INTRODUCTION

For the process of economic growth and industrialization the Small and Medium Scale

Enterprises (SMEs) plays a very crucial role in developing and developed countries. For

developing nations like Nigeria, the country has great interest in contributing towards the

development of SMEs. SMEs provide great advantages to the developing nations. SMEs have

been known to increase output and per capita income, increases regional economy and promotes

resource utilization in an effective manner, encourage entrepreneurship and all these factors lead

to growth and development of the country. The SMEs having labor intensive work also create

employment opportunities for people of the nation and this also leads to development of the

nation. The SMEs can be established quickly and can produce quick returns. Thus these

industries contribute to nations by achieving economic and socio-economic objective in very

short period of time and thus also contribute towards the alleviation of poverty (Jamali, Lund-

Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015).

After the emergence of the internet in the several countries of the world, it also started gaining

the strategic growth in the internet penetration i.e. from 0.78% to 20.0% in the year 2000 to the

year 2014. From the general statistics of few countries the internet penetration of the African

countries represents that there is a huge growth in the internet connection usage from most of the

countries but at a different rate of course. Further it has also been observed that the technology

usage has been reflected in most of the countries of Africa (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J.,

2002). There is much importance of Small and Medium scale industries which are really cannot

be overlooked for the development of economy of developing countries as SMEs plays an

important role for the development of economy in countries like Nigeria. The SMEs concept is

significantly dynamic and relative in nature. In the present scenario there is no fundamental

definition of SMEs which has been widely accepted as the definition keeps on changing and

mostly depends on the level of development of a country. From one country to other the

definition of the SMEs are generally changing and it is mostly based on the assets and

employment or even both together. According to some researchers SMEs mostly being defined

as the major criteria like the assets’ value, employment along with the use of energy. Some

researchers also suggest that the SMEs are mostly defined by various numbers of factors as well

as criteria like age size, location, structure, number of employees, organization, volumes of sales,

ownership, and assets with the help of technology and innovation. The number of workers is also

considered to be one of the appropriate measures of small and medium scale enterprises because

of the organizational structure differences which can occur with size (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.;

Fintz, J., 2002). Some researchers also suggest that every country generally derives their own

definition on the basis of role for which the small and medium scale industries are expected to

play along in the particular economy (Saunders et al, 2009). With the variation in definition

among the countries can also give the difference in the organization at various levels for the

development of economy. For instance, the business department, Regulatory and enterprises

reform use the following definition: Micro firm must have 0. 10 employees, small firm can have

0 to 49 employees, medium firm can have 50 to 249 employees and the largest firm must have

more than 250 employees (Saunders et al, 2009). The commission of European Union also gave

the defini9tion of SMEs by using the same number of employees which has been used previously

by other government organization mentioned above but gave additional criteria of annual

turnovers. The micro enterprises which is having less than that of 10 employees and also having

a turnover of more than 2 million $ or the balance sheet must not exceed the total of 2 million $.

The small enterprises also employ less than 50 number of workers or have the turnover of less

than 10 million $ and the annual balance sheet must not exceed 10 million $. The medium sized

enterprises are the one with fewer than 250 number of workers and also have the annual turnover

which is not exceeding more than 45 million $. Despite of constant support, launching various

schemes, policies and programs in order to help the SMEs of Nigeria to grow and develop, their

response and action does not even reach the expectations. They represent approximately 90% of

manufacturing and industrial sectors in numerical terms but their contribution towards GDP is

approximately only 1% where as Asian SMEs contribute 40%, 50% in US or Europe and 0% in

Ghana as suggested by a literature. Researcher and policy makers have found the reason for this

where they report that people always have an excuse of finance, inappropriate sills for

management, problems in accessing the global market, poor infrastructure and inappropriate

entrepreneurial skills (Johnson, (2010)).

