Levels of B 2 B e - commerce adoption and competitive advantage in SMEs : A 1 comparison study between Egypt and USA

Business-to-business e-commerce adoption has become increasingly important for small and 11 medium-sized enterprises, allowing them to gain and sustain competitive advantage. B2B 12 adopted at different levels based on different resource endowments leads to competitive 13 advantage being gained and sustained in proportion to that level of adoption. This study uses 14 structural equation modelling to investigate how levels of B2B e-commerce adoption affects and 15 contributes to gaining and sustaining competitive advantage in both US and Egyptian 16 manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises. The key finding is that small and medium17 sized enterprises can achieve growth in market share and sales that helps them to improve their 18 position in the global market through higher levels of business-to-business e-commerce adoption. 19 Implications of the study, its limitations and directions for future research are also discussed. 20