A Study of Planning and Implementation Stages in Electronic Commerce Adoption and Evaluation: The Case of Australian SMEs

Abstract

This research examines and explores the electronic commerce adoption and evaluation issues and practices of Australian SMEs during the planning and implementation stages. The results indicated that most SMEs failed to link their objectives for e-commerce adoption with their organizational goals as well as to involve users during the planning stage. In addition, pre-project justification process and change management were often not properly carried out. Although it was found that almost all senior executives and managers were committed to the IT investments in e-commerce during the implementation stage, most of these organizations did not manage user resistance effectively. Moreover, it was also disappointing to see that most SMEs failed to conduct IT investment evaluation processes during the implementation stage. Finally, no formal IT benefits realization methodology was carried out in any of the SMEs interviewed.