealings with government. Due to the fact that this research is using Grandon & Pearson's model, thus the variables of their model are discussed in the following.

Organizational readiness

Organizational readiness was assessed by including two items about the financial and technological resources that the company may have available as well as factors dealing with the compatibility and consistency of e-commerce with firm's culture, values, and preferred work practices (existing technology infrastructure; and top management's enthusiasm to adopt e-commerce) (Grandon & Pearson, 2004). Financial readiness refers to financial resources available for IT to pay for installation costs, implementation of any subsequent enhancements, and ongoing expenses during usage (such as communication charges, usage fees, etc.). Technological readiness is concerned with the level of sophistication of IT usage and IT management in an organization (Iacovou et al., 1995). IT sophistication (Pare & Raymond, 1991) captures not only the level of technological expertise within the organization, but also assesses the level of management understanding of and support for using IT to achieve organizational objectives.

This factor was considered because small firms tend to lack the resources that are necessary for IT investments (Bouchard, 1993). Such items were found relevant in other researches as well (Thong, 2001).

External pressure

External pressure to adopt refers to influences from the organizational environment (Iacovou et al., 1995). External pressure was assessed by incorporating five items: competition, dependency on other firms already using e-commerce, the industry, social factors, and the government (Grandon & Pearson, 2004) as it said that another pressing and practical reason for small businesses to adopt IT comes from government policies (Kuan & Chau, 2001). Also the two main sources of external pressure that includes the concept of competition and the industry are competitive pressure, and more importantly, imposition by trading partners (Iacovou et al., 1995). Competitive pressure refers to the level of IT capability of the firm's industry and, most importantly, to that of its competitors. As more competitors and trading partners become IT-capable, small firms are more inclined to adopt IT in order to maintain their own competitive position. Small businesses are extremely susceptible to impositions by their large partners (Saunders & Hart, 1993). Such impositions are especially prevalent in case of EDI, Internet or e-commerce because of its network nature (Iacovou etal., 1995).

Perceived ease of use & perceived usefulness

They considered a subset of Davis's instrument to measure perceived ease of use and utilized the six items for perceived usefulness as modified to make them relevant to e-commerce (Davis, 1989). According to Davis, perceived ease of use could be measured by identifying how IT is: easy to learn, controllable, clear & understandable, flexible, easy to become skillful in and easy to use. Perceived usefulness can be measured by investigating the impact of IT on job performance, speed of work, increased productivity, effectiveness, make job easier and useful. Besides these above constructs, Grandon & Pearson (2004) discussed one more factor that is compatibility. In their study, Grandon & Pearson (2004) found that the enthusiasm of top management, compatibility with the company's work environment, perceived advantage from e-commerce, and knowledge of the company's employees about computers were significant factors that differentiated between adopters and non-adopters of e-commerce.

In addition, it should be noted that understanding IT's business value is a vitally important issue in today's technology-intensive world, and there is a need to establish a method that appropriately represent IT's value in a business context (Lee, 2001). Few studies have focused on the perceptions of organization members regarding the strategic value of e-commerce. Diffusion of Innovation theory suggests that individuals or decision makers within an organization will evaluate an innovation's characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) and their perceptions of these characteristics will determine whether that individual or organization will adopt this innovation (Fichman, 2000). On the other words, the purpose of perception is economy of thinking. It picks out and establishes what is important to the organization for its survival and welfare. Perceptions also influence attitudes, behavioral intentions, and the actual behavior of individuals (Davis et al., 1989). In the case of an organization, strategic value can be determined by a summation of perceived benefits minus a summation of perceived costs over a period of time. The benefits frequently attributed to an e-commerce implementation include increased number of transactions, new customers, better service to key customers, and increased profit and market share. Costs associated with an e-commerce implementation include cost of hardware, software, development and possible loss of customer goodwill. (Sutanonpaiboon & Pearson, 2006).

