Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business
Vol. 16, No. 1 (January-April 2014): 69-88

Technology Readiness and E-Commerce Adoption among
Entrepreneurs of SMEs in Bandung City, Indonesia
Novika Candra Astuti a* and Reza Ashari Nasution a
a

School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung

Abstract: The emergence of internet-based electronic commerce offers considerable opportunities for
companies to expand their customer base, enter new product markets, and rationalize their business. The
Indonesian government has initiated and implemented a series of plans and activities to promote technology use to increase SMEs’ performance. Despite such efforts, technology adoption rate are still low.
Therefore, it is important to understand the factors affecting an entrepreneurs’ decision on internet adoption, by measuring technology readiness (TR). The purpose of this study is to investigate TR and the
extent to which E-commerce is adopted amongst entrepreneurs. This study is replication of Parasuraman’s
study on the Technology Readiness Index (TRI). Questionnaires were distributed using a convenience
sampling method to 190 entrepreneurs of SME in Bandung city. The findings indicate that entrepreneurs
are moderate in terms of their TR. There are significant differences in terms of TR across entrepreneurs’
backgrounds (gender, age, education, and income). In relation to internet adoption by those surveyed, as
their use of media promotion is still low, there were only 36.3 percent who adopted it. The results clearly
indicate the need to provide support to SMEs to adopt and use e-commerce. These results have implications not only for managers of SMEs but also for government agencies in developing countries such as
Indonesia. The findings have implications for researchers and practitioners by identifying TR drivers
(optimism and innovativeness), and barriers (discomfort and insecurity), that contribute to effectively
leveraging the Internet in an important area for SMEs.
Abstrak: Munculnya perdagangan berbasis internet menawarkan peluang yang cukup besar bagi perusahaan
untuk memperluas jumlah pelanggan, memasuki pasar baru, dan merasionalisasikan bisnis mereka.
Pemerintah Indonesia telah menerapkan serangkaian rencana dan kegiatan untuk mempromosikan
penggunaan teknologi untuk meningkatkan kinerja Unit Kecil Menengah (UKM). Meskipun berbagai
upaya pemerintah telah dilakukan, namun tingkat adopsi teknologi masih rendah. Oleh karena itu, penting
untuk memahami faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi keputusan seorang entrepreneur dalam mengadopsi
internet yaitu dengan mengukur kesiapan teknologi. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui
kesiapan teknologi dan sejauh mana tingkat adopsi e-commerce para entrepreneur di UKM. Penelitian ini
merupakan replikasi dari penelitian Parasuraman tentang Indeks Kesiapan Teknologi (Technology Readiness
Index/TRI). Kuesioner didistribusikan menggunakan metode convenience sampling kepada 190 entrepreneur UKM di kota Bandung. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kesiapan teknologi dari entrepreneur
masih moderat. Ada perbedaan yang signifikan dalam hal kesiapan teknologi jika dilihat dari latar belakang

* Corresponding author’s e-mail: novika.candra@sbm-itb.ac.id
ISSN: 1141-1128
http://www.gamaijb.mmugm.ac.id/

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Astuti and Nasution

mereka (jenis kelamin, usia, pendidikan, dan pendapatan). Sehubungan dengan tingkat adopsi internet
untuk media promosi masih rendah, hanya ada 36.3 persen yang mengadopsinya. Hal ini jelas menunjukkan
perlunya untuk memberikan dukungan kepada UKM untuk mengadopsi teknologi khususnya untuk
penggunaan e–commerce. Hasil penelitian memberikan implikasi tidak hanya untuk para manajer UKM
tetapi juga untuk instansi pemerintah di negara-negara berkembang seperti Indonesia. Temuan ini juga
memiliki implikasi bagi para peneliti dan praktisi dalam mengidentifikasi pendorong kesiapan teknologi
(optimisme dan inovasi) dan hambatan (ketidaknyamanan dan ketidakamanan), yang berkontribusi secara
efektif membantu meningkatkan penggunaan internet di UKM.

