Emerging Issues on Small Business Use of the Internet: 23 Australian Case Studies.

Case study research involving twenty-three Australian small businesses which were early adopters of the Internet and which are still users finds that they are predominantly using the Internet as a communications medium and, to a lesser extent, as a document transfer and advertising channel.

Abstract

The Internet is transforming the ways in which small business operates and communicates with customers and trading partners. The impetus for continued growth in Internet use by this group of organisations has recently become a popular topic for researchers in Information Systems and Entrepreneurship. In this paper we present the results of case study research involving twenty-three Australian small businesses which were early adopters of the Internet---and which are still users. We find that they are predominantly using the Internet as a communications medium and, to a lesser extent, as a document transfer and advertising channel. Management enthusiasm and perceived benefits seem to be the driving force for ongoing Internet use, although we discovered little or no integration between internal applications and Internet inter-organisational functions. Our findings also point to the importance of entrepreneurship for successful Internet use. 1 This paper was published in the proceedings...