Abstract:

One of economic development main drivers is technology. Technology adoption usually results in rapid economic growth, and rapid economic growth is usually accompanied by rapid structural change. It is now widely accepted by policy makers, enterprises and society at large that information and communications technologies (ICT) are at the centre of an economic and social transformation that is affecting all countries. E-Commerce and globalisation have combined to create a new economic and social landscape.
There are many drivers and barriers to E-Commerce. Most issues (Cost, infrastructure, time, information, legislation and regulation, etc) could be drivers or barriers. If a country has managed to achieve a cost reduction greater then the investment made in adopting the new technology then one could say that the cost factor is a driver rather than a barrier. The same philosophy could work with other aspects of E-Commerce drivers and barriers.
A new classification using drivers and barriers could be applied to countries and divide countries according to their technological advancement. The new classification groups countries into non-technologically advanced, less-technologically advanced and technologically advanced. This classification is driven by four main actors (Government, technologically advanced countries, companies and E-commerce users). The involvement of the fourth (E-Commerce users) actor is the result of the other three actors’ actions on the economy. These three actors comprise the three quarter moon that encourages the fourth actor to complete the circle of adoption.
The circle of adoption includes three stages that, in order for E-commerce to be adopted, must be dealt with before, while and after adoption. The failure of adoption may be a result of a failure of one issue or a failure of number of issues together. Therefore the Internet involvement formula should help to indicate where the problem lies.