Keywords: e-commerce; entrepreneurs; SMEs; technology readiness

Introduction
Internet technology has changed the
supply chain by improving collaboration and
efficiency, and adding value to products and
firms. The rapid adoption of the internet as a
commercial medium has motivated firms to
experiment with innovative ways of marketing in cyberspace (Ricciuti 1995). Electronic
commerce (e-commerce) refers to the use of
the Internet for buying and selling activities
(Rodgers et al. 2002). E-commerce can be
one of the activities which create value for
companies wanting to improve their business.
As a direct impact, e-commerce enables the
automation of common processes, such as
distribution, sales, after-sales service and inventory management. Driven by the growth
of the Internet and economic globalization,
e-commerce has become critical in many organizations, both large and small.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
(SMEs) are gradually using information and
communications technologies (ICT)-based
electronic commerce to gain competitive advantages, and to have access to global markets (Al-Qirim 2003). Around the world,
SMEs are increasingly seen as essential for
economic diversification through job creation
(Machacha 2002). As evidence of the impor-

70

tance of SMEs to the national and international economy, and the potential of internet
adoption and utilization in the context of
SMEs, it becomes important to understand
the key issues that determine the adoption
of the Internet (Houghton and Winklhofer
2004; Pflughoeft et al. 2003). It is on record
that a variety of potential profits can be made
by e-commerce, but surprisingly adoption by
SMEs’ of e-commerce is still low, as SMEs
have different characteristics to those of large
companies.
In the history of the Indonesian
economy, SMEs constitute the largest group
of economic actors that have contributed significantly to the national economy and have
proved to be a buffer in the economy. Based
on data from the State Ministry for Cooperative and SME in 2012, it stated that the contribution of SMEs in Indonesia is also very
real with the number estimated to be
55,213,960 business units or 99.98 percent
of the total business with 99.04 percent absorption of labor employment, equivalent to
101.72 million people. Similarly, SME’s contribution to non oil Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) was 63.11 percent, with an investment
of 640.4 trillion or 52.9 percent as well as
contributing to exports of 183.8 trillion or
20.2 percent. The Indonesian government is

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

actively supporting the use and utilization of
IT to increase the competitiveness of SMEs.
However, currently IT adoption by SMEs in
Indonesia is still very low.
With the coming implementation of the
ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, each
country has to prepare, as do SMEs in Indonesia. However, SMEs appear to face significant and unique challenges in adopting new
technologies. The technology readiness of
each individual SME is not the same, although there is a growing awareness about
the potential of e-commerce. SMEs have
begun to utilize the potential of the Internet,
although most are still only at the stage of
marketing and product promotion. Technological readiness is concerned with the level
of sophistication of IT usage and IT management in an organization (Iacovou et al.
1995). IT sophistication (Pare and Raymond
1991) captures not only the level of technological expertise within the organization, but
also assesses the level of management understanding of, and support for using IT to
achieve organizational objectives. This factor was considered because small firms tend
to lack the resources that are necessary for
IT investments (Bouchard 1993). Therefore,
there is a need for better understanding of
the reasons why SMEs use technologies, in
an effort to establish practical methods aimed
at assessing the technology, how users will
respond to them, and elevate user acceptance
through the changing nature of the technologies and processes they implemented.
The objectives of this study, therefore,
are to investigate technology readiness and
the extent to which e-commerce adoption
among entrepreneurs occurs. This study is a
replication of Parasuraman’s study on the
Technology Readiness Index (TRI). Our literature review shows little research has been

done incorporating user technology readiness
into studying technology adoption among
entrepreneurs in SMEs. We believe that technology readiness dimensions as personality
traits serve as an important factor in influencing user perception of technology, such
as e-commerce. Understanding potential entrepreneurs’ technology readiness and their
perceptions concerning certain products and
services could provide new insight in both
academia and practice in understanding readiness in adopting technology, and also elevate
technology use in SMEs. This study has limitations on e-commerce adoption only in the
areas of marketing and product promotion.
A study of this nature is helpful and timely
for filling the gap in the literature, and for
building Technology Readiness theory to entrepreneurs’ life reality in Indonesia. This type
of research should also be helpful for comparing the findings from different countries,
and for examining the guiding value of a
theory on a world-wide scale.

Literature Review
Technology Readiness
In management and marketing theory,
personality differences have been regarded as
important in moderating human behavior. The
literature tells us that personality can be described as the aspects of an individual’s
thoughts and behavior that are stable over
time and relatively consistent across different situations (Roberts and DelVecchio 2000).
A previous study showed that the use of selfservice technology (SST) is heavily influenced by user personality traits, since personality affects the environment people choose
and the speed with which they adapt to a new
technology (Pocius 1991).

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Astuti and Nasution

This study focused on entrepreneurs in,
and owners of SMEs. Harper (1996) sees the
entrepreneur as one who is engaged in entrepreneurial, often identified as an innovator –
a person who attempts to introduce, on a
commercial basis, new products, new productive techniques, or even new forms of business enterprise. The focus on entrepreneurs
is highlighted by the fact that entrepreneurs
are a different and important IT user group.
This study applied Parasuraman’s study about
technology readiness. Technology readiness
(TR) refers to “people’s propensity to embrace
and use new technologies to accomplish goals
in home life and at work” (Parasuraman
2000). At the measurement level, the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) was developed
to measure people’s general beliefs and
thoughts about technology. It is a combination of positive and negative technology-related beliefs. The variable can be viewed as
an overall state-of-mind which determines a
person‘s predisposition to use new technologies. There are four variables in technology
readiness:
•

Optimism is defined as “a positive view of
technology and a belief that it [technology] offers people increased control,
flexibility, and efficiency in their lives.” It
generally captures positive feelings about
technology.

