Report:

the motivation behind selection of the firms was that many firms in developing
countries were in preliminary stages of adaptation o E-Commerce(EC). The
transition of these firms in these countries to more sophisticated level of EC use and
adaptation depends in part, on the extent to which they are inclined to use these
new technologies for their business. Not all the organizations equally strongly
inclined towards adopting EC have suggested that extent of EC adoption depends
on the attitude of the organization toward EC technologies and the inclination or the
propensity to deploy and use them. These findings have parallel in studies on the
individual acceptance of technology and the diffusions of innovations in the
organization. Existing research did not provided the analysis of factors that lead to
these differences.

The paper examined and identified factors that were determining organizational
inclination for the adaptation of the EC, and explained the nature of their influence.
It also pointed towards appropriate management interventions for managing these
factors, so as to increase the organizational inclination towards EC.

On the basis of our research we reported the results of an exploratory study on EC.
Adoption in four firms based in India. As, India formed an interesting domain for our
study. This was because economic liberalization, that was initiated in India in 1990s,
resulted in attempts at overall modernization and information technology (IT).
Domestic companies responded to increase competition resulting from a de
regulated economic environment. But at the same time, there was seen a relative
lack of familiarity with, and confidence in IT, among organizations. Reliable IT
infrastructure is also largely absent. Organizations in India have encountered
organizational and cultural problems during the adoption and implementation of
new IT. The result for this was found to be that all firms were not positively inclined
towards the adoption of EC technologies.

Our adaptation for the research was qualitative, in they literary survey we found
that all organizations were not equally inclined to develop new IT. The adaptation of
new IT applications was largely influenced by factors related to overall
organizational attitudes and culture which suggested different managers and
organizations adopting different attitudes towards IT, depending upon its perceived
usefulness, in context to their work, and on the organizational norms regarding the
acceptance of new IT. The literature identified two broad aspects, top management
and organization culture, that influenced organizational inclination to adopt EC.

Attitudes of top management were also differing towards adaptation of EC. The
proactive approach and active championship on part of top managers could lead to
the adoption of EC system. The characteristic of leader that helped in creating the
positive organizational inclinational for EC adoption was first that leaders could
influence the extent of EC adoption by clearly defining the role that they want EC to
play. Secondly, senior managers played an important role in guiding and completing
projects relating to new EC applications. Support of top management plays a role by
providing infrastructure for adoption of new EC technologies. In this context, top
management could help by sponsoring projects, ensuring the availability of
technical and human recourses and eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic
procedures.

The core values of a firm suggested by studies could predispose it towards a

particular strategic alternative or technology. Some similar findings were seen with
respect to organizational inclination to adopt EC. The two aspects that of
organizational culture that could influence the propensity to adopt EC. The first
thing is that the manager’s exposure to EC technology, through interaction with
vendors and professional associations increases their awareness and understanding
of it. The positive influence on their inclination to consider new IT. The level of IT
knowledge among the functional managers and end users determines the extents
to which the organization would be inclined to adopt EC, Chircu and Kauffman found
that inability to acquire skills and expertise in new technologies, and lack of training
and education from significant barriers to the adoption of EC systems.

Some organizations also have cultures that support discussions of new and
innovative ideas related to IT. This has a positive influence on the ability and
inclination of managers to develop and adopt applications with new technology. IT
champions can accelerate the development and adoption of new technology. A
favorable organizational attitude towards system innovation increases the adoption
of EC technologies. It has also been suggested that the context, need and
preference for EC varies across firms. Moreover, EC technologies which are
perceived as being consistent and compatible with past systems and present needs
are more likely to be adopted than those which are not.

The description of literature majorly describes two factors that influence

organizational inclination towards EC deployment. The combined effects of these
factors were not studied, and interactions between them have not been understood.
Both the top management support and an organizational culture that supports
innovation , leads to a positive attitude towards EC adoption. There was no
explanation of how EC adoption would be affected if one of these factors were
present, and the other is not. Considering possibilities such as these, the objective
of this research was to understand in an integrated manner, the effect of different
factors on the organizational inclination to deploy EC technologies.

The research methodology we intented to use was to explore and analyze the
factors that influence the organizational inclination to deploy EC technologies. A
qualitative method of inquiry was adopted in view of the lack of literature and the
nature of the research questions. Qualitative methods have been productively
applied where there is a need to describe and explain the phenomenon under
study. The procedure used for this purpose was “coding” which is a qualitative
research method first the data is collected from sources like interview, reports and
documents and industry information. Then, data analysis is done that was used to
interpret data. Thus, coding identifies conceptual categories from the data and
relating them to one and other.

