Diffusion of the Adoption of Online Retailing in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Despite the fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is a leading producer of oil and natural gas (CIA 2012), a member of G-20, has the largest and fastest growth of ICT marketplaces in the Arab region (U.S. Commercial Services 2008, Alfuraih 2008), including computer hardware and software, and is very wealthy, online retailing activities are not progressing at the same speed of its growing ICT marketplace (CITC 2011). For this reason, this thesis explores the factors influencing the slow progress of online retailing in Saudi Arabia. While several studies exist investigating factors influencing e-commerce adoption by organizations, this thesis is different in that it suggests that the stage of e-commerce maturity of companies is important when considering why companies do or do not adopt e-commerce and how companies can be encouraged to move to a higher stage of maturity. Thus, the present thesis considered the factors influencing e-commerce adoption by retailers in Saudi Arabia based on stages of e-commerce maturity of each organization. To evaluate the stage of e-commerce maturity among retailers in Saudi Arabia, the Stage Of Growth E-business (SOG-e) model of Mckay, Marshall and Pranato 2000 was adopted.