E-commerce adoption in the retail sector: empirical insights

Purpose - To investigate the determinants of e-commerce adoption in the retail sector using duration analysis. Design/methodology/approach - The study proposes a conceptual model based on technology adoption and population ecology models. It identifies specific determinant factors organized under three areas: perceived benefits, organizational readiness, and external influences. Duration analysis is applied to data on 392 retailers. Findings - Organizational readiness and external influences were the main driving factors of the adoption decision. There is no strong support for the perceived benefits construct. This suggests that e-commerce adoption was to a great extent responsive to external pressures. Research limitations/implications - Major limitations include insufficient data. Future research can collect other types of data. Other extensions include the investigation of the effect of e-commerce adoption, the construction of a formal theoretical model, and the collection of data from other countries. Practical implications - The study provides guidelines to entry anticipation. It appears that many retailers mimetically responded to the online entry of other retailers. Managers should be also aware of the suitability of e-commerce adoption to their organization. In order to be proactive, firms can put more emphasis on internal factors and rely less on outside signals in their strategies. Originality/value - The paper investigates the e-commerce adoption decision among retailers using a unique database collected from public sources, avoiding potential subjectivity bias. It traces the timing of e-commerce adoption incorporating both fixed and time-varying covariates.