•

Innovativeness is defined as “a tendency to
be a technology pioneer and thought
leader.” This dimension generally measures
to what degree individuals perceive themselves as being at the forefront of technology adoption.

•

Discomfort is defined as “a perceived lack
of control over technology and a feeling
of being overwhelmed by it.” This dimension generally measures the fears and concerns people experience when confronted
with technology.

72

•

Insecurity is defined as a “distrust of technology and skepticism about its ability to
work properly.” This dimension focuses
on concerns people may have in the face
of technology-based transactions.

Optimism and innovativeness are “contributors” that increase an individual’s technology readiness, while discomfort and insecurity are “inhibitors” that reduce technology readiness. We believe that technology
readiness variables as personality traits serve
as an important factor in influencing the
entrepreneur’s perception of technology in
doing business, such as e-commerce. The
technology cannot be accepted if the entrepreneur is not ready. Meuter et al. (2005) referred to customer readiness as a condition
or state in which a consumer is prepared and
likely to try new technology services; it can
be conceptualized as role clarity, motivation,
and ability. In previous research, Jaafar et al.
(2007) examined influence demographic
background on the technology readiness level.
They found that the overall TRI score among
managers of Malaysian construction firms
was moderate in terms of their technology
readiness. There were no significant differences in terms of TRI across various demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, etc.),
except for educational level. Demirci and
Ersoy (2008) replicated and extended
Parasuraman’s study on Technology Readiness Index (TRI). They found that none of
the factors of technological readiness were
statistically different according to educational
level and average income.

SMEs and E-commerce
E-commerce refers to conducting business transactions over the Internet, which
includes exchange of information of value,
in the form of products and services as well
as payments, using web-based technologies

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

(Fraser et al. 2005). E-commerce can enhance the supply chain efficiency by providing real-time information regarding product
availability, inventory level, shipment status,
and production requirements (Radstaak and
Ketelaar 1998). SMEs are regarded as having an important role in the economies of both
developing and developed countries. It should
be noted that various potential advantages
can be created by e-commerce, but surprisingly SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce has still
been limited due to the fact that SMEs have
different characteristics from large enterprises. Under the opinion of Seyal and
Rahman (2003), distinct characteristics imbedded in SMEs consist of small management teams, strong owner influence, lack of
staff in specialized areas such as information
technology, multi-functional management,
limited control over their business environment, limited market share, low employee
turnover, a reluctance to take risks, and
avoidance of sophisticated software or applications. Such characteristics lead SMEs to
be very slow with respect to technology
adoption, and have more difficulties in taking advantage of benefits from the technologies than large enterprises (Grandon and
Pearson 2004; Poon and Swatman 1999). The
e-commerce adoption literature implies that
in order to adopt e-commerce appropriately
in developing countries, firms need to be internally and externally ready (Tan et al. 2007).
Molla and Licker (2005) demonstrated that
in the initial adoption of e-commerce in developing countries, internal (organizational)
readiness is significantly influential. Internal
e-commerce readiness can be defined as availability of financial and technological resources, the top management’s enthusiasm to
adopt e-commerce, e-commerce technology
infrastructure (ECTI), compatibility of ecommerce in firm as well as culture and val-

ues (Saffu et al. 2008). The issue of individuals is a critical aspect of the application of
ICT and e-commerce in any organization. The
challenge comes when the manager is reluctant to push for e-commerce developments.
A vibrant SME owner or manager usually
transforms the SME’s objectives to grow the
organization further (Karakaya and Shea
2008). Research studies have found that one
of the criteria for successful e-commerce
adoption amongst SMEs is the level of education (Thong 1999; Sarosa and Zowghi
2003). SMEs are interested in e-commerce
since it can help them to improve their business processes, reduce costs, and achieve
close connection with their clients.

