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Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) offers many potential benefits particularly in productivity gains and transaction cost reductions, mainly by enabling organisations to conduct business transactions electronically, facilitating efficient information sharing between organisations within and across industries and allowing automatic product identification. The rapid dissemination of information, the digitisation of record keeping and the networking capability of the Internet has improved flexibility and responsiveness and encouraged new and more efficient intermediaries. It has increased the use of outsourcing, expanded market access, reduced time to market by linking orders to production and improved internal coordination. Because of its potential in this era of globalisation, many countries have rapidly adopted e-Commerce (Andersen et al. 2003; Bean 2006; Gibbs and Kraemer 2004). E-Commerce is also seen to play a significant role in bridging the digital gap between developed and developing worlds through improving developing countries’ access to information, knowledge and expertise and enabling organisations around the world to extend their supply chain and to engage in global trading efficiently and effectively regardless of their geographical locations. Consequently, e-Commerce has the potential to enhance developing countries’ competitiveness and reduce poverty (Qureshi 2005; Qureshi and Davis 2007). Nevertheless, contradictory findings have been discovered in several studies which highlight that e-Commerce further marginalises developing nations and widens the digital divide (Odera-Straub 2003). At this stage, the e-Commerce adoption has been concentrated in developed countries. According to The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 95% of e-Commerce takes place in developed countries, with Africa and Latin America combined accounting for less than 1% of the total (UNCTAD 2005). In 2008, only 3% of the developing countries had access to Broadband Internet, in sharp contrast to the 28% penetration rate enjoyed by developed nations (AGENCIES 2008). These figures demystify the digital divide that exists between developed and developing nations. The fact that developing countries have lagged behind developed countries in the adoption of e-Commerce technology and those e-Commerce-enabled applications to support 12

Electronic Commerce Readiness in Developing Countries: The Case of the Chinese Grocery Industry