Internet has nowadays become a novel source of economic revitalization and has reduced the

distance related expenditure. The internet economy is growing at a high rate nowadays and

taking advantage of this many developed and developing countries including Nigeria want the

economy of their country to grow and develop. The departments of SMEs have recently made a

small business world interacting with other SMEs and identified four areas which need priority

and they include access to capital, business environment, and information and support services.

Nigeria was found to have high capacity for entrepreneurial development (Cloete, E.; Courtney,

S.; Fintz, J., 2002). They also found many obstacles including high fee, permit requirements,

land and construction problems, etc. in making these SMEs successful. Nigeria has previously

invested in non-internet related information technologies, has established contacts with various

buyers, sellers and has gained profits and efficiency through establishment of electronic links.

Internet has various advantages over other IT sources due to is open and ubiquitous

characteristic, low cost for access and ease of use. Nowadays because of the above factors

Nigeria has seen great increase in internet adoption by both business as well as the consumers

(Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J., 2002).

Along with the above mentioned advantages there are certain barriers to adoption of E-

commerce by SMEs. Many SMEs even today have not been able to achieve the minimum levels

of adoption of E-commerce. According to literature the barriers against adoption of E-commerce

by SMEs have attained lower levels of adoption than predicted initially despite implementation

of various initiatives undertaken by the government. Studies have also found that the managers

of these SMEs are still not convinced that they can implement the use of E-commerce in their

business and product line. Even if they understand the importance they are still very reluctant to

use E-commerce for their e business. They also think that the current set of customers do not

support the use of E-commerce. Moreover they do not observe any scope of profit by using E-

commerce in their business field (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J., 2002). Other barriers for

adoption of E-commerce can be termed as either external or internal to an organization where

external barriers include difficulties for finance, obtaining technology, technological information

and choice of using appropriate software and hardware. The external barriers have been further

divided in demand barrier which is due to the product pipeline not fitting with E-commerce or

not meeting with the customer demand. The second part of external barrier is environmental

barrier which includes the government regulations and security problems. In a study conducted

by Iddris in the year 2012 on adoption of e-commerce solutions in SMEs in Ghana, he found that

major barriers for adoption of e-commerce are initial cost, lack of skilled members, security,

non-acceptance by culture and people, lack of interest from the side of management and

underdeveloped regulatory and legal systems. Similarly a study conducted by MacGregor and

Vrazalic in the year 2006 grouped the E-commerce barrier into two categories which are ‘Too

Difficult’ where there is complexity in implementing that technique, high cost of investment,

lack of knowledge and the second group was ’Unsuitable’ where the E-commerce

implementation could not be used for the business. The E-commerce must match the way of

doing business by the organizations, the clients and its implementation must provide advantage

to the organization. According to this study these two factors are not dependent and are

uncorrelated. In 2011 Apulu and Ige reported lack of adequate infrastructure, electricity, proper

services provided by the internet service providers are the major factors contributing to lack of

utilization of E-commerce in various businesses. Cost is another barrier in adoption of E-

commerce by SMEs. Lack of government, management support, risk of loss of data and other

issues are some other risk factors because of which people are reluctant to incorporate it into

their business (Faloye, 2014).

Nigerian government has taken any steps to renovate the SMEs by establishing Industrial

Development Centres (IDC) in year 1960, in 1989 National Directorate of Employment (NDE),

in 2001 Bank of Industry (BOI) was established, SMEDAN established in 2003, in 2005 Micro

Finance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria was launched and with the

help of this microfinance banks were established, for manufacturing sectors refinancing and

restructuring of bank loans the N200 billion intervention fund was formed. Central Bank of

Nigeria in 2010 formed Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Scheme, in 1977 was

launched The Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund, in 2011 Nigerian Incentive-Based

Risk Sharing System for agriculture was launched, N100 billion ($0,625 billion) Bond-Funded

Cotton, Textiles and Garment Industry Revival Scheme, which facilitated and guaranteed

external finance through the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, African

