An Empirical Study of Determinants of E-Commerce Adoption in SMEs in Vietnam

Abstract

Experts and business pundits forecasted drastic changes in Vietnam’s fledgling e-commerce when the Southeast Asian country became an official member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007. Over the past few years, as part of the Reform – called Doi moi – some Vietnamese enterprises have adopted e-commerce and already benefitted from it. In this research, the authors adapt the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework and test a model of e-commerce adoption including numerous internal and external factors identified in empirical studies. The final sample of 926 small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam includes both adopter and non-adopter firms. The policy implications of this study on promoting e-commerce adoption by SMEs in transition economies, such as Vietnam, are discussed.