Love, P E D; Irani, Z; li, H; Cheng, E W L and Tse, R Y C (2001) An empirical analysis of the barriers to implementing e-commerce in small-medium sized construction contractors in the state of Victoria, Australia. Construction Innovation, 1(1), pp. 31-41. ISSN 1471-4175
Abstract
To improve organizational performance and sustain a competitive advantage many Australian businesses have begun to embrace e-commerce. For example, businesses from the automotive, banking, insurance and retail industries have been able to leverage the benefits of information and communication technologies. Yet, those from the construction industry have been slow, perhaps even reluctant, to implement information and communication technologies to support ecommerce. Thus, this paper aims to determine the barriers that small-medium sized contractors are experiencing when confronted with the need to implement e-commerce to sustain their competitiveness. Unstructured interviews were undertaken with managers from 20 small-medium sized contractors from the State of Victoria in Australia, which had annual turnovers ranging from $1-50 million. The financial, organizational, technical and human barriers that were identified from findings are presented and discussed. The paper concludes by proposing strategies that small-medium sized contractors may adopt if they to leverage the benefits of e-commerce.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | e-commerce; information and communication technology; small-medium sized contractors |
| Index terms: | competitive advantage, Victoria, e-commerce, Australia, insurance, organizational performance, competitiveness, construction industry, interview, turnover, manager, information and communication technology, strategy, banking, construction contractor |
| Subjects: | economic analysis, regions and continents, digital commerce, business management, practitioner, computing systems, data collection methods, industry analysis, market analysis, Geography, performance measurement, management |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, Quality Management, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here