Factors influencing the adoption and Implementation of e-business technologies in Companies quoted at the Nairobi Stock Exchange

Abstract

The focus of the study was to determine the status of e-business and the factors influencing the adoption and implementation of e-business technologies in companies quoted at the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The need for this study arises from the fact that e-business technologies are driving fundamental changes in how business is conducted yet little is known of the relative importance of factors influencing their adoption and implementation in Kenya. Companies across the world are pursuing the operational benefits of e-business technologies by making use of on-line web based systems and applications a normal part of everyday operations. Such systems continue to alter manufacturing and industry value chains by increasing efficiency, reducing costs and streamlining production processes. This makes their adoption and implementation in large firms that have the market power and vast resources to assume greater levels of innovation risks a fundamental issue. The uptake of e-business technologies may not be fully explained by diffusion of innovation studies that focus on Information and Communication Technologies (lCTs), in general, owing to unique interorganisational components of e-business technologies. This study considered internal and external factors cited as influencing the uptake uf ICTs to establish their relative importance in the diffusion of e-business technologies. Data was cO'ttected using a questionnaire administered to Information Systems Managers in all companies whose shares were actively traded at the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The results of data analysis show that all firms had adopted basic e-business technologies that facilitate e-mail, information search and retrieval. Whereas 27% had web sites that could take orders only 8% could receive payments. Although 69% of firms had websites, 85% of them never used them for online purchases, sales to customers and other business functions. Listing of IX products and provision of company data on Web sites rated moderate in importance and features like tracking delivery, links to e-trading sites, on-line billing and secure transactions rated low in importance. Use of web applications for e-delivery coordination, e-competitor intelligence, staff recruitment and training online and e-financial transactions were rare. These results confirm previous findings that widespread use of the Internet does not automatically translate into ebusiness and points to considerable scope for further development of e-business applications in large publicly quoted firms. Lack of infrastructure, an enabling IC']' policy and legal framework, readiness on the part of business alliance partners, suppliers and customers ranked as the most significant factors influencing the diffusion of e-business technologies. This confirms the influence of the unique inter-organisatiohal element in the diffusion of e-business technologies. Several limiting characteristics of this exploratory study offer researchers opportunities in this area. Firstly, more refined metrics for adoption and implementation constructs may yield more insight into the assimilation of these technologies. Secondly, a multiple case study of innovator firms may capture the inter-organisational nature of these technologies. Thirdly, the use of techniques like logistic regression and path analysis may shed more light on the nature of relationships between the dependent and independent variables cOhsidered in this study