Interpreting the success and failure of regional internet community portals in promoting e‐commerce adoption by SMEs. A cultural perspective
| Date | 23 May 2008 |
| Published date | 23 May 2008 |
| Pages | 56-71 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13287260810876894 |
| Author | Denise E. Gengatharen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
JSIT
10,1
56
Journal of Systems and Information
Technology
Vol. 10 No. 1, 2008
pp. 56-71
#Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/13287260810876894
Interpreting the success and
failure of regional internet
community portals in promoting
e-commerce adoption by SMEs
A cultural perspective
Denise E. Gengatharen
School of Management, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of cultural factors on the success or failu re of
three Western Australian (WA) government-funded collaboratively-owned regional internet
community portals designed to encourage small to medium-sized enterprise adoption of
e-commerce. Two portals were rural/country-based and the third was in metropolitan WA.
Design/methodology/approach – Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory is used to interpret the
findings of study which employed the structured case study methodology using a multiple-case
embedded-design.
Findings – Australia with cultural traits of high individualism, masculinity, low power distance and
moderately low uncertainty avoidance, would not be a laggard in adopting technological innovation.
In such a culture, the individual’s perceived usefulness and personal gain will be the most important
factors in technology acceptance. However, this research highlights a need for caution in using
national culture to examine IS adoption. In this study, the collectivist culture of the rural communities
was instrumental in initially sustaining their portals, as par ticipants placed the community’s
perceived usefulness and gain from the portal above that of the individual. The individualistic nature
of the owners and the communities catered for by the metropolitan portal resulted in its failure.
Research limitations/implications – While culture is an important construct in the success of
community-based IS endeavours, it should be examined at the local level instead of a national one.
The limitations of this paper are that culture is examined only from the perspective of collectivism or
individualism, and that the study is based only in Australia.
Practical implications – Cultural contexts underlying regional collaborative IS efforts can in some
cases be leveraged to achieve intended outcomes. In others, they can indicate that the initiatives are
not suitable and would require significantly greater resources.
Originality/value – This study contributes to knowledge in the area of the role of culture in
community-based IS initiatives by showing that outcomes of similar initiatives can differ based on
sub cultural differences within a national culture.
Keywords Small to medium-sized enterprises, Electronic commerce, Communities, Internet, Portals,
Australia
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A common fear among many governments in the late 1990s was a perceived growing
divide between small and big business in uptake of e-commerce. As a result, some
governments took measures like ensuring proper telecommunications and regulatory
infrastructures for regional areas and creating websites containing advice for small to
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the benefits of e-commerce.
In Australia, the federal government funded collaborative group and local
government-led e-commerce initiatives at regional levels, many of which were
delivered through local community-based programs. This reflected the federal
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1328-7265.htm
Community
portals
57
government’s view that ‘‘the best and most workable solutions and ideas emerge from
the grass roots, rather than being delivered, fully-formed, from on high (as) community
and non-profit groups and local-government authorities are attuned to the pulse of
their communities (and) are best placed to know what their own needs and
circumstances are’’ (Williams, 2004). These initiatives included setting up regional
e-marketplaces (REMs) and internet trading platfor ms that would improve SME
e-commerce uptake and lead to economic development. Examples of such initiatives
are the discontinued BizeWest (Tatnall and Burgess, 2002) and Tasmania Business
Online (Hayes, 2004). In Western Australia, some regional portals were developed with
the dual purpose of bringing local communities online and encouraging e-commerce
uptake among SMEs. This enabled the receipt of government funding under
programmes like Information Technology On-Line see www.dcita.gov.au/ie/ (ITOL).
While these portals had different e-commerce models and owner arrangements, most
had some level of local community participation.
This paper reports on some of the findings from a study of three government-
funded regional community portals in Western Australian (WA) which were used to
promote e-commerce among SMEs. It is part of a study to determine the success and
evaluate the benefits of such portals. The two portals in countr yor rural WA continue
to operate while the one in the metropolitan area failed and was discontinued in 2004.
We examine the success and failure of the portals through a lens of cultural
perspectives in the light of the ‘‘conceptualization of local or regional e-commerce as a
form of commerce which is embedded in the social, political, cultural, technical and
economic structures’’ of the region (Steinfield and Klein, 1999, p. 49). The cultural lens
is employed in order to determine if the concept of a national culture is relevant in the
adoption of community-based internet portals for e-commerce or if inde ed cultural
differences exist between regional areas of a nation, in particular r ural and urban, and
to what extent these differences impact on the adoption.
The paper is structured as follows: we fir st highlight perspectives from the
literature on the concept of national culture that are relevant to IS research. The cases
are then discussed in order to demonstrate the roles played by culture in the success of
the two portals in country WA and the failure of the metropolitan portal. The paper
concludes with some recommendations for those considering similar initiatives and
suggestions for future research in the area.
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and IS adoption
The conceptualization of a national culture where multiple dime nsions, traits or values
can be used to distinguish one group of people from another has be en largely
influenced by authors like Hofstede (1991) and Trompenaars (1996). Hofstede (199 1)
uses five dimensions to characterise national culture. They are: collectivism vs
individualism, low vs high power distance (PD), low vs high uncertainty avoidance
(UA), masculinity vs femininity and long vs short-term orientation. Trompenaars’
(1996) seven dimensions of culture are: universalism vs particularism, collectivism vs
individualism, affective vs neutral relationships, specificity vs diffuseness,
achievement vs ascription, orientation towards time and inter nal vs external control.
National culture is said to affect the myriad facets of the activities and interactions of
people, from determining the way organisations are run to determining how people
accept technological change. In the past decade, the majority of studies using the lens
of national culture to research the impact of culture on IT adoption, diffusion, design
and use has relied on one or more individual dimensions of Hofstede’s (1991) cultural
To continue reading
Request your trial