Business environment and internet commerce benefit – a small business perspective

Anecdotal evidence shows that the internet can enable a start up company to globalise and achieve multi-million dollar turnover in a couple of years. Beyond this handful of examples, small businesses find that this is not always true. It seems that certain pre-conditions need to be in place before this is possible. We studied the business environment of a small business including its suppliers, customers, partner firms and competitors focusing on internet commerce adoption and usage. Among a sample of small firms in the non-manufacturing sector, the impression of competitive advantage and information support relates positively to internet commerce benefit. Also, customer participation in internet commerce is critical to success. We therefore suggest that the nature of the business environment bears an effect on the benefit small businesses can gain from internet commerce.