Development Bank and other organizations. With the growth of the mobile phone usage in the

various part of the world there has been also the expansions of the application stores. It has been

reported that in the year 2013, there has been 146 developers introduced more than 420

applications. The internet has been used for the commercial purposes with the help of mobile

operators with the help of using payment gateway called M pesa (Mnad C Satacchi moblile,

2013). Furthermore the usage of the mobile phone is still by and large depending on the foxed

internet backbones. Investment as well as the effort which is required to develop the facilities of

internet is still striving in most of the part of the world (Goldstruck, 2012). The small scale

industries in the growing economy has been used like a scheme for the services to remove

poverty, securing food, services and growth of the industrialization as well as used for the money

making tool for making a reformation for the progress and growth in the industries (Johnson,

2011).

Recently, there has been increment in the use of internet and communication technologies within

the organization which has been significantly changed the manner by which the organization

communicate and operate. The internet plays a major role in the current knowledge based

economy are mostly applied on a wide range and different areas within a single organization.

The revolution in the use of the internet technology has been profound as the implication for both

social and economic development and also have pervaded in every aspect of the human life.

Most of the organization generally tends to get to rely heavily on the solution for growing and

developing their business on a larger scale. According to some of the researchers, the internet

marketing have the ability for enhancing, controlling and coordinating various operations within

the organization and also helps in increasing the utility of management system like customer

management as well as several others. So the internet marketing is considered to be the vital tool

for having the efficiency in administration of any firm and also in the delivery of various services

to the clients (Marsh, 2009). According to some authors, the firms present across the world are

now a day’s utilizing internet marketing not only for the purpose of cutting the cost and

improvement in efficacy but also for the purpose of proving a good and long lasti8ng customer

services. Most of the business can now have the interaction in more efficient manner with the sue

of internet, The dissemination and sharing of the information also is major role played by the use

of internet technology which is assisting in increment in the information of supply chain in any

organization. The sellers and the buyers are now quite free and able for information sharing and

also transfer of goods across the national and international borders with the help of internet

marketing which helps in the increment of supply chain globally. This is bringing the openness

and also the level of transparency within the organization. It was also stated that the usage of

internet marketing in various SMEs has also helped in the reduction of the cost of transaction and

also overcoming the constraints of distance by cutting short the boundaries and also assisting in

improvement in qualities in the firm. The role of internet marketing is helping the acquiring,

managing knowledge and creating which will enable in the diffusion of organizational data

which can be very helpful in making some important decisions and organizational control at

various levels. In the same way, the internet revolution is also helping in the planning of firms

and also improvement in the flexibility within the organization.

In country like Nigeria, The national council of industries also referred the small and medium

scale business enterprises as the business firms which has the total cot including lands must not

be more than 200200 million Naira, But the SMEs development Agency in Nigeria defined the

SMEs by the following criteria: it is a micro enterprise, the number of employees can be 10 and

the annual turnover must be less than 5,00000000 naira, the small enterprise can have 10 to

50people and the annual turnover cannot be more than 6490000000 naira (Marsh, 2009). The use

of the internet among the SMEs according to some of the experts is one of the strategic tools

which are bringing a lot of competitive advantages. Both in developing and developed countries,

the small and medium scale enterprises play a major role in the process of job creation and

industrialization. Some authors have also observed the role of SMEs in the alleviation of poverty

in the countries like Nigeria and also stimulating the domestic and regional growth of economy.

In Nigeria, the small and medium scale enterprises contribution the economy has high

significance as most of the employment in Nigeria is generated through these SMEs. In this

country, there has been a diverse groups of business which is generally operating in various

sector of economy and also accounts for more than 50% of the GDP of Nigeria (Jamali, Lund-

Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015). Based on the research done by Pezderka & Sinkovics (2010), it

has also been focused on the internalization of the medium and small scale industries particularly

in the concepts involving e risk and their implications. The study also described that the

awareness regarding the potential risk associated with the online internalization comprises if the

step of effective online management of risk. The practice of internet marketing also includes the

use of the website of the company together with the promotional activities online along with

search engine promotion, email marketing, interactive promotion and advertising and some

partnership agreement with the other websites.

