Adoption of E-Commerce by Organizations: Integrated Perspectives on the Strategic and Environmental Imperatives in Developing Countries

In recent years many developing nations have been exposed to significant external changes such as economic deregulation and globalization. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this has resulted in the adoption of EC by companies in these countries. It is important to understand these strategic and environmental imperatives for EC adoption. Such understanding is required for anticipating necessary changes in EC adoption with impending and emerging changes in the environment. It is also needed for formulating business strategies in alignment with the organization’s IS strategies and IT capabilities, and in order to address managerial challenges in EC adoption. This paper is based on research-in-progress that explores the manner in which conditions related to the environmental and competitive contexts of the organization, lead to the adoption of EC in companies in developing societies. We studied the EC adoption of eighteen companies from eleven industries in India. Preliminary results, based on interviews with more than a hundred people in these organizations indicate that there are broadly three conditions under which an organization is forced to adopt EC. These are related to the external environment, organizational performance and specific internal management compulsions. This research addresses a crucial and scarcely studied area in the management of IT in developing countries.