The emergence of internet-based electronic commerce offers considerable
opportunities for companies to expand their customer base, enter new
product markets, and rationalize their business. The Indonesian
government has initiated and implemented a series of plans and
activities to promote technology use to increase SMEs' performance.
Despite such efforts, technology adoption rate are still low. Therefore,
it is important to understand the factors affecting an entrepreneurs'
decision on internet adoption, by measuring technology readiness (TR).
The purpose of this study is to investigate TR and the extent to which
E-commerce is adopted amongst entrepreneurs. This study is replication
of Parasuraman's study on the Technology Readiness Index (TRI).
Questionnaires were distributed using a convenience sampling method to
190 entrepreneurs of SME in Bandung city. The findings indicate that
entrepreneurs are moderate in terms of their TR. There are significant
differences in terms of TR across entrepreneurs' backgrounds (gender,
age, education, and income). In relation to internet adoption by those
surveyed, as their use of media promotion is still low, there were only
36.3 percent who adopted it. The results clearly indicate the need to
provide support to SMEs to adopt and use e-commerce. These results have
implications not only for managers of SMEs but also for government
agencies in developing countries such as Indonesia. The findings have
implications for researchers and practitioners by identifying TR drivers
(optimism and innovativeness), and barriers (discomfort and
insecurity), that contribute to effectively leveraging the Internet in
an important area for SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]