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Top1. Introduction
The emergence of e-commerce has shifted the way that businesses including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to conduct their daily business activities. As the business environment is getting tougher day by day, the firm must be able to compete effectively, whether in the local or the global market. This also implies for MSMEs in Brunei as the number of micro, small and medium enterprises are increasing over the years, and their roles in contributing to the country's economic development are important. To compete in a competitive business environment, every firm must have good strategies (Ahmad et al., 2010). A few of the strategies that the local firms could implement are to expand the reachability and being able to approach a wider base of customers through the use of the Internet. The Internet has played an important role in the current business environment as Sharma (2016) stated that the availability of the Internet had enabled firms to easily gather information on which the information can be used to improve the overall business operations. The continuous growth of Internet users is also crucial in determining the success of e-commerce. Concerning Internet users in Brunei, Rajak (2018) stated that Internet penetrations among Bruneians are very high, where 95% of the population has access to the Internet.
Furthermore, Zhu et al., (2003); Teo (2004); Molla (2005) state that most MSMEs are now moving towards e-commerce. The main reason for adopting e-commerce is the potential benefits that it brings to the firms. Some of the benefits are that e-commerce enabled the firms to have access to a wider base of customers locally and globally, cost reduction, direct and indirect cost savings in communications and marketing, strengthen relationships with customers and suppliers as well as improving the overall business operations (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015). The other benefits include enhancing firms’ profitability and widen their business opportunities (Rogers, 1995; Wanyoike et al., 2012).
Although the Internet penetration in Brunei is very high, the number of MSMEs that fully adopt e-commerce is still low. One initiative that was done by the government of His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam in 2016 was by establishing Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). The development of DARe aims to help develop the local MSMEs as Brunei is now trying to diversify its economy from oil and gas (Borneo Bulletin Yearbook, 2019). After the establishment of DARe, there is a slight increase of MSMEs in adopting e-commerce. Currently, there are more than ten MSMEs that are actively conducting e-commerce in their daily business operations (Othman, 2018). One of DARe’s initiatives in increasing the number of MSMEs to adopt e-commerce is through the “E-Commerce Boot camp”. This boot camp aims to equip the local MSMEs with knowledge on how to conduct their business online (Wong, 2017). Apart from being aware of the initiatives that were provided by the government agencies, it is also important to look through the other possible factors that drive the local MSMEs decision to adopt e-commerce.
To support the utilization of e-commerce by MSMEs in Brunei, it is important to investigate factors that can influence the adoption of e-commerce by them. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors that affect the MSMEs' decision in adopting e-commerce. The Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE) framework is widely used in the study of the adoption of e-commerce at the firm level (Zhu et al., 2003; Lertwongsatien & Wongpinunwatana, 2003; Huy et al., 2012; Rahayu & Day, 2015). Chatzoglou and Chatzoudes (2016) had confirmed that the decision of firms to adopt e-commerce could be affected by technological, organizational and environmental factors.
This study aims to find the most significant factor that affects the decision of MSMEs in Brunei to adopt e-commerce based on the TOE framework. In other words, what are the key factors that influence MSMEs in Brunei to adopt e-commerce?
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section of the paper is the literature review and then followed by the research methodology. The following sections are the findings and the analysis. The last section of the paper consists of the discussion, conclusion, limitation of the overall study and providing recommendations for future studies.