Methods
A survey was distributed to SMEs in
Bandung city, Indonesia. This study replicated
Parasuraman’s study, Technology Readiness
Index. TRI is a multiple-item scale developed
to measure consumers’ readiness to embrace
new technologies (Parasumaran 2000). TRI
consists of 36 statements that put forward
the drivers and inhibitors of technology readiness. The statements were evaluated by the
survey participants according to a five-point
Likert scale (‘1’ strongly disagree and ‘5’
strongly agree). In addition, the survey questioned respondents about their background
(gender, age, business sector, education, income) and internet adoption as media promotion as well as the kind of media they used.
The respondents were drawn by using
non-probabilistic sampling since this research
does not have any list of respondents, therefore, no sampling frame. The survey was conducted from March to June 2013. The managers or owners of SMEs from various sectors located in Bandung were chosen as respondents since they are the most important

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Astuti and Nasution

persons in their company or business, and the
one who will determine the level of technology use. The survey was distributed to 260
entrepreneurs in various background, some
of them are students who also have their own
business; the rate of return in this study is 73
percent. So, 190 entrepreneurs participated
in this research.
The tools that were used for processing
the data were SPSS 19 and Lisrel 8.70. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used in
this study by using Lisrel 8.70. CFA is used
to check the validity and reliability of the
variables of technology readiness. Then, to
find out the research objectives, this study
used two types of analyses – t-test and oneway ANOVA in SPSS 19. A t-test is appropriate for two groups and a one-way ANOVA
is appropriate for more than two groups. Any
significant differences between these groups
can be detected by t-values and the F value
for a one-way ANOVA. There is one type of
significant difference level p< 0.05 which
indicates a 95 per cent confidence level.

Characteristics of the Sample
The questionnaire was distributed to the
190 Bandung entrepreneurs who participated
in our survey. Characteristics of the respon-

dents are presented in Table 1. This study was
conducted in various business sectors. There
are 34.2 percent in Culinary, 16.3 percent in
Design, Creative Art and Architecture, 16.3
percent in Fashion, 6.3 percent in Electronics-Information Technology, 6.8 percent in
Fishery, 5.3 percent in Agriculture, 2.6 percent in Education, 4.2 percent in Stationery,
3.7 percent in Beauty salon and gift shop, and
others 4.1 percent (music shops, internet
marketing, book store, properti, transportasi/
travel). The majority of participants have
owned their business for less than 5 years
(45.8%), for between 5-10 years it is 35.8
percent, between 11-15 years 10.0 percent,
between 16-20 years 5.3 percent, and over
25 years 3.3 percent. The participants also
have used the internet as media to promote
and sell their products. Of the 190 survey
participants, 36.3 percent used the internet
and 63.7 percent didn’t use the internet as
media promotion. From 36.3 percent of total respondents using internet as media promotion, 27.3 percent respondents used
Facebook, 16.3 percent used own website,
14.2 percent used Twitter, 6.3 percent used
Blog, 7.4 percent used Kaskus, 6.8 percent
used Toko Bagus, and others 6.8 percent
(Instagram, Path, Blackberry Messenger).

Table 1. Characteristics of the Sample

Age

74

Under 20 years old
21-25 years old
26-30 years old
31-35 years old
36-40 years old
Above 40 years old

Frequency

Percentage

8
47
29
52
33
14

4.2%
24.7%
15.3%
27.4%
17.4%
11.1%

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

Table 1 (Continued)
Frequency

Percentage

Gender

Male
Female

98
92

51.6%
48.4%

Education

Elementary school
Junior high school
Senior high school
Diploma
Bachelor’s degree
Master’s degree

14
34
76
33
27
6

7.4%
17.9%
40.0%
17.4%
14.2%
3.2%

Monthly Income

Less than Rp 3,000,000
Rp 3,000,000-Rp 5,000,000
RP 5,000,000-Rp 7,000,000
Rp 7,000,000-Rp 10,000,000
Over Rp 10,000,000

59
54
10
17
50

31.1%
28.4%
5.3%
8.9%
26.3%

Internet use as
media promotion

Yes
No

69
121

36.3%
63.7%

Technology Readiness Analyses
There are 36 items in total which may
drive or inhibit technology readiness in the
TRI measurement scale of Parasuraman. To
classify and sort out the variables, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used in this
study by using Lisrel 8.70. After processing
the data with CFA, eleven items with factor
loadings of less than 0.50 were excluded from
the original scale, and the final analysis was
performed on 24 items. All factor loadings
are greater than 0.50. The cronbach alphas
are greater than 0.70 as suggested by
Nunnally (1978), except for innovativeness,
but for this value some researchers state that
more than 0.6 is still acceptable. All factors
have a relatively high coefficient score (see
T-test and Anova were applied to examine the demographic differentiations of the
four variables of technology readiness (Table

3). According to the gender variable,
innovativeness was found to be significantly
different compared to the other variables.
Based on the t-test results for innovativeness,
males are more interested in technology than
are females, as can be seen in Figure 1. In
term of age, innovativeness and discomfort
were significantly different. Depending on
their education, optimism, innovativeness,
discomfort and insecurity were found to be
significantly different. Figure 4 shows that
entrepreneurs with a high level of education
have high optimism and innovativeness, but
they also have a high level of discomfort and
insecurity compared to lower educational
group. The overall TRI score shows that entrepreneurs with a degree-level education
have a higher technology readiness compared
to those with a lower education.With regards
to income, optimism, discomfort, and insecurity were found to be significantly differ-

75

Astuti and Nasution

ent compared to the other variables. Figure 3
shows that entrepreneurs with higher income
levels have high optimism, but also have more
discomfort and insecurity compared to those
with a lower income. According to the busi-

ness sector, we found that innovativeness and
discomfort were significantly different. In
term of internet use, we found that discomfort was significantly different compared to
other variables.

