An investigation into the factors that influence the intention to use E-commerce : the Jordanian business-to-business market

Several researchers have suggested that behavioural decision theories from the field of social psychology could provide a potential foundation for research on user behaviour. Generally, the majority of research in information technology adoption have utilised one of four of the well-established theories (diffusion of innovation, theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behaviour and technology acceptance model). Mostly these theories have proposed to measure attitudes toward behaviour and identify the role of these attitudes in shaping behaviours. Gaps in the previous theories were identified and a preliminary study was conducted to generate a better understanding of the status of business to business (B2B) e-commerce usage within Jordanian companies. The literature review led to the development of a conceptual model proposing several factors such as trusting information technology, security, legal issues, company size, cost, education infrastructure, foreign language skills and top management support, which could impact on the intention to use B2B e-commerce in Jordan. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate and identify the major factors that affect the intention to use B2B e-commerce in Jordan. Following the development of the conceptual model, a research survey was developed and conducted to investigate the intention to use B2B e-commerce among Jordanian companies. The hypotheses that were derived from the conceptual model were examined through statistical analysis using factor analysis, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, multiple and hierarchical regressions. The findings of this study suggested that there are three main factors that tend to affect firms' intentions to use B2B e-commerce: trusting information technology and security, top management experience, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. This study has a number of theoretical and practical implications. It contributes to the state of knowledge in ecommerce adoption in developing countries and contributes to filling the previously identified gaps in the literature on B2B e-commerce adoption by being the initial study to deal with the intention of Jordanian companies to adopt e-commerce. The findings of this study are important and relevant to Jordanian and international companies and the general and IT managers of these companies. Based on the findings of the study, a set of strategies were recommended which could be potentially used to enhance B2B ecommerce adoption in Jordan