Absorptive Capacity, Civil Conflict and E-Commerce Adoption Among Iraqi Firms

• Main Authors: Sultan, Abdulsatar Abduljabbar, Muhammad, Noor Sarina
• Format: Article
• Published: Ingenta 2017
• Subjects: HD28 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/24275/; http://doi.org/10.1166/asl.2017.9628

E-commerce is not new to majority of firms as it facilitates transactions and improves connectivity which lead into future success. Even though, e commerce adoption is a much investigated topic, it continues to be relevance in a heterogeneous setting.Previous literatures demonstrate that less study used a civil conflict setting in investigating e-commerce adoption as it has been assumed that the situation does not permit e-commerce activities.Further, studies on e-commerce adoption and absorptive capacity in small medium enterprise have also received less attention in developing countries.Therefore, this study investigated the significant relationship between absorptive capacity and technology adoption; which refers to e-commerce adoption in conflicting areas in Iraq.In addition, the study also investigated any significance differences on absorptive capacity between the non-adopters and early adopters.A self administered questionnaire was sent to 500 SMEs in three major places in Iraq. With a respond rate of 84%, data was analyzed using SmartPLS on direct and multi-group analysis. The results indicate significant relationship between absorptive capacity and e-commerce adoption. Civil conflict is found to moderate the relationship between absorptive capacity and e-commerce adoption. The study concludes with several implications and suggestions for future research.