Enhancement of Micro Small Businesses in The Gambia through Digitalization: Investigating youth Entrepreneurs Perception, Use and Inhibitor of E-commerce Technology Investigating youth Entrepreneurs Perception, Use and Inhibitor of E-commerce Technology Bölüm Articles

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SMEs and e-commerce have been widely researched on due to their contribution in many aspects of development; however research in Africa is limited thus this paper aims to explore the factors that influence youth entrepreneurs in The Gambia to adopt this technology and how they perceive prospective benefits when it is adopted. Another aim is to assess their level of ecommerce adoption and to find out the factors that hinder the adoption process. A research model was developed based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT). The study objectives were achieved through a cross-sectional survey design and primary data was collected through self-administered online questionnaire from 153 youth entrepreneurs and IBM SPSS 22 was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that out of the 7 proposed independent variables, perceive benefits and perceive barriers have a positive correlation to adoption, perceive behavioral control was also found to positively influence ecommerce adoption while attitude, perceive usefulness, relative advantage and compatibility were not found to be significant. Finally the adoption level of ecommerce by the youth entrepreneurs was found to be moderateSMEs and e-commerce have been widely researched on due to their contribution in many aspects of development; however research in Africa is limited thus this paper aims to explore the factors that influence youth entrepreneurs in The Gambia to adopt this technology and how they perceive prospective benefits when it is adopted. Another aim is to assess their level of ecommerce adoption and to find out the factors that hinder the adoption process. A research model was developed based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT). The study objectives were achieved through a cross-sectional survey design and primary data was collected through self-administered online questionnaire from 153 youth entrepreneurs and IBM SPSS 22 was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that out of the 7 proposed independent variables, perceive benefits and perceive barriers have a positive correlation to adoption, perceive behavioral control was also found to positively influence ecommerce adoption while attitude, perceive usefulness, relative advantage and compatibility were not found to be significant. Finally the adoption level of ecommerce by the youth entrepreneurs was found to be moderateSMEs and e-commerce have been widely researched on due to their contribution in many aspects of development; however research in Africa is limited thus this paper aims to explore the factors that influence youth entrepreneurs in The Gambia to adopt this technology and how they perceive prospective benefits when it is adopted. Another aim is to assess their level of ecommerce adoption and to find out the factors that hinder the adoption process. A research model was developed based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT). The study objectives were achieved through a cross-sectional survey design and primary data was collected through self-administered online questionnaire from 153 youth entrepreneurs and IBM SPSS 22 was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that out of the 7 proposed independent variables, perceive benefits and perceive barriers have a positive correlation to adoption, perceive behavioral control was also found to positively influence ecommerce adoption while attitude, perceive usefulness, relative advantage and compatibility were not found to be significant. Finally the adoption level of ecommerce by the youth entrepreneurs was found to be moderate