Adoption and Utilization of E-Commerce among Ethiopian Exporters: The Case of Coffee Exporters

Abstract

E-commerce has been predicted to be a new driver of economic growth for developing countries. Enterprises and firms are a key sector in today’s global economy. This study was aimed to investigate the adoption and utilization of electronic commerce among coffee exporter enterprises in Ethiopia. Mixed method quantitative and qualitative research design was employed. The Quantitative primary data was collected using structured self-administered questionnaires and analyzed by SPSS version 23.0. The qualitative study was conducted by using two different models, adoption ladder model and the transporter model that provide basis for interview. Descriptive studies which include mean and standard deviation were used for Likert-scale responses to summarize the data while frequency tables were used to analyze the general information and e-commerce adoption and utilization. The factor analysis or regression analysis statistical method was used to determine what combination of factors mostly appealing to the manager of coffee exporters or owners. According to the finding of this research, 51.9% of coffee exporters make a good use of e-commerce tools like computers, internet, email, and websites. Based on regression factor analysis, the training of managers, numbers of employee, awareness of benefits, and Knowledge had a significant relationship on e-commerce adoption. However, the study did not find a statistical significance difference between the ages, environmental factors and cost of e-commerce. E-commerce trading has not been implemented by the majority of Ethiopian coffee exporters. By technology acceptance models, Ethiopian coffee exporters are only on the website stages. It can be concluded that coffee exporters are unable to fully benefit from e-commerce and its benefits that come due to a lack of sufficient knowledge, skill sets, and infrastructure to make use of the technology, and also absence of rigorous government monetary and banking regulations on electronic payments. The study recommended that building infrastructure, formulating suitable policy for online financial transactions and intensifying knowledge and skills of employee on e-commerce by government and coffee Exporters enterprises