In order to describe the electronic and internet economy and also their components various terms

can be used which include e-commerce, e-economy, digital economy, e-business, etc. electronic

commerce is a modern business method which states that the organizations, merchants,

consumers should reduce cost and improve good’s quality, improve services, reduce delivery

time. The use of computer networks is highly recommended for retrieving information. E-

commerce is basically associated with selling, purchasing information, services, products though

internet. In the year 2000 Fraumeni, Manses and Mesenbourg categorized e-economy into parts

where the first was e-business infrastructure which is defined as share total of economic

infrastructure which is used for supporting the process of e-business, performance of e-

commerce transactions which includes software, hardware and telecommunication networks, etc.

the second component consists of e-business which describes the processes followed by business

companies over internet. Third component is e-commerce which is completion of transactions

over internet which also involves ownership transfer, and providing of rights for using goods and

services. Internet economy includes those firms who use internet to conduct their business and

also those institutions which provide services and infrastructures to make this business happen.

Those companies or agents who fulfill the basic needs and platform for this e-commerce to

happen including Hardware, telecommunication, etc. are at the infrastructural levels. Group of

agents who use internet as medium to sell or purchase goods comprise the electronic commerce

levels.

Basically electronic commerce can be defined with the following basic characters:

1. Information and transaction exchanges that occur in e-commerce from the interface

perspective include Business to consumers, business to business and consumer to consumer.

2. From the perspective of communication, the delivery of products, information payment,

services through World Wide Web and internet is known as e-commerce.

3. The activities which electronically support commerce through internet are included in e-

commerce come under business process perspective.

4. The activities that come under online perspective are buying and selling of products,

availability of information and services on internet. Products also include the physical ones and

others can be in form of counseling or news.

5. E-commerce involving activities like use of texts, media, data, internet chatting and telephony,

video chats and web pages come under structural perspectives.

6. This e-commerce helps the buyers and sellers to get easy information of their benefit and use.

E.g. a common store man can start an open web store website and he can access to all the

customers, competitors, supplies and contractors at his door steps.

Adoption of e-commerce can establish easy connection where business can be directly connected

to vendors, consumers, suppliers only by means of a click over internet, intranet or extranet. This

helps to form new contacts and relationship between consumers and supplies and businessman.

In today’s world each and everything is available on internet for buying and selling purposes

including booking of hotel, reservation tickets for travel, travel services stock market and

financial services. In the field of education also there are n numbers of competitors over the

internet that provides schooling and also there are many degree providing schools also

functioning online.

Thus the meeting of sellers and buyers over the internet for exchange of products, services,

information and payments can be all termed as internet economy. The traditional market for

doing business is termed as ‘brick and mortal’ markets where business occurred only in physical

buildings. On the other hand the electronic market place is the conductance of business over

internet where the buyers and sellers do not come to see or know or meet physically and all the

deals are done online or through a telecommunication network. Across the world the popularity

of internet has grown at an immense rate where U.S. is leading in the world in case of

technology, crazy internet users as well as in website sophistication. Americans leave behind all

the people who shop over internet in any country and this provides an indication of popularity of

internet commerce and indicates clear application of internet in every process of business in very

near future. It has been now predicted that this e-commerce will definitely overtake the existence

of physical industries ad their economy in near future. The popularity and growing acceptance of

this e-commerce all over the world is basically because of several factors like technological

development and is still advancing. There is increases encouragement, support and cooperation

from the regulatory environment. There is increased level of knowledge in consumers and

growing sophistication and economical status of people has made e-commerce a trend in today’s

world. As the whole world is developing and adopting the e-commerce as their first choice, it has

become necessary to implement this and make this popular in Nigeria as well. It has become

important to understand why has it not been accepted in Nigeria and has not gained popularity

(Adekunle Paul Adesola).