Based on an extensive literature review, Grandon & Pearson's model will be adapted by adding trust that is strongly believed to have positive impacts on both perceived of strategic value and adoption of e-commerce. Rotter's (1967) definition of trust has been cited by Zineldin & Jonsson (2001)--"Trust refers to an individual or an organization's generalized expectancy that another individual or organization's words can be reliable". It should be noted that such a definition shares many common aspects with the definition developed by Morgan & Hunt (1994). Specifically, Morgan & Hunt (1994) define trust as a measure of an individual's confidence in another individual's reliability and integrity.

Under the view of Blois (1998), trust is also defined as an acceptance of vulnerability to another individual's words or possible actions. In addition, a number of other explanations and definitions of trust have been thoroughly analyzed by Morgan & Hunt (1994). For instance, according to Berry, trust is viewed as an important antecedent to loyalty; trust is emphasized by Schurr & Ozanne as an important factor to deal with mutual problems and develop conversations in a constructive manner; and in Spekman's opinion, trust is regarded as the foundation for the development of strategic partnership.

It should be noted that in e-settings, people from almost everywhere in the world are easily to get access to documents stored on computers and in the same vein, information is easily to be transferred through e-technologies with computer networks. That is why under the security perspective, e-commerce is considered as being risky. In addition, e-commerce is characterized by highly uncertain transactions due to the fact that people who make e-transactions very often come from different places in the world (Clarke, 1997). Thus, trust plays an important role in e-commerce and is strongly believed to have strong impacts on the development of e-commerce.

Besides trust, perceived risk is strongly believed to have significant impacts on e-commerce adoption (Wilson, Daniel & Davies, 2008). Thus, the proposed model is given as follows:

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

Specifically, in the Vietnamese SMEs setting regarding e-commerce adoption, we hypothesize that:

H1. There is a significantly positive relationship between organizational support and perceived strategic value.

H2. There is a significantly positive relationship between managerial productivity and perceived strategic value.

H3. There is a significantly positive relationship between strategic decision aids and perceived strategic value.

H4. There is a significantly positive relationship between perceived strategic value and e commerce adoption.

H5. There is a significantly positive relationship between trust and perceived strategic value.

H6. There is a significantly positive relationship between trust and e-commerce adoption.

H7. There is a significantly positive relationship between organizational readiness and e-commerce adoption.

H8. There is a significantly positive relationship between external pressure and e-commerce adoption.

H9. There is a significantly positive relationship between compatibility and e-commerce adoption.

H10. There is a significantly positive relationship between perceived ease of use and e-commerce adoption.

H11. There is a significantly positive relationship between perceived usefulness and e-commerce adoption.

H12. There is a significantly negative relationship between perceived risk and perceived strategic value.

H13. There is a significantly negative relationship between perceived risk and e-commerce adoption.

CONCLUSION AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

There has thus far been little research exploring the adoption and utilization of e-commerce in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) (Grandon & Pearson, 2004). Nobody can deny the fact that SMEs play an important role in both developed and developing economies. It should be noted that various potential advantages can be created by e-commerce, but surprisingly SMEs' adoption of e-commerce has still been limited perhaps due to the fact that SMEs have different characteristics from large enterprises. Under the opinion of Seyal & Rahman (2003), distinct characteristics imbedded in SMEs consist of small management teams, strong owner influence, lack of staff in specialized areas such as information technology, multifunctional management, limited control over their business environment, limited market share, low employee turnover, a reluctance to take risks, and avoidance of sophisticated software or applications. Such characteristics lead SMEs to be very slow with respect to technology adoption and have more difficulties in taking advantage of benefits from the technologies than large enterprises (Poon & Swatman, 1999).

Vietnam is still a developing economy; however, it has utilized the Internet since mid-1990s. Nowadays with the development of IT infrastructure, Vietnam has been becoming a country with its high percentage of the Internet usage in South East Asia. The rapid development of communication and information technologies throughout the world generates motivations for the Vietnamese government to make more informed decisions about IT investments. Since 2000, the government has constructed many programs on information and communication development to facilitate more IT investments in Vietnamese organizations. Such programs are aimed at aiding Vietnamese SMEs to be more aware of IT improvements in general and e-commerce in particular. It is strongly believed that doing business internationally, entering into new markets and customers domestically and internationally and realizing numerous advantages of utilizing the Internet for all business processes have been making significant contributions to the advent of e-commerce in Vietnam. Furthermore, because of regional strategic importance of Vietnam in South East Asia, utilizing e-commerce is expected to bring about opportunities for Vietnamese SMEs to reap more benefits via the world's business globalization process. Hence, it is very urgent to build a success model for e-commerce adoption consisting of important factors that are very likely to have impacts on Vietnamese SMEs' e-commerce adoption.

