AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE TECHNOLOGIES BY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND

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1 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) 5 AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE TECHNOLOGIES BY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND Vasin Chooprayoon Schoo of Information Technoogy, Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch, Perth, Western Austraia 6150 v.chooprayoon@murdoch.edu.au Chun Che Fung Schoo of Information Technoogy, Murdoch University South Street, Murdoch, Perth, Western Austraia 6150.fung@murdoch.edu.au ABSTRACT This paper aims to investigate factors which have infuences on the adoption of eectronic commerce technoogies (ECTs) by sma and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in Bangkok, Thaiand. The ECT experiences of the SMEs are used as the factors to measure the adoption. The resuts found that there are sighty infuences by the four main factors: business environment, knowedge, organisation, and technoogy toward ECT adoption. Index Terms Thai SMEs, E-Commerce Technoogy Adoption, ECT Adoption, Thaiand E-Commerce 1. INTRODUCTION This paper focuses on the study of the factors which infuence the adoption of eectronic commerce technoogies (ECTs) by sma and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thaiand. This research has adopted quantitative approaches in the study. Reevant modes are examined and verified in this study in order to evauate the appicabiity of such modes from the perspective of Thaiand. The study directs to the consideration and contribution of knowedge for the Thai s SME sectors with respect to ECTs and their adoption. The finding is anticipated to benefit the Thai SMEs community by empowering and assisting them to: a) deveop and impement ECTs; b) engage in gobaisation business via e-commerce; and c) comprehend issues reated to e-commerce entrepreneurship in both nationa and internationa eves. In 2002, the Thai government has endorsed an information technoogy poicy framework entited Thaiand Vision towards a Knowedge-Based Economy (IT 2010). The poicy framework is expected to be put in pace and foowed unti The IT 2010 poicy emphasises the roes of information technoogy for the enabement and faciitation of economic and socia deveopment. The five areas of information technoogy deveopment highighted in the poicy are: e-government, e- industry, e-commerce, e-education, and e-society. In addition, the poicy framework aso aims to deveop the information technoogy industry in Thaiand [1]. E-commerce is acknowedged by the Thai government that it has the abiity to increase business opportunities, decrease transaction costs, augment competence, improve the quaity of ife, and assist SMEs to expoit new opportunities in the new goba economy [2]. Tangkitvanitcha [3] pointed out that the Thai government has to support SMEs by contributing to their website deveopment. The free pubic web porta for industria sector shoud incude various functions such as group discussion, directories, pubic reations, information provision, and transaction. However, Juta, Bodorik and Dhaiwa [4] state that in order to deveop a country, the government s support for e- business in SMEs is an important too for the deveopment. Therefore, the government has to deveop precise poicies and reevant aws on issues such as transactions, authentication, certification, security, deception, and consumer right. The other important aspects are issues reated to ICT faciitation, finance, transaction of commercia entities, and encouragement of confidence in e-commerce use. Out of the above, one of the government s objectives is to deveop the abiity of Thai entrepreneurs to compete with other countries in the word market. The emphasis is paced on e-commerce for exportation, trade, services, and domestic consumption. As regard to IT 2010, the government has aready set poicies or the E-Commerce Poicy Framework for deveoping e-commerce in Thaiand [1]. Within the framework, diverse business sectors are expected to contribute to the deveopment of eectronic businesses in Thaiand. Within this context, E-commerce is defined as a sub-system and an important mechanism that wi drive and equip the traditiona businesses for the goba market. At present, many Thai businesses have started using Internet technoogies and e-commerce appications to promote their products and services to customers a over the word directy. Kittikanya [5] reported that e-commerce is transforming the features and characteristics of Thai businesses, and many arge companies are using e-commerce as an essentia too to put them in a strong position to take advantages of