Experiences of E-Commerce Use and Perceptions of Export Barriers among Jordanian Businesses

This study investigates the Electronic Commerce (EC) usage profile of services and industrial companies in Jordan aswell as the factors affecting their willingness to EC usage. The study draws on the data obtained from a sample of 112firms who were a´priori identified as being involved in direct exporting, yielding 60 useable questionnaires beingreturned. It was discovered that the most useful EC applications in exporting are: EC websites, online show rooms,online payments, e-banking transactions, videoconferencing, as well as online meetings. The major export barriers are:fears of intense competition of foreign markets, lack of experience in exporting, lack of time management of that timedevoted to export matters, and lack of security of online payments. The analysis shows that EC made it feasible forfirms to undertake significant export opportunities and get faster, cheaper and easier access to world markets. Industrialcompanies were more concerned about the lack of security of online payments than people in service firms. Industrialcompanies consider online meeting to be more useful for exporting activities and they were less concerned about thedependency on foreign agents