Table 2. Measurement Scores
Items

Factor
Loading
(>0.5)

Mean

S.D.

0.61

3.789

0.853

Cronbach’s
Alpha

OPTIMISM
OP1

(Technology gives people more control
over their daily live)

OP2

(Products and services that use the
newest technologies are much more
convenient to use)

0.54

3.678

0.767

(Technology makes you more
flexible doing business because you
are not limited to regular business hours)

0.65

3.684

0.773

OP3

OP5

(You like computer programs that allow
you to tailor things to fit your own needs)

0.80

3.778

0.805

OP6

(Technology makes you more efficient
in your occupation)

0.78

3.90

0.72

OP7

(You find new technologies to be
mentally stimulating)

0.72

3.50

0.88

(Technology gives you more freedom
of mobility)

0.78

3.83

0.75

0.75

3.78

0.72

3.74

0.79

INNOVATIVENESS
INO4
(You can usually figure out new high-tech
products without help from others)

0.58

2.81

0.88

INO5

(You keep up with the latest technological
developments in your areas of interest)

0.58

3.35

0.81

INO6

(You enjoy the challenge of figuring out
high-tech gadgets)

0.67

3.31

0.78

INO7

(You find you have fewer problems
than other people in making technology
work for you)

0.52

3.11

0.83

3.15

0.83

OP8
OP10

76

(You feel confident that technology will
follow through with you instructed them
to do)

0.885

0.675

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Table 2 (Continued)
Items

Factor
Mean
Loading
(>0.5)Items

DISCOMFORT
DISCOM1 (Technical support lines are not helpful
because they do not explain things you
understand)
DISCOM2

DISCOM3

DISCOM4

DISCOM5

S.D.

Cronbach’s
Alpha

0.835

0.64

2.88

0.86

(Sometimes, you think that technology
systems are no designed for use by
ordinary people)

0.61

2.77

0.94

(There is no such thing as a manual for
a high-tech product or service that’s
written in plain language)

0.81

2.80

0.89

0.63

2.74

0.81

0.73

2.89

0.89

(When you get technical support from
a provider of high-tech product or
service, you sometimes feel as if you
are being taken advantage of by
someone who knows more than
you do)
(If you buy a high-tech product, you
prefer to have the basic model over
one with a lot of extra features)

DISCOM7

(You find new technologies to be
mentally stimulating)

0.59

3.10

0.97

DISCOM9

(Learning about technology can be as
rewarding as the technology itself)

0.55
0.55

3.21
3.21

0.91
0.91

2.91

0.89

0.58

3.6800

0.81

(You worry that information you
send over the internet will be seen
by other people)

0.63

3.6947

0.77

(Whenever something gets automated,
you need to check carefully that the
machine or computer is not mistakes)

0.64

3.8000

0.86

INSECURITY
INSE1
(You do not consider it safe giving
out a credit card number over a
computer)
INSE3

INSE6

0.793

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Astuti and Nasution

Table 2 (Continued)
Items

Factor
Mean
Loading
(>0.5)Items

S.D.

INSE7

(The human touch is very important
when doing business with a company)

0.74

4.0526

0.92

INSE8

(When you call a business, you prefer
talk to a person rather than a machine)

0.70

3.8421

0.86

3.81

0.84

3.40

0.84

TRI

Cronbach’s
Alpha

Table 3. Aspect Differentiation According to Demographic
Variables

Optimism

Innovativeness

Discomfort

Insecurity

Gender

t
p

0.201
0.147

2.361
0.000*

1.860
0.560

-0.367
0.617

Age

F
p

1.870
0.102

4.022
0.002*

6.171
0.000*

1.263
0.282

Education

F
p

7.066
0.000*

8.153
0.000*

3.070
0.011*

2.711
0.022*

Income

F
p

3.122
0.016*

1.478
0.210

8.882
0.000*

15.615
0.000*

Sector Business

F
p

1.1773
0.042*

2.008
0.017*

4.776
0.000*

1.126
0.336

Internet adoption

t
p

4.497
0.653

3.808
0.102

4.202
0.044*

-0.739
0.986

*Significance p-value < 0.05

78

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

Figure 1. Male-Female Comparison
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5