business-to-business (B2B) inks. He aso pointed out that e-commerce vaues in Thaiand are expected to surge, but the eve of growth is in dispute among the anaysts. Smith [6] indicated that SMEs demand is the ICT impementation for competitiveness, entrepreneuria confidence, and acceptance from customers. In addition, he suggested SMEs shoud invest in ICTs, improve skis in the use of ICTs, and deveop consumer security systems. Moreover, creative promotion, ease of use and simpe functions are highy demanded in SMEs e-commerce [7]. The aforementioned aspects are correated with the survey resuts from the Kasikorn Research Centre Co., Ltd. [8]. The resuts showed that Thai dot com (.com) businesses are not competitive with the goba dot com businesses. However, the Thai dot com businesses are growing steadiy despite the ack of infrastructure capacities. Moreover, the Eectronic Commerce Resource Centre (ECRC) of Thaiand [9] stated that the barriers of e-commerce entrepreneurship in Thaiand are in two aspects: customers probems and technica probems. The customers probems are composed of: a) customers ony come to visit e- commerce website and they do not carry out transactions, b) they are not accustomed to onine transactions,

2 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) 6 c) they do not comprehend e-commerce, d) they have no credit cards, e) they are not confident about the security of the payment systems, f) they cannot compare the quaity of services and transactions because of the ow number of Thai e-commerce operations and subsequenty there are itte choices, g) no definite standard onine-pricing mechanism for the commodities, and h) non-efficient deivery systems. The technica probems are: a) Website deveopment is confronting with many barriers such as manpower, management, budget, etc, b) investment for Website deveopment is imited, c) commercia banks do not support e-commerce transactions, d) probem about using Web technoogy, e) ow efficiency of the teecommunication systems, f) itte support from the government, and g) egisation of reevant aws 1 are enacted and some are sti on process. The deveopment of e-commerce in Thaiand continuay faces the foowing chaenges: a) the number of Internet users in Thaiand is ony 6.97 miions which is reativey ow as compared to the country s popuation of 62 miion [10], b) inadequate e-commerce reguations and aws, c) ack of nationa information infrastructure due to ow bandwidth and this causes major barriers to the expansion of internet services, d) ack of skied officias in information technoogy and, e) ack of Engish competency imits the abiity of Thai e- commerce sites to reach out to the word. In addition to the above chaenges, the main factors that affect e-commerce deveopment in Thaiand are the entrepreneurs and business owners. This is due to their ack of precise understanding and their inabiity to appy e-commerce technoogies to improve their business performance and operations. The effort to overcome this barrier therefore forms the main motivation of this study. In summary, business environments in Thaiand sti encompass barriers for sustainabe progress of eectronic commerce such as ow consumer confidence in eectronic commerce [11], non-coaboration amongst business and industria sectors, and the ack of entrepreneurs comprehension with regard to e-commerce possibiities and benefits [12]. Therefore, it is fair to say that Thai SMEs sector is ony beginning to focus on a pathway to join the goba business market. However, the Thai e-commerce framework and its impementation in the SMEs sector are sti ingering in the deveopment stage. It is the intention of this study that an in depth understanding of the drivers and their infuences wi be achieved. This wi hep to prope Thai s SMEs sector to a new eve of success. 2. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK 1 Data Protection Law, Computer Crime/Computer-Reated Crime Law, Eectronic Data Interchange Law, Digita Signature Law, Eectronic Funds Transfer Law, Byaw of Section 78 of the Thai Constitution (Universa Access Law) in order to create an equitabe information society by promoting universa access to information in the Nationa Information Infrastructure (NII). According to Wymer and Regan [13], the research on e-commerce/e-business Internet technoogy (EEIT) innovation and adoption by SMEs appies a variety of theoretica modes and foundation from diverse discipines. No singe mode or theory dominates. Therefore, this study is based on the combination of a variety of approaches and theoretica frameworks which are as foows: a) Diffusion of Innovation [14, 15]: Rogers defines diffusion as the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channes over a period of time among