This study has, based on an extensive review of literature on e-commerce benefits, characteristics of SMEs and their e-commerce adoption, and relevant theories on adoption of an innovation, proposed a success model for e-commerce adoption in Vietnamese SMEs. Furthermore, a set of model hypotheses presenting relationships among factors influencing e-commerce adoption have been set up.

The next step in the development of this model is to statistically test the aforementioned hypotheses in the context of Vietnamese SMEs. Each of the factors identified in the previous discussion will form the basis for analysis in the empirical study of e-commerce adoption in such a new context. The model presented in this paper is unique as at present, there is no comprehensive theoretical and practical model for analyzing e-commerce adoption in the context of Vietnamese SMEs. None of the prior models have taken into account the interactions between innovation theories, trust, perceived risk, and the TOE framework to investigate e-commerce adoption. This model can provide an impetus for future research, structuring it along the lines of interactions between such above theories and factors that will expand the frontiers of knowledge in e-commerce adoption.

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Table 1. Examples of IT adoption models

Source                  Determinants                 IT studied

Iacovou et al. (1995)   External pressure,           EDI adoption
                        perceived benefits and
                        organizational readiness

Chwelos et al. (2001)   Readiness, external          EDI adoption
                        pressure and perceived
                        benefits

Kuan & Chau (2001)      Technology, organization     EDI adoption
                        and environment

Igbaria et al. (1997)   Intra-organizational         Personal computer
                        factors, extra-              acceptance
                        organizational factors,
                        perceived ease of use and
                        perceived usefulness

Thong (1999)            CEO characteristics, IS      IS adoption
                        characteristics,
                        organizational
                        characteristics and
                        environmental
                        characteristics

Premkumar &             Relative advantage, top      Online data
Roberts (1999)          management support,          access, email,
                        organizational size and      and the Internet
                        external competitive
                        pressure

Mehrtens et             Perceived benefits,          Internet adoption
al. (2001)              organizational readiness
                        and external pressure

Mirchandani &           Enthusiasm of top            E-commerce
Motwani (2001)          management, compatibility,   adoption
                        relative advantage and
                        knowledge of the company's
                        employees about computers

Riemenschneider &       Attitude, subjective norm    E-commerce
McKinney (2002)         and perceived behavioral     adoption
                        control

Riemenschneider et      Attitude, subjective norm,   Website adoption
al. (2003)              perceived behavioral         (Web presence)
                        control, perceived
                        usefulness and perceived
                        ease of use

Grandon &               Organizational readiness,    E-commerce
Pearson (2004)          external pressure,           adoption
                        perceived ease of use and
                        perceived usefulness

Hong & Zhu (2005)       Technology integration,      E-commerce
                        Web functionalities, Web     adoption
                        spending and partner usage

Sutanonpaiboon &        Entrepreneurial              E-commerce
Pearson (2006)          orientation, environment,    adoption
                        e-commerce ease of use for
                        customers, e-commerce
                        usefulness for customers
                        and organizational
                        readiness

Ramsey, Ibbotson        E-commerce capability,       E-commerce
& Mccole (2008)         willingness to change/rate   adoption
                        of response to new
                        technologies,
                        technological opportunity
                        recognition, customer
                        orientation, sensitivity
                        to competitive/customer
                        environments, perceptions
                        of technology feasibility,
                        and e-skills development
                        mechanisms

Wilson, Daniel &        Top management support,      E-commerce
Davies (2008)           management understanding     adoption
                        of business benefits,
                        presence of IT skills,
                        availability of
                        consultancy,
                        prioritization of e-
                        commerce to the
                        enterprise, perceived
                        risk, and customer demand