E-commerce Readiness in Ethiopia: A Macro-level Assessment

This study is a work in progress that sets out to measure the readiness for e-commerce of an aggressively developing economy in East Africa – Ethiopia – a nation that has a significant historical and geo-political status at the horn in order for it to be able to compete in the global information economy. The paper initially embarks on explaining the distinction among the fundamental concepts of e-commerce, e-readiness and e-commerce readiness. It then reviews some of the major ecommerce readiness studies conducted and models developed both at the regional and international level. From among such models, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) self-assessment tool is selected as an appropriate instrument for adoption and development of a measure for e-commerce readiness in Ethiopia. Apart from identifying the nation’s standing regarding its e-commerce readiness, customizing existing instruments and developing a new version, is believed to add value to the contemporary knowledge capital in the specific domain.