Electronic Commerce: Opportunities and Challenges of general importers in Addis Ababa
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Date
2012-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Advances in information technology have created great opportunities as well as
threats to organizations in various business sectors. Though adoption of ecommerce
is considered to provide substantial benefits to business; many
general importers in Ethiopia still have not realized to adopt electronic
commerce due to different factors. Identifying the main opportunities and
challenges and suggests suitable strategies to promote e-commerce are the basic
purpose of this research. To attain the objective, data for the study were
obtained from sample of 203 general importers from total of 748 which are
found in Addis Ababa and had collect data basically from primary sources. To do
so questionnaire was designed and distributed to the top level managers of the
selected companies. This study used descriptive survey research designs. The
data collected was analyzed with the help of Microsoft Excel software packages.
The empirical findings show that, although the country registered two digit
economic growths, with stable political climate, the banking, ICT and Ecommerce
practice in Ethiopia are underdeveloped. Dominant barriers that
highly hinder e-commerce adoption are; lack of skilled workers, Fear of risk
security and privacy, lack of e-commerce infrastructure. The government of
Ethiopia should formulate strategies that enhance the e-commerce
infrastructure and enabling policy environment by involving full participation of
all stakeholders, develop awareness raising campaigns. Finally, service provider
and customer should sign service level agreements.
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Keywords
Challenges of general