the members of a socia system ; moreover, he describes an innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived to be new by an individua or other unit of adoption ; and he further expains communication is a process in which participants create and share information with one another to reach a mutua understanding. b) Technoogy Acceptance (TAM) [16-25]: This mode is originated in the Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA) [26, 27] in psychoogy area. TAM posits that perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefuness (PU) of technoogy are predictors of user attitude toward the using of technoogy, subsequent behaviora intentions, and actua usage. c) Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)/Theory of Panned Behaviour (TPB) [27-31]: The TRA reates to vountary behavior in which an individua s behavior is determined by his/her intention to perform the behavior. The intention means a function of an individua s attitude towards the behavior and his/her subjective norm. The TBP concerns with the prediction of deiberate behavior, and beiefs that behavior can be panned. d) Socia Cognitive Theory (SCT) [32-40]: The SCT identifies human behavior as a triadic, dynamic, and reciproca interaction of persona factors, behavior, and environment. Therefore, an individua s behavior is determined by these three factors, and the mind is an active force that constructs one s reaity, seectivey encodes information, performs behavior on the basis of vaues and expectations, and imposes structure on its own actions [37]. e) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technoogy (UTAUT) [16-18, 41, 42]: UTAUT is formuated by integrating eight technoogy acceptance modes: TRA, TAM, TPB, Motivationa, Combined TAM-TPB, of PC Utiization, Innovation Diffusion Theory, and SCT. Regarding the aforementioned aspects, the research mode was deveoped as shown in the foowing figure. Business Environment Organisation The Adoption of ECTs by Thai SMEs Knowedge Technoogy Figure 1 A of Infuencing ECT Adoption by SMEs in Thaiand Figure 1 draws the four main factors which are hypothesised to infuence the adoption of ECTs by Thai SMEs. The factors are business environment, knowedge, organisation, and technoogy. In additiona, some SMEs background is

3 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) 7 designed as supporting factors such as the number of empoyees, number of years in business, experiences in e-commerce, gender of SMEs owners who responded to the questionnaires, etc. are inserted in the mode. The inserted variabes are used to study whether these background factors differ significanty on the infuence. The foowing tabe shows the variabe definitions based on Wymer and Regan [13]. Tabe 1 Factor Descriptions Factor Name Factor Description Environment Competitive Pressure Competitive pressure from other Internet adoption within my industry Government Government rues and reguations Market Viabe market or customer base e- commerce Partners/Vendors Avaiabiity of the right partners with whom to work Suppier Readiness Readiness of Suppiers for eectronic business Knowedge Change Experience Empoyee experience with making major changes Executive Experience Experience of top executives with computers and the Internet Innovativeness Your company s wiingness to about new technoogy s s of successfu use in my industry Need Perceived need for change or impementation of Web and Internet Technoogies Prior Experience The company s prior experience with new technoogy impementations Trust Trust or confidence in Web and Internet Technoogies Understanding Understanding of avaiabe opportunities and options with e- commerce Vaue Perceived vaue or reevance to the business Organisationa Capita Access to capita for start-up Empoyee Reduction Resuting reduction in number of empoyees Priority Priority reative to other projects that require existing resource and time Profitabiity Projected profitabiity of e- commerce Technica Expertise Avaiabiity of technica staff or consutants with web-skis Technoogica Cost Cost of setup and maintain E-commerce Technoogy Technoogy for seing products or service onine Infrastructure Access to network services or infrastructure to support Web and Internet Technoogies Reiabiity Reiabiity of Web and Internet Technoogies Security Security issues Technoogy Avaiabiity Avaiabiity or adequacy of existing technoogy and toos Other Other Tabe 1 shows the main variabes in detais. These variabes were used for designing the items in the questionnaire for gathering data from the SMEs ocated in Bangkok and the provinces around. There are four hypothesises derived from the mode: H 1 : business environment factors infuence the ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs