E-readiness of website acceptance and implementation in SMEs

• E-readiness does impact website acceptance intention and the degree of implementation.
• This study found four factors of e-readiness which impact on both intention and degree.
• A validated model is proposed for evaluating the e-readiness of SME web acceptance.

This study aims to make a deep exploration into e-readiness from the viewpoints of technology, management, organization, and environment in order to understand how these dimensions affect the acceptance intention and degree of implementation of a corporate website. A mail survey was conducted. A total of 753 questionnaires were distributed and collected from SMEs’ senior executives, generating 163 usable replies with a total response rate of 21.65%. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique and partial least squares (PLS) software were used to conduct a path analysis for related variables in the research model. Results of the data analysis show that (1) the variables that have a significant positive effect on the intention to accept a corporate website in SMEs are an awareness of corporate website, enterprise resources, technological resources, government e-readiness, market force e-readiness, and supporting industries e-readiness and (2) the variables that have a significant effect on the degree of corporate website implementation in SMEs are an awareness of corporate website, senior executive commitment, corporate website governance, human resources, technological resources, government e-readiness, and market force e-readiness. Through the empirical results, this study provides contributions for SME managers and researchers.