Men

2

Women

1.5
1
0.5
0
Optimism

Innovativeness

Discomfort

Insecurity

Figure 2. Age Group Comparison
4.5
4
3.5
3

Optimism
2.5

Innovativeness
Discomfort

2

Insecurity
1.5

TRI

1
0.5
0

Less than 20
years

21 – 25 years

26-30 years

31-35 years

36-40 years

more than 40
years

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Astuti and Nasution

Figure 3. Income Level Comparison
5
4.5
4
3.5
Optimism

3

Innovativeness

2.5

Discomfort

2

Insecurity

1.5

TRI

1
0.5
0
Less than Rp
3.000.000

Rp 3.000.000 – Rp 5.000.100 – Rp 7.000.100 – More than Rp
Rp 5.000.000 Rp 7.000.000
10.000.000
10.000.000

Figure 4. Education Group Comparison
4.5
4
3.5
3
Optimism
2.5

Innovativeness

2

Discomfort

1.5

Insecurity
TRI

1
0.5
0
Elementray Junior High Senior High
School
School
School

80

Diploma

Bachelor's

Master's

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

Figure 5. Internet Use Comparison
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5

Using Internet
Not Using Internet

1
0.5
0

Discussion
By using the TRI developed by
Parasuraman (2000), the purpose in this study
was to examine technology readiness levels
and to investigate the extent of internet adoption among entrepreneurs in SMEs in
Bandung city. Demographic characteristics,
business sector, and internet use as e-commerce to promote their products are also discussed due to their possible relationship to
technology readiness. The results show the
benefit of investigating the profile and background of the entrepreneur and his/her willingness to use/adopt technology to accomplish their goals in their home and working
life. The overall TRI score (mean = 3.35, SD
= 0.84) indicates that the entrepreneurs are
medium in terms of their technology readiness. There are significant differences in
terms of technology readiness across various

demographic variables (e.g. gender, education, income and ages).
From the result, it can be seen from the
descriptive analysis that entrepreneurs score
medium on Technology Readiness (optimism,
innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity).
This result does not support a previous study
(Jaafar et al. 2007) that examined technology readiness among managers in Malaysian
construction firms. That study found that
managers exhibited high levels of
innovativeness and optimism and they also
experienced considerable discomfort and insecurity. Compared to the study by Jaafar et
al. (2007), which was conducted on construction firms, we found that entrepreneurs of
SMEs in Bandung city scored lower on technology readiness.
With regards to the gender variable, only
innovativeness was found to be significantly

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different compared to the other variables.
This finding is in line with another previous
study (Demirci and Ersoy 2008). Their study
aimed to examine Technology readiness for
innovative high-tech products, based on t-test
results for the innovativeness factor it was
found that male respondent values were assessed as higher than those of female respondents. The result supports previous research
by Venkastesh et al. (2000) which found that
the determinants of technology adoption and
usage behavior confirmed that attitudes toward using technology was more salient to
men.
According to the age variable, innovativeness and discomfort were found to be significantly different compared to the other
variables. Morris et al. (2000) suggests that
there are clear differences with age in the
importance of various factors in technology
adoption and usage. Although people feel that
they can use the technology without help
from others, always follow the development
of technology, and have fewer problems than
other people in making technology work. But
few of them also feel uncomfortable and have
the perception that the technology is not intended for ordinary people. Some high-tech
products are only available with English for
use or instruction, so they argue that these
technologies are not offered in an understandable language. When seen from the descriptive result of education levels, we found that
most of the elder entrepreneurs were only
educated to senior high school level. So we
suspect that their English language skills are
very low, but it can be used as material for
further research on the level of English language skills among entrepreneurs. So, the result support Jaafar et al. (2007) that discomfort was found to be significantly different.
The next result is that level of education plays an important contribution to the

82

TRI. This result supports Jaafar et al. (2007)
who found that respondents with a high degree-level education also score higher on technology readiness compared to other groups.
Entrepreneurs who have a high level of education have optimism and innovatiness but
they also have high discomfort and insecurity levels. This can happen because the entrepreneurs who have the benefit of higher
education have the ability to analyze, to judge
something by looking at the positive and
negative terms, so they are more cautious in
adopting the technology. Actually, people
who have high education have a high willingness to try new things and have optimism
that technology can ease their workload.
With regards to income, we found that
optimism, discomfort, and insecurity were
found to be significantly different. This finding was not in line with a previous study
(Demirci and Ersoy, 2008) that none of the
factors of technological readiness were statistically different according to average income. We see that the entrepreneurs, who
have higher incomes, have a high level of
optimism. They have seen the benefits of the
technology for their work. But here we see
that the higher the income, they also have
high levels of insecurity and discomfort.
These high levels of insecurity come from the
lack of security available online in Indonesia
when using credit cards for transactions, or
that private data may be viewed by anyone,
and that they feel uncomfortable when there
is a lack of person to person interaction when
only dealing with a machine. This could be
due to that sense of discomfort and insecurity which arise as a result of still not having
a lot of knowledge about the ways of doing
business online. We can conclude that their
readiness for e-commerce services is still low.
From the results of the adoption of the
internet to promote products, only about 36.3