This paper focuses on finding the impact of internet revolution in retailing on the SMES present

in Nigeria. This will be achieved by considering the ways in which the internet usage can be

accessed in Africa and the extent to which the internet is being used in Africa. This paper

examines the extent of internet usage as a selling platform by the retailers present in Nigeria and

how it is being used as a selling platform by the retailers and its impact on retailing in Nigeria?

This paper also focuses on understanding the impact of internet on retailing market in Nigeria

and how Nigerian retailers use it as their platform for selling their products. Further this paper

works to find out the reason of using and not using the electronic services to sell their products.

The paper summarizes various strategies following which the Nigerian retailers can prevent

themselves to fall in trap of cyber crimes and developing strategies to move forward to promote

the use of internet for retail selling.

Literature review:

Medium and Small scale companies are playing a major role in the economic growth process in

most of the developing countries across the world. The revolution brought by internet has largely

created an impact on the labour oriented technology, generation of employment in order to

receive a quick return. The internet impacts retailing business up to a very large extent as it

supported several small enterprises to touch the global market by finding suitable suppliers and

reaching out to the customers which gives them a possible return and market their production in

many counties. Medium and small scale industries has been approved usually in the form of

practical output for the satisfaction of business growth as they carry the ability to have originality

in their culture of project (Ugwushi, 2009). The small scale industries in the growing economy

has been used like a scheme for the services to remove poverty, securing food, services and

growth of the industrialization as well as used for the money making tool for making a

reformation for the progress and growth in the industries (Johnson, 2011). Based on the research

done by Pezderka & Sinkovics (2010), it has also been focused on the internalization of the

medium and small scale industries particularly in the concepts involving e risk and their

implications. The study also described that the awareness regarding the potential risk associated

with the online internalization comprises if the step of effective online management of risk. The

practice of internet marketing also includes the use of the website of the company together with

the promotional activities online along with search engine promotion, email marketing,

interactive promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the other websites.

Therefore, the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for acquiring the new

customers and also providing the services to the customer existing and to maintain a healthy

relationship with the customers. The internet marketing implementation can also change the

nature of the business across the world for the small and medium enterprises as the internet

revolution is bringing the fast and the efficient communication channel for the purpose of

marketing. The use of internet can become the sources of information for providing the feedback

as well as maintaining the relationship with all the customers. The internet is helping the markets

to gather the information for customizing the offers to the customers and other prospective. In

this way the internet is affecting the world market (Chen et al, 2011). The review of literature

will be beginning with the introduction of the small and medium scale industries and the internet

revolution, exploration of their benefits as well as opportunities in the form of internet marketing

within the context of the small and medium scale enterprises. According to Gilmore et al (2007),

there has be 80% in the growth of economy that has been attributed to the small and medium

scale enterprise. The foundation of this research has been motivated by the viability which will

be related to the internet marketing opportunities of the small and medium scale enterprises. The

literature survey is done on the basis of the combination of peer reviewed articles, textbooks and

journal etc. The internet marketing is a type of marketing or the advertisement of any particular

products online. This process is generally achieved with the help of various tools and techniques

which is readily available in the internet sources and is easily accessible with the help of medium

of international communication. The tools that are used are not very expensive and sometime

don’t charge any fess for the usage of the businesses (Gilmore et al, 2007). This type of

accessing to the internet calls the attention of not utilizing the internet marketing by the small

and medium scale enterprises. Some of the researchers also proposed some answers like the

encouragement of the small and medium scale industry in the realm of the internet marketing

initially and more importantly the factors which is constraining them from the journey.