H 2 : knowedge factors infuence the ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs H 3 : organisation factors infuence the ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs H 4 : technoogy factors infuence the ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce of the SMEs 3. RESEARC METHODOLOGY 3.1. Sampes and Demographic Distribution The research popuation is composed of 845,064 SMEs entrepreneurs in Thaiand; however, the study focuses on retaiing SMEs entrepreneurs which are 30% of the tota of SMEs firms (259,310 retaiing firms) [43]. The sampe size of the popuation was drawn from the sampe size estimation formua of Taro Yamane [44]. The sampe size was defined at the degree of the precision eve at ±5 % where confidence eve is 95 %. By this, 400 firms wi be used as representative sampes for the retaiing SMEs ocated in Bangkok and surrounding areas in Thaiand Research too The research too used in this study is questionnaire. This was designed and deveoped from the research mode shown in Figure 1. The questionnaire aims to gather data from SMEs ocated in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces in Thaiand. After the questionnaire has been competed a items have been arranged in a structured order and with introductory instructions. The questionnaires were sent to the three experts in e-commerce and SMEs in order to check the vaidity of the entire content and items incuded in the questionnaires. The experts have agreed with the content and they have given their suggestions to improve some of the items. Consequenty, the questionnaires were transated into Thai. After the Thai questionnaires have been competed, twenty copies of the questionnaires were sent to the SMEs in order to carry out a pre-test. The pre-test resuts show that the participants understood the questions, the scaes in use, and the genera instructions. The questionnaire consists of five parts according to the research mode: Part A contains five items concerned with business environment factors which may or may not infuence the ECT adoption by the SMEs. Part B contains tweve items concerned with knowedge factors which may or may not infuence the ECT adoption by the SMEs. Part C contains five items concerned with organisation factors which may or may not infuence the ECT adoption by the SMEs. Part D contains five items concerned with technoogy factors which may or may not infuence the ECT adoption by the SMEs. In the end of each part mentioned above, it has an opened ended item for the participant to provide further comments. Part E contains items concerned with the SMEs background such as the number of their empoyees, the number of years in business, gender of SMEs owners who respond the questionnaire, e-commerce experiences, e-commerce activities, owning the website, whether they own the domain name, and any pan to impement e-commerce systems.

4 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) Data compiation The SME respondents were asked to compete the questionnaires themseves, in other words, sef-administered questionnaires were adopted. The questionnaires were distributed to the respondents by hand, post and e-mai. The SMEs were picked up from the ist of registered SMEs from a directory pubished by the Thaiand Ministry of Commerce. They were then requested to return the forms anonymousy either by mai or emai Data anaysis SPSS appication and appropriate statistica techniques were used to process the data from the returned questionnaires. Statistic Scaes of Measurements used are isted as foows: a) nomina Scae: frequency distribution, percentage, b) interva Scae: arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and c) statistica significance test: regression. The scae engths for measuring eve of infuence of factors and customer behaviours towards eectronic commerce technoogy adoption by Thai SMEs are composed of the foowing seven eves: 2.01 to 3.00 represented extremey infuence 1.01 to 2.00 represented quite infuence 0.01 to 1.00 represented sighty infuence 0.00 represented neither infuence nor un infuence to represented sighty un infuences to -1.01, represented quite un infuence to represented extremey un infuence 4. FINDINGS 4.1. Descriptive statistic resuts 209 SMEs (52.25%) returned the questionnaires from the distribution of 400 questionnaires. It found that amost SMEs (149) have used or impemented ECTs in their business (71.98%) and ony 58 SMEs have never used or impemented ECTs in their business (40.49%). This section presents the resuts from the anaysis of the descriptive statistics measuring the four factors which infuence the adoption of ECTs by Thai SMEs. The measurement based on the mean and standard deviation. Tabe 2 