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

percent use it. If viewed from the TRI, we
found that the innovativeness was significantly different between entrepreneurs who
adopt the internet and those who do not.

Conclusion and
Recommendation
Measuring technology readiness and
internet adoption among entrepreneurs provides new insight for SMEs and the Indonesian government to analyze readiness of technology and the extent of adoption of the
internet in SMEs. Based on our findings, we
then purpose the following recommendations
for entrepreneurs in SMEs as well as for parties involved in supporting the enterprises
including government, banking, telecommunication companies, and universities.
Firstly, the role of the Indonesian government is to promote the use of technology
among SMEs. The Government must lead ecommerce users, various business and related
activities by the private sector to move
online. The Government should provide education on the importance of the use of technology, particularly the use of e-commerce
for SMEs. Regarding the discomfort and insecurity problems that SMEs take note of in
considering whether to involve in e-commerce, such as where and how the payment
is made, when the transfer of goods takes
place (before, during or after the transaction),
whether the transaction is Business to Business or Business to Consumer, and whether
the delivery of goods can be traced, the Government should act. To address these concerns, the Government can guarantee security in e-commerce transactions through the
establishment of a Certification Authority,
which can verify the identity of the seller and
buyer, check transactions and security pro-

cedures, and issues digital certificates. In addition, from the discussion above, we found
that there are levels of technology readiness
among adopters and non adopters. Therefore,
the Government should campaign that education is important for entrepreneurs, as entrepreneurs who have higher levels of education are better prepared to compete with
entrepreneurs from around the world, and
ready to build global businesses. They are
more willing to try new things and dare to
face the challenges in this fast-paced world.
Moreover, the Government should encourage big businesses and corporations to transfer technology to SMEs by offering them free
training in ICT and e-commerce. Because
technology must be easier to use, more affordable, and implemented from a local perspective, the Government can work together
with IT companies to provide software that
is easy to use and offered in local languages
to breakdown the perceived complexity of
IT.
Secondly, the banking industry plays an
important part in supporting the development
of SMEs. E-commerce products and services
are also offered by banking organizations to
carry out their transactions without necessarily coming into physical contact with their
clients. These services include Automatic
Teller Machines (ATMs), Electronic Fund
Transfer (ETF), mobile banking, online banking, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and
telecommunication services. According to
the result, only 36.3 percent of entrepreneurs
who using internet. Awareness and knowledge
about banking products is still limited, entrepreneurs who used internet perceived that
activities online cause discomfort and insecurity. They do not trust that online transactions will be safe, such as giving credit card
information over the internet. Banking industry should help entrepreneurs to reduce anx-

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ious to use internet or technology adoption.
The banks should introduce the use of e-commerce to their customers by educating them
about it and the advantages that come with
its use. Moreover, the banks can use sms
messaging services to spread the news of the
benefits of implementation of e-commerce,
such as mobile banking, for those who cannot access internet services. To support the
growth of entrepreneurs in Indonesia, the
banks can provide incentives to individuals
to become entrepreneurs by lowering loan
rates. Also, to increase e-commerce, banks
should give incentives to entrepreneurs who
are willing to use e-commerce in their business operations and extending credit that facilitates them to use ICT and e-commerce.
Thirdly, telecommunication companies
can be good partners with SMEs. Good network infrastructure and localization of content are needed to support SMEs. Without
powerful and cheap telecommunications and
other information services, SMEs will not
able to operate online. Telecommunication
companies should work together with the
Government to develop electronic community centers, especially in rural areas to allow
access to information, and the sharing of the
same, to serve as a place for training to increase skills and knowledge about IT, communication, and also content development.
This electronic community center can also
provide market information for and between
farmers in rural areas. Besides that, these centers facilitate trading with SMEs and with
other companies in the international market.
They can also serve to promote campaigns
to propagate information to SMEs about ecommerce, success stories, benefits and handling problems related to the use of IT and
e-commerce. Building awareness can be
implemented through free training courses,

