The effects of e-commerce adoption on SMEs internationalization in Tanzania

Significant direct and tangible effects of the E-commerce application have been found and proven in large companies, however in SMEs these effects have still been an area of exploration. Furthermore, the effect of E-commerce on SMEs internationalization has yet to be fully scientifically explored especially in Africa countries despite of voluminous amount of research. The study was designed to assess the effects of E-commerce adoption on SMEs internationalization in Tanzania. A sample of 150 SMEs in Dar es Salaam that were listed by TCCIA was obtained using random sampling. The data were collected through questionnaires which were emailed to SMEs. After the collection of data, it was analyzed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis using SPSS. The findings of the study reveal that SMEs in Tanzania considered relative advantage of e-commerce, complexity of the e-commerce application, managerial support and business activities factors in adopting e- commerce. Furthermore, the findings reveal that despite the benefits of E-commerce on internationalization of business activities, the barriers were also identified and grouped into five categories which are governmental, technical, organizational, financial, and behaviuoral barriers. Based on the major findings, the study recommends that the government should provide a helping hand to SMEs and to SMEs owners/Managers to invest more on E-commerce.