Electronic commerce for home-based businesses in emerging and developed economy

This study investigates and determines the most crucial factors that impact electronic commerce (EC) adoption among home-based business (HBB) owners in an emerging economy i.e. Malaysia and developed economy i.e. Singapore. An empirical survey research was conducted and 150 home-based business owners participated from Malaysia and Singapore respectively. The research is descriptive and causal in nature, interviews and data collection from both countries were conducted between June 2017 to April 2018. Data analysis was done using statistical software SPSS version 24 and SmartPLS 3.0. Findings reveal HBB owners’ IT knowledge, risk perception and online trust are significant predictors of their EC adoption and online trust is found to be the most important factor that contributes to EC adoption collectively for both countries. HBB owners from both countries are found to have different sets of ranking for EC adoption drivers as indicated by the importance-performance map analysis chart. The governments’ role in encouraging HBB ownership in the wake of Industry 4.0 can be enhanced in both countries. HBB Owners could be empowered with the right training, awareness and policy that is HBB friendly. Especially in Malaysia, risk perception is still a significant hindrance for HBB owners to engage in EC. This study pioneers in comparative EC adoption research between a developed and an emerging economy who are neighboring each other and share rich history together. The results assist in understanding the dynamics of EC in this region as well as pave paths for further research inquiries, especially with the advent of Big Data and increasing numbers of HBB owners in both countries powered by Social Media.