Transformations  in
Business & Economics

UNDERSTANDING THE KEY DRIVERS OF EMARKETPLACE UPTAKE AMONG MICRO AND SMALL-SIZED BUSINESSES (MSBS) IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY
Christian Nedu Osakwe, Miloslava Chovancova, Monica N. Agu

ABSTRACT. So far, very little empirical research has been done on the uptake of eMarketplace among micro and small-sized businesses (MSBs) in emerging economies and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) included. In a bid to address the research gap, the present study focuses its investigation on the key drivers of eMarketplace uptake within the context of SSA. Our research position is that since MSBs are widely perceived as the future of emerging economies, it has now become foundational for the aspiring MSB to rapidly invest in the digitally-enabled virtual marketplace since itoffers a great marketing opportunity for the firm. A battery of quantitative techniques yielded four key drivers of eMarketplace uptake among MSBs in the study area. The current study has offered some insight on how best to possibly improve the uptake of eMarketplace by MSBs particularly in the SSA context. Further to this, the paper contributes to the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework for information system adoption in the context of relatively small-sized companies .

KEYWORDS:  eMarketplace, emerging economy, key drivers, MSBs, Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africa.

JEL classification:  O320, O140, O330, L81, L86, L2, C10.