to 5 present the resuts and interpretation. Tabe 2 Infuence Leves of Business Environment Business Environment 1. Your business competitors have impemented the Internet technoogy and have access to technica personne and speciaists in Web and the Internet technoogy 2. Government poicies on the e- commerce and the Master Pan Thaiand Vision Towards a Knowedge-Based Economy (IT2010) and the reated rues and reguations 3. Continua increasing avaiabiity of onine access by the popuation in both urban and rura urban areas 4. Adoption of e-commerce technoogy by business partners 5. Readiness of suppiers for eectronic business Mean SD. Interpretation quite quite quite quite sighty Tota quite Tabe 2 shows the mean and standard deviation of infuence eve of business environment factors, which effect the ECT adoption by the SMEs. Totay, these factors infuence the adoption quite at the average rating There is ony one sub-factor, readiness of suppiers for e-business, received the owest rating scae at 0.96 it means that this sub-factor is to infuence the adoption of ECTs sighty. There are four sub-factors infuence the adoption of ECTs by the SMEs at quite scae. The sub-factors are as foows: a) Continua increasing avaiabiity of onine access by the popuation in both urban and rura urban areas received the highest scae at 1.91, b) Your business competitors have impemented the Internet technoogy and have access to technica personne and speciaists in Web and the Internet technoogy and Government poicies on the e-commerce and the Master Pan Thaiand Vision Towards a Knowedge-Based Economy (IT2010) and the reated rues and reguations received the equa scae at 1.46, and c) Adoption of e-commerce technoogy by business partners received the owest scae in this group at 1.24 Tabe 3 Infuence Leves of Knowedge Knowedge 1. Your empoyee has prior experience or invovement with the process of changing from traditiona business to onine business 2. The managers in your organization have experience with ICTs 3. You are enthusiastic to adopt and experiment with new and innovative technoogies 4. There are modes of successfu use in MeanSD. Interpretation quite quite quite quite other companies in your industry sector. 5. Perceived need to change and extremey impement ECTs - Web and Internet technoogies 6. Your company has prior experiences quite with new technoogy impementation 7. You have trust and confidence in ECTs quite 8. Your understanding of the avaiabe opportunities and options with ECTs quite 9. Your perceived vaue or reevance of quite ECTs with respect to the business 10. Adequacy and variety of information quite resources on ECTs 11. Adequacy and variety of communication channes for the extremey impementation of ECTs 12. Need for frequent communication between your firm and your trading partners quite Tota quite Tabe 3 shows that the descriptive statistic which derived the mean and standard deviation of the 12 sub-factors of the knowedge factor. On the whoe, the knowedge factors infuence the adoption of ECTs at quite scae (1.68). There are two sub-factors, which received the highest infuence to the ECT adoption, adequacy and variety of communication channes for the impementation of e-commerce technoogy and perceived need to change and impement e-commerce technoogies - Web and Internet technoogies at the average rating scae 2.24 and 2.10 in ascending order. It is fair to mention that the two sub-factors infuence the adoption at the eve of extremey.

5 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) 9 Tabe 4 Infuence Leves of Organisation Organisation Mean SD. Interpretation 1. Avaiabiity of capita for starting-up e-commerce systems quite 2. Reduction in the number of empoyees by impementing e-commerce systems sighty 3. Perceived higher priority of the e- commerce project over other projects quite that require existing resource and time 4. Management support for setting up quite and impementing e-commerce systems 5. Contribution by government, professiona or business associations (e.g. Office of SME) in raising the awareness and faciitating the impementation of e-commerce technoogy Tota quite quite In Tabe 4, amost a organization sub-factors infuence the ECT adoption by the SMEs at the quite scae between average rating 1.58 and However, as a group, the organization factors infuence the adoption at the quite scae Tabe 5 Infuence Leves of Technoogy Technoogy Mean SD. Interpretation 1. Cost for setting-up, instaing and maintaining the e-commerce systems quite 2. Advancement of e-commerce technoogy which enabes the seing of extremey products and servicing onine customers 3. Avaiabiity of Internet and E- commerce infrastructure such as wired or wireess communication, bandwidth, network service, gateway