Author_Institution :
Dept. of Inf. Syst., Univ. of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld., Australia
Abstract :
It is difficult to accurately assess the overall global market for SME-related e-commerce. However, we do know that Australia has more than 1 million SMEs; they are vitally important to Australia´s economic prosperity. Thus, in September 2001 the government announced a $6.5 million initiative to accelerate SMEs´ adoption of e-commerce to facilitate online access to government purchasing within two years. Helping these SMEs efficiently build their e-commerce systems has become a high priority of Australia´s government and IT/IS researchers. To find solutions to Australian SMEs´ e-commerce concerns, we conducted research using Citysearch, an online business directory, in early 2002. We selected 10 cities/areas to research: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Tasmania, and Townsville, and studied industry sectors that include many SMEs.
Keywords :
electronic commerce; government; government data processing; purchasing; small-to-medium enterprises; Australian SMEs; IT/IS researchers; e-commerce; economic prosperity; government help; government purchasing; industry sectors; online access; small and medium enterprises; Australia; Business; Cities and towns; Government; Information systems; Intelligent systems; Internet; Samarium; Urban areas; XML;