An Investigation into the Factors Influencing the Adoption of B2B Trading Exchanges in Small Businesses in Western Australia

Small business plays an important role in Western Australian economy. Given the remoteness of Western Australia, electronic commerce technology, such as B2B Trading exchanges, presents unique opportunities to small businesses in Western Australia. This study thus explores the adoption behaviour of these small businesses in relation to B2B Trading exchanges. Drawing on established theories, relating to the innovation adoption diffusion, and empirical work in IT, EDI and Electronic Commerce adoption this study develops a research model. The research instrument developed for this study was administered to a random sample of 1,500 small businesses within Western Australia. The data was analysed using Partial Least Square (PLS) approach. The findings of this study revealed that external influences raise the awareness of an innovation. This awareness leads to the evaluation of the perceived direct and indirect benefits and a positive evaluation leads to a positive attitude towards the innovation. In turn this leads to the intention to adopt. The results confirmed that a positive attitude towards B2B Trading exchanges leads to the intention to adopt B2B Trading exchanges in small businesses. The findings also confirm that external, belief, contextual and control factors drive the attitude towards B2B Trading exchanges. Implications of the results are also highlighted.