The process of case study we used was the multiple case design to collect the data.
We selected four firms in the financial services industry in India, as the sites for this
study. It was decided to confine the study to one industry variances such as
intensity of competition and product-market characteristics and to ensure
consistency for purposes of comparison. This was done because we felt that these
factors could also have a bearing on the EC adoption. The financial services industry
was chosen as it provides an appropriate empirical backdrop of studying EC
deployment of a number of reasons. The first reason was industry was deregulated
in early 1990s, which led to new competition from foreign companies. This resulted
in an increase in industry wide spending on IT, to gain infrastructure and enhance
competitive parity, the information intensity of financial sector in this industry are
among the most sophisticated users of IT in the country, and they have also been
among the earliest to adopt EC technologies, particularly in the B2C sector.

Mainly two kinds of organizations collectively made the financial service sector in
India, the first one is relatively older and others are newer firms. In general both of
these differ a lot in their organizational characteristics. The older one has the most
conservative leadership, unionized employees, and have been slow to adopt EC.
While the newer ones have relatively younger companies and often advance users
of IT and EC. For our research, we selected two organization of each kind. All of the
four companies differed in their extent of EC adoptions and provided four different
kinds of organizational settings within which the organizational factors on the
inclination to adopt EC technologies was explored. The specific EC technologies that
were included in the study were internet based banking system and stock trading
system.

The process of describing the data, as already mentioned was coding. Axial coding
was used to identify portions of the data that corresponded to concepts identified in
the literature. Which included instances from the data that were describing the
aspects of organizational leadership and culture. Open coding was done to
categorize the parts that revealed new factors. First we described across case
analysis that was, describing the different factors that influence the inclination
towards EC adoption, by identifying the major conceptual themes across the cases.

The four organizations we selected had different type of organizational settings

which influenced organizational factors on the inclination of adopting EC
technologies explored.
pioneerCo was one of the most sophisticated user of EC technologies in Asia. Its first
EC systems were installed in 1999, when online connectivity was provided to clients
through internet based electronic links.

AdvancedCo was one of the first privately controlled financial and banking
companies to be set up after liberalization of Indian economy . it made significant
investment in IT. The organization introduced EC technologies in its banking
operations. Initially it was done by developing a website to present information
about different products and services. The company had a sophisticated transaction
processing and disaster recovery system and was among the first Indian banks to
introduce internet facilities. IS professionals were responsible for end user
education and support maintenance upgrades. End user feedback mechanism was
used for accessing the effectiveness of the IS department and identifying training
requirements.

LateCo had a conservative approach towards IT and was strongly inclined against
proactively introducing IT driven charges in operations. The acquisition of new IT
was primarily driven by competitive pressure and federal regulatory instructions. All
decisions were centrally taken by a Central Board of Members, which was top
management team. The IS department was headed by the general manager of
system and IT, had four junior and three data entry operators. Hence the strategy
showed that they did not have the confidence of other functional executives.

LaggardCo was also one of the largest government controlled banks in India. Senior
managers and policy makers of the firm were professional administrators,
bureaucrats and finance professionals. They were indifferent to the possibilities of
EC. The IS department was headed by senior manager, who reported to the head of
the finance function. He was not an IT professional and did not proactively followed
technological developments in the field. The had no formal education in computer
hardware or software. They provided end-user technical support when asked for but
did not proactively interact with end users.

Certain organizational charachteristics determined the extent of EC adoption. For

instance awareness and enthusiasm about emerging EC technologies, comfort with
use a part of managers, and the existence of EC related experiments and
innovations positively influence EC adoption. So the presence of EC champions are
powerful individuals with high credibility who promote the use of EC, exercise
positive influence in the choice, evaluation and approval of EC projects.

After mentioning limitations of the research, we suggested areas and scope for
further exploration. The findings of study pointed out the practical guideline for
managing relevant aspects of the adoption of EC technologies. Organizations having
negative attitudes towards EC technologies and consequently low EC adoption, can
follow appropriate management strategies depending upon the organization
structure. In primarily centralized organizations, the emphasis should be to try and
influence top management attitudes towards the adoption of organizations, the
emphasis should be to try and influence top management attitudes towards the
adoption of EC. This would, in general strongly influence EC adoption. An alternate
management strategy would be to ensure that IS professionals are favorably
inclined towards EC, and then institute mechanism to increase the extent of
interaction between IS professionals and top management. The combined effect of
these steps over a period of time can increase EC adoption. The head of EC
initiatives within the organization should be made a member of top management
team, so that he can take part in decisions determining the organizational focus
towards EC.

This study limited on the conclusion that was based on exploratory findings from a
few case studies. However, the qualitative approach used here was thought to be
appropriate, given the lack of literature on the adoption of EC in Indian
organizations the case studies enabled us to develop a detailed description of
different organizations about their IT strategies and EC adoption inclination level.
Further researches and case studies can elaborate and explain the reliability of this
research model.