and Internet service provider quite 4. Avaiabiity and adequacy of existing quite e-commerce technoogy and toos 5. Compexity and intricacy of e- commerce technoogy Sighty Tota quite In Tabe 5, the sub-factor of the technoogy factors, advancement of e-commerce technoogy which enabes the seing of products and servicing onine customers, received the highest average rating scae at It means that this sub-factor infuence ECT adoption by the SMEs at extremey eve. Entirey, the technoogy factors infuence the adoption at the quite scae Regression anaysis In this section, the regression techniques designed to seect the most important vaue for prediction of dependent variabe is the enter method. By this method, the e-commerce or the Internet experiences of 149 SMEs (72%) become the biggest groups of the entire SMEs chosen as variabes for the measurement. The foowings are the test resuts shown in Tabe 6 to 9. H 1 : business environment factors infuence the ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs Tabe 6 Coefficients of Business Environment infuence the ECT Adoption of Thai SMEs measured by E-commerce Experiences 1 Business Environment Unstd. Coeff. B Coeff. Beta (Constant) Your business competitors have impemented the Internet technoogy and have access to technica personne and speciaists in Web and the Internet technoogy 2.Government poicies on the e-commerce and the Master Pan Thaiand Vision Towards a Knowedge Based Economy (IT2010) and the reated rues and reguations 3.Continua increasing avaiabiity of onine access by the popuation in both urban and rura urban areas 4.Adoption of e- commerce technoogy by business partners Readiness of suppiers for eectronic business R.29 R Square.084 Adjusted R Square.061 F Sig In Tabe 6, vaue of R Square is cose to 1 at.084 when measured by the e-commerce experiences of the SMEs. It indicates that business environment factors are abe to infuence the ECT adoption by Thai SMEs at 8.4% with statistica significance. The test of hypothesis is in two tais. The test returned the resut that the coefficients of the business environment factors have inear correation with the e-commerce experiences. The hypothesis test showed that H 1 is accepted as significant vaue is ess than 0.05 (sig.vaue =.003). H 2 : knowedge factors infuence the ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs Tabe 7 Coefficients of Knowedge infuence the ECT Adoption of Thai SMEs measured by E-commerce Experiences Unstd. Coeff. Coeff. Knowedge B Beta 1 (Constant) Your empoyee has prior experience or invovement with the process of changing from traditiona business to onine business

6 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) 10 Knowedge 2. The managers in your organization have experience with ICTs 3. You are enthusiastic to adopt and experiment with new and innovative technoogies Unstd. Coeff. Coeff. B Beta There are modes of successfu use in other companies in your industry sector 5. Perceived need to change and impement ECTs - Web and Internet technoogies 6. Your company has prior experiences with new technoogy impementation 7. You have trust and confidence in ECTs Your understanding of the avaiabe opportunities and options with ECTs Your perceived vaue or reevance of ECTs with respect to the business 10. Adequacy and variety of information resources on ECTs 11. Adequacy and variety of communication channes for the impementation of ECTs 12. Need for frequent communication between your firm and your trading partners R.43 R Square.185 Adjusted R Square.112 F Sig..005 In Tabe 7, vaue of R Square is cose to 1 at.185 when measured by the e-commerce experiences of the SMEs. It points that knowedge factors infuence the ECT adoption by Thai SMEs at 18.5% with statistica significance. The test of hypothesis is in two tais. The tests produced coefficients of the knowedge factors, which have inear correation with the e- commerce experiences. The hypothesis test shown that H 2 is accepted as significant vaue is ess than 0.05 (sig.vaue =.005). H 3 : Has inear correation between organisation factors and ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs Tabe 8 Coefficients of Organisation infuence the ECT Adoption of Thai SMEs Measured by E-commerce Experiences Unstd. Coeff. Coeff Organisation B Beta (Constant) Organisation 1.Avaiabiity of capita for starting-up e- commerce systems 2.Reduction in the number of empoyees by impementing e- commerce systems Unstd. Coeff. Coeff B Beta Perceived higher priority of the e- commerce project over other projects that require existing resource and time 4.Management support for setting up and impementing e- commerce systems 5.Contribution by government, professiona or business associations (e.g. Office of