Internet adoption barriers for small firms in The Netherlands

TLDR: In this paper, the authors explored several factors that influence small businesses in their choice of Internet use (e.g. benefits and barriers) and found that the main barriers to Internet adoption and to developing a Web presence are simply the concern that the Internet or the Website would not lead to more efficiency or lower costs.

About: This article is published in European Management Journal.The article was published on 2000-10-01 and is currently open access. It has received 282 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: The Internet & E-commerce.

Figures

Table 6. Reasons for not having Internet access

Table 7. Attitude towards Internet

Table 8. Reasons for not having own Website

Table 5. Division of Website

Table 1. Sample characteristics

Figure 1. Division of Internet use February 1999 and 2000

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "Internet adoption barriers for small firms in the netherlands" ?

This study aims to explore several factors that influence small businesses in their choice of Internet use ( e. g. benefits and barriers ). These results seem to confirm the “ international '' image of Dutch businesses, well aware of the small size of the local market and always searching for potential business opportunities abroad. 

Q2. What are the future works mentioned in the paper "Internet adoption barriers for small firms in the netherlands" ?

The technology of today does provide these opportunities and when seizing the fruits of electronic commerce in the future, Websites need to have more content to attract buyers ( Block and Guptill, 1997 ). A similar study across different countries and cultures would be a good extension of this study, and could therefore become the theme of future research. 

Q3. What are the main benefits of a Dutch small business website?

The most important benefits Dutch small firms derive from their Websites now are the improvement of the company image and the disappearance of distance related barriers. 

Q4. What are the main benefits of using the Internet for Dutch small firms?

Many benefits experienced by Dutch small firms seem to be "border-crossing": helping them to seek new markets and information abroad. 

Q5. What is the main concern of the small firms in the Netherlands?

Since intuition and personal opinions play such a big role in small firm strategic decision making, it can be expected that small firms without Internet access tend to have a negative image of the Internet. 

Q6. What is the main point of the paper?

The study presented in this paper provides evidence that small businesses are indeed catching on to the advantages provided by the Internet. 

Q7. What are the common uses of the Internet?

The most technically advanced uses, as receiving customer orders and voice/video conferencing, were however among the least used. 

Q8. What are the main areas for growth in the Netherlands?

Offering information to customers, sending purchase orders to suppliers, and receiving orders from customers are the major areas for growth over the next year (respectively 18, 17, and 16 percentage points growth). 

Q9. What are the main benefits of the Internet for small firms?

Their empirical results show that the largest benefits for small firms are speedy and timely access to information from Websites, and communication efficiency improvement. 

Q10. What is the strategy for convincing small business owners of the benefits of electronic commerce?

For policy makers wanting to increase the percentage of small businesses making use of the Internet, the best strategy of convincing small business owners of the benefits of electronic commerce is through showing concrete examples. 

Q11. What is the reason why the Dutch business community is ignoring the Internet?

It seems justified to conclude that although small Dutch businesses use the Internet mostly for less advanced communication purposes momentarily, more advanced uses are already in use and their usage factor is bound to grow considerably in the near future. 

Q12. what are the main barriers for firms in establishing a web presence?

Their main conclusions are that the primary barriers for firms in establishing a web presence "appear to be start up costs, unfamiliarity with the web and lack of guidance about how to start the process" (Purao and Campbell, 1998, p.327). 

Q13. What is the main reason why the Dutch small business is pursuing new markets?

This study shows that a number of the benefits that Dutch small firms are deriving, or will derive within a year, from their Websites can be described as "bordercrossing" (disappearance of distance related barriers now, continuous advertising all around the world next year).