84

workshops on e-commerce, and information
centers to assist SMEs.
Universities are now playing a more significant role in the development of social and
national economic growth (Co and Mitchell
2007; Mok 2005). With regard to entrepreneurial development, universities, as a seedbed of entrepreneurship, play a functional role
in promoting entrepreneurship education to
develop regional economies and societies
(Binks et al. 2006; Bygrave 2004; Co and
Mitchell 2006; Hartshorn 2002; Wilson et al.
2003). In Indonesia, entrepreneurship education has recently become focused in universities. These universities are also expected to
play a full role in providing curriculum on
entrepreneurship and build awareness of the
importance of education for entrepreneurs.
Universities must be able to develop individual entrepreneurship education and provide training programs. These programs are
intended to increase entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, and provide training and counseling to improve business performance. Entrepreneurs who have business problems are
also given advice and guidance to manage
their business. In addition, university students
should be involved in real entrepreneurial
situations by working (through training programs) with entrepreneurs in their SMEs.
University students are students studying
business, information technology, economic
and engineering etc. at the Undergraduate
level, Master of Management or MBA program, and Doctoral program. Students can
obtain experience and implement their
knowledge to help entrepreneurs for solving
their problems in doing business. The type
of training that can be provided by universities to entrepreneurs includes knowledge of
technology use, financial planning, leadership,
international business trade, market research

Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business - January-April, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2014

and English courses. We consider that these
are important for the following reasons. Training on the use of technology will reduce insecurity in the use of technology, encouraging entrepreneurs to try and put into practice
what they have been taught into the running
of their business. Also, training about financial planning is necessary for SMEs to be able
to manage their finances properly, so that
they can use the income to be able to expand
their business. Leadership training is considered important for entrepreneurs, to show how
they can be good leaders who are able to
manage their employees and responsibilities
in the face of obstacles and challenges. Besides that, knowledge about international
business and trade is necessary for them, including export and import rules and regulations, international business law, how to determine which countries offers favorable trading opportunities, how to enter foreign markets, and how to run a business overseas, so
they can figure out a strategy to expand their
business abroad. Then knowledge about the
introduction of market research is necessary
to enable them to analyze the opportunities
that exist around them, measuring the level
of customer satisfaction, measuring the effectiveness of advertising they have done so
as to create better value for customers and
generate larger profit. We noted concern about
the language skills of entrepreneurs, some of
them feel discomfort that there is no such
thing as a manual for a high-tech product or
service that’s written in plain language. We
presume that the English language skills of
entrepreneurs are at a low level; this will be
an obstacle to their intentions to use technology and to expand internationally. To
overcome this language barrier, we encourage universities to help entrepreneurs to learn
the English language. The importance of foreign language skills cannot be overlooked in

the development of trading relationships and
businesses with foreigners.
For SMEs in developing countries, ecommerce offer the benefits of cost reduction of information searches and transaction
costs (ex. increase operating efficiency-reducing time for payment, loan processing etc.).
This study makes a contribution to assessing
how the variables of technology readiness are
related to technology acceptance of e-commerce in SMEs. Effectively managing technology readiness as a major component of a
company’s business process will make an
important contribution to the organization’s
business performance. Finally, it is necessarry
to build an understanding of optimism and
innovativeness as well as reducing discomfort and insecurity toward technology among
entrepreneurs.
It is appropriate to mention the limitations of this study. First, the sample size is
small so that cannot be used to describe the
whole population of entrepreneurs in Indonesia. For future research, sampling should
be done in many cities in Indonesia. This research was only conducted in 18 sectors, so
that many sectors where SMEs operate have
not been included in this study. We would
argue that any further research must increase
the sample size, to allow representation from
each sector, so we can examine the technology readiness of all business sectors. In addition, another limitation in our study is that
the study was done on a group with different
educational backgrounds. The differences in
income levels and educational backgrounds
may influence entrepreneurs against new technologies. Further research on a more diversified sample could generate a more detailed
insight into the technology readiness among
entrepreneurs. This study also involved students and non students. Further research

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could separately study student entrepreneurs
and non student entrepreneurs, so research
can be focused to give recommendations between each segments. Any future research
also needs to identify external factors, such
as environment. When organizations face a
complex and rapidly changing environment,
innovation is both necessary and justified
(Pfeffer and Leblebici 1977). Environmental
factors such as demand from customers, pressure of competition, pressure from suppliers,

etc. conceivably create a need for firms to
adopt IT related innovation such as e-commerce. This limitation restricts the ability to
investigate e-commerce adoption only in selling products; future research should examine
market focus (local area, national area, regional area, and international) and levels of
IT skill. Third, the research model should be
developed to identify factors potentially affecting SMEs’ adoption decisions.

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