The basic principal underlying the marketing is mostly acceptable in both large and small scale

business, but the marketing procedure in terms of small scale business is generally becoming an

issue which is one of the most debatable topics among the researchers and the practitioners. The

approaches made for the marketing of small scale industries are made in mix and informal

depending on the strategy of running the business by the owner, decision making by their own

and the way they respond to the current opportunities and circumstances. The information

communication technology helps in the improvement of the business competition after the

implementation of internet (Marsh, 2009). It is providing several opportunities for the small and

medium scale enterprises to compete equally with the corporation having larger stand in the

market. The electronic commerce also having a positive impact on the business operations as it

sis conveying a variety of benefits and the companies are leaving behind the usage of this new

system and cannot compete favorably with the global place of market (Noor, 2009). The small

business particularly is now helping to overcome the major disadvantages like the limited

financial support, size, human and technological resources as well the limited exposure towards

the global market place after the adoption of the internet technologies (Olatokun and Bankole,

2011). Therefore the way they make decision is generally chaotic and haphazard on the basis of

the business priorities and personal skills at a particular time point. According to Gilmore et al

(2001), the reason behind begin informal in their approaches, limited and haphazard marketing is

the way they form relationship with the owners who is running the business. Some authors also

highlighted the fact that the skill required for a business setup as well as the technical knowledge

for the service and the product development are not actually comparable to skills required to run

the business in a more successful manners. In some other circumstances the response of the

owner is based on the decision making skill and the opportunities which is tend to be haphazard

and the not generally a chaotic one (Wright, et al., 2005).

In the current business scenario, the manager of the small scale industries are now shifting for

the online retail marketing due to the creation of facilities like internet and laptops. The

revolution brought up by the internet. With the help of internet revolution, certain improvement

in the competitiveness in the business is achieved as it is providing a plenty of opportunities for

the small and medium enterprises to battle with some of the best corporation of the world

(Alberto and Fernando, 2007). The upcoming of the internet revolution have brought up a

positive impact on the overall operation of the business as it is helping in the collection for the

larger profits and bringing up the importance of every small corporation (Noor, 2009). Moreover,

the small enterprises can also have some of their key disadvantages like financial crisis along

with the activities that are restricted within the area of their coverage around in the global market

due to the impact created by the internet revolution. Ignoring the main fact that the off ramp

increment in the businesses in the global market, it is quite evident that the small industries in the

rural and the urban countries are very slow in the adoption of online retailing than the other

businesses and indeed they are devoting the fewer time in the retail business available online

than the larger organizations (Buckley and Montes, et al 2012). The medium and the small

industries are also included in the slow motion of adopting the online retailing business. In the

present scenario, it has been estimated that more than 50 million users along with the other

companies in telecommunication are providing the internet services across the globe. But there

hasn’t been a significant increment in the online retailing business in most of the developing

countries across the globe. The internet is helping a lot to give out information which is enabling

a gentle communication with the customers and also helping in collection of relevant data in

term of the current market in retail business. Increment ion the services and the goods with the

help of internet is very important and supporting the services like online ordering of the

commodities which is helping the retailers in providing with an enormously bendable and

prosperous new channel of the business. In this way the channel of the internet is providing the

channel of increasing the objective of marketing for the small scale retailers and also improving

the communication with the customers, expanding the line of products, improvement in the

effectiveness of the cost of products, providing some standard offers and also trying to build up a

strong relationship with the customers (Chen et al, 2011). With the innovation of internet based

marketing, there has been a positive response from the customers and there has been extensive

improvement in sales of the small companies since the last 15 years are continuously rising with

the passing years (Ho et al, 2007). According to some researchers it has been mentioned that

there has been asymmetry in the information and it is will increase the power of consumer

regards to the internet and will also promote the precision of the market and allowing the

grouping together of the customer to have more control on the products which they are buying at

the given price. It is also playing an important role in the deciding how the retailers are going to

market their products and also the way they communicate with e customers (Kucuk and