SME) in raising the awareness and faciitating the impementation of e- commerce technoogy R.296 R Square.088 Adjusted R Square.065 F Sig..002 In Tabe 8, vaue of R Square is cose to 1 at.088 when measured by the e-commerce experiences of the SMEs It indicates that organisation factors infuence the ECT adoption by Thai SMEs at 8.8% with statistica significance. The two tai test of hypothesis produced coefficients of the organisation factors which have inear correation with the e-commerce experiences. The hypothesis test shown that H 3 is accepted as the significant vaue is ess than 0.05 (sig.vaue =.002). H 4 : Has inear correation between technoogy factors and ECT adoption when measured by e-commerce experiences of the SMEs Tabe 9 Coefficients of Technoogy infuence the ECT Adoption of Thai SMEs measured by E-commerce Experiences Unstd. Coeff. Coeff Technoogy B Beta (Constant) Cost for setting-up, instaing and maintaining the e- commerce systems 2. Advancement of e- commerce technoogy, which enabes the seing of products and servicing onine customers 3. Avaiabiity of Internet and E-commerce infrastructure such as wired or wireess communication,

7 The 7th Internationa Conference on e-business 2008 (INCEB 2008) 11 Technoogy Unstd. Coeff. B Coeff Beta t Sig. bandwidth, network service, gateway and Internet service provider 4. Avaiabiity and adequacy of existing e- commerce technoogy and toos 5. Compexity and intricacy of e-commerce technoogy R.356 R Square.126 Adjusted R Square.105 F Sig..000 In Tabe 9, the vaue of R Square is cose to 1 at.126 when measured by the e-commerce experiences of the SMEs. It impies that technoogy factors infuence the ECT adoption by Thai SMEs at 12.6% with statistica significance. The test of hypothesis is in two tais. The test reveaed coefficients of the technoogy factors which have inear correation with the e- commerce experiences. The hypothesis test shown that H 4 is accepted as significant vaue is ess than 0.05 (sig.vaue =.000). In summary, the four hypothesises are accepted with the statistic significant. The Figure 2 shows the comparative hypothesis test: Business Environment H 1:R 2 =.084, Sig=.003 Organisation H 2:R 2 =.185, Sig=.005 The Adoption of ECTs by Thai SMEs H 3:R 2 =.088, Sig=.002 Figure 2 The Comparative Hypothesis Test Figure 2 shows that knowedge factors have infuenced the adoption of ECTs by the Thai SMEs at the highest scae as R 2 =18.5% and sig.vaue=.005. Foowed by the technoogy factors at the second highest infuence (R 2 =12.6%,sig.vaue=.000), organisation factors at R 2 =8.8% and sig.vaue=.002), and business environment factors at R2=8.4% and sig.vaue=.003, in ascending order. 5. CONCLUSION Knowedge Technoogy H 4:R 2 =.126, Sig=.000 There are four factors infuence the adoption of ECTs by the SMEs. The first factor, business environment, infuences the adoption quite at the average rating The second factor, knowedge, infuences the adoption of ECTs at quite scae (1.68). The third factor, organization, infuences the ECT adoption at the quite scae between average rating 1.58 and Moreover, the fourth factor, technoogy, infuences the adoption at quite scae The four hypotheses are tested by regression anaysis. The resuts show that the SMEs, which have e-commerce experiences, were infuenced by the four factors with statistica significance. The test resuted coefficients of the factors have inear correation with the e-commerce experiences. Regarding the resuts, reated organisations or institutions shoud pay intentions on how to improve the factors reated to the best practices. For exampe; business environment factors that impact to the adoption are abe to bring the SMEs to the arena of efficient competition in both domestic and internationa market. The Thai government shoud have an annuay study of the business environment factors; consequenty, pubicize the study resuts to the SMEs in order to encourage and stimuate them to adopt the ECTs because of their competitors are aready advancing in this important area. In term of technoogy factors, contribution from the government for heping the SMEs invest in the ECTs themseves is an important roe. Hence, the government organisations such as SMEs, banks and reated units shoud foster a cose reationship with the SMEs in a aspects: funding, consuting, marketing, free software deveoping, providing sufficient e-commerce infrastructure, etc. It is beieved that this wi bring great benefits to the SMEs and to Thaiand. 6. REFERENCE [1] Thaiand. Nationa Information Technoogy Committee Secretariat, Thaiand Vision towards a Knowedge-Basd Economy (IT2010). Bangkok: NECTEC, [2] S. Keretho and P. Limsit, "E-Commerce the Way of Business in Thaiand. 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