E-commerce adoption by ASEAN SMEs and its domestic challenges

This chapter focuses on the issues related to domestic e-commerce adoption and international challenges, as well as barriers associated with e-commerce adoption by Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). It presents SMEs’ contribution to economic growth in Malaysia and discusses SMEs’ development and challenges in e-commerce adoption. The chapter describes the initiatives and actions by the Malaysian government to promote e-commerce. It also presents insights learnt from face-to-face interviews with Malaysian SMEs. The literature has not provided much support to demonstrate how they can work together to develop a good set of practices that can enable SMEs in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to overcome major issues. E-commerce adoption is much slower in ASEAN SMEs than in developed countries. The low rate of e-commerce adoption in ASEAN SMEs is caused by concerns about privacy, security, and taxed income, as well as lack of regulation, trade laws, and legal protection for businesses.