The impact of the coronavirus on electronic commerce among small and medium enterprises in Gauteng.
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Date
2023
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Abstract
During the Covid-19 pandemic, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had to shift business operations to online, due to government restrictions. The urgency to change to a digital model caused many SMEs to be challenged by one or more of the four e-commerce resources to complete an e-commerce transaction, namely usage of reliable broadband, e-shop of products, digital payment, and logistics to the consumer. The
literature revealed that SMEs lacked the infrastructure to support the digital transformation into a successful business model and had to close their businesses. This mixed-methods study addressed this gap by using constructs in the resource-based theory and dynamic capabilities theory. A conceptual model was developed which depicted the relationship between the e-commerce resources and e-commerce growth which was moderated by dynamic capabilities. Several hypotheses were postulated in the conceptual framework and data was collected from the SME owners in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The simple random sampling technique was used to survey 307 retail SMEs in Edenvale, Gauteng. The survey was distributed via email to the SMEs that were alluded in the study. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was used to analyse the data that was collected through the survey, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences and tested using Structural Equation Modelling. Purposive sampling was used for the qualitative study and the semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 SME owners, to gain an in-depth
understanding of the factors that impacted their e-commerce growth. Thematic analysis, via Microsoft excel, was used to analyse the transcripts by focusing on identifying and arranging the codes and patterns. The findings revealed that digital payments and logistics were significant predictors of e-commerce growth during the pandemic and dynamic skill capabilities moderated the relationship between digital payments and e-commerce growth. However, the usage of broadband and e-shop features were not significant in predicting the growth of e-commerce. It was ascertained through the interviews, that there is a favourable impact on the growth of e-commerce among SMEs that invested in unique resources and capabilities, since only those SMEs that had the resources and capabilities managed to survive during the pandemic.
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Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.