The Proclivity Factors on Awareness of e-Commerce: A Case of Small Business in Kelantan

Abstract

E-commerce usage is becoming one of the important things to humans in helping daily businesses activities. Judging this, this paper aims to determine the proclivity factors of small businesses on their awareness of e-commerce. To achieve the research objectives, this study used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by analysing and reviewing the literature related to perceived barriers, competitor’s pressures, organizational readiness and relative advantages. The data of 203 small businesses were collected via purposive sampling technique to generate the proclivity of awareness of e-commerce among small businesses, especially in Kelantan. The main finding indicates the organization readiness, competitor pressure and relative have a significant and positive relationship to awareness of e-commerce. At the same time, perceived barriers show a significant and negative relationship to awareness of e-commerce. This nature of the study is not only vitally important to entrepreneurs but also significant to the policymakers, government and non-governmental institutions to understand the importance of e-commerce awareness, especially toward small business development in Malaysia.