Krishnamurthy, 2007). So the study that is proposed in order to explore the utilization of the

internet revolution by comparing the penetration of the countries penetration in using the internet

and considering the fact that why the people are using internet in developing countries and the

barriers to which the small industries using internet in various countries. Considering the fact of

the small business are allowing the use of internet in benefits on their business, most of the

industries are finding it very difficult to make a fixed cost while creating the website and making

it successfully. There has been a lot of proof to be proposing which implies that the internet is

providing the special treatment regarding the medium sized enterprises as it is highly allowing

them to increase their efficiency of doing trade and its offers very lower prices by doing the same

(Fernie, et al, 2010). Some of the researchers also proposed some answers like the

encouragement of the small and medium scale industry in the realm of the internet marketing

initially and more importantly the factors which is constraining them from the journey. The

media consumption by the customer is generally making a move away from the outlet of the

traditional media towards the more advanced from of the internet options. This type of changes

in the behaviour of the customers are making the prime time for the small and medium size

enterprises to get transition from the local to the digital world of marketing. The facts that

various techniques are generally accessible for supporting the internet marketing also helps in

eradicating the doubt about the small and medium scale enterprises at the online level of internet

marketing. This review of literature will be examining the barriers related to the adoption of

internet marketing by the small and medium scale industries along with that discussing some of

the important tools which will be aiding the successful transition toward the online marketing for

the SME and also will identify the core benefits for the internet marketing for the same.

The internet is playing a pivotal role in the enhancement of the reach of firms in the market as

well as enhancing the operation efficiency. Some researchers also mentioned that the marketing

through internet is managed to fulfil the objectives of the business. On the basis of the research

findings, the sales were getting lower than it was expected with the internet usage as a type of

virtual place of market but it significantly helped in the time consumed to search for the

resources and network development along with sharing the expertise (Chen et al, 2011). The

internet usage efficiently for the development of business is highly dependent on the sector in

which the business is working (Stelzner, 2013). Like some of the business are found to be very

successful in marketing, promoting, distributing, and advertising their services and products with

the help of internet while some of the business were observed to be quite hesitant in using the

internet services for their particular needs. Some of the small enterprises also feel afraid of

jumping into the bandwagon but they are also afraid of the fact that the current business is now

moving the online retail stores. The internet is now becoming a type of strategic tool for every

type of business in this era of increasing business competitions (Marsh, 2009). . The use of term

internalization describes the usage of ICT for the purpose of internalization as well as for the

active online internalization. The term AOI is a type of entry in the foreign market which

involves transactions through internet which is taking place as a virtual rather than the spatial or

the real domains. According to Matthew and Healy (2008), there has been significant influence

of the internet in the penetration of the international market and also the development of several

small and medium enterprises in Australia. The study also found out that the internet has also

influenced the traditional technique of accessing as well as processing the information by

enhancement in the communication interactions. Based on the research done by Pezderka &

Sinkovics (2010), it has also been focused on the internalization of the medium and small scale

industries particularly in the concepts involving e risk and their implications. The study also

described that the awareness regarding the potential risk associated with the online

internalization comprises if the step of effective online management of risk. The practice of

internet marketing also includes the use of the website of the company together with the

promotional activities online along with search engine promotion, email marketing, interactive

promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the other websites. Therefore,

the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for acquiring the new customers

and also providing the services to the customer existing and to maintain a healthy relationship

with the customers. The internet marketing implementation can also change the nature of the

business across the world for the small and medium enterprises as the internet revolution is

bringing the fast and the efficient communication channel for the purpose of marketing. The use

of internet can become the sources of information for providing the feedback as well as

maintaining the relationship with all the customers. The internet is helping the markets to gather

the information for customizing the offers to the customers and other prospective. In this way the

internet is affecting the world market (Gilmore et al, 2007).

The vehicle used for sustaining the major part of the industrial development in the form of

internet has the capacity to process and promote the indigenous culture of the enterprises

(Ugwushi, 2009). In most of the counties with developing phase of the economy, the small and

medium scale industries are used as the source of generation employment, alleviation of poverty,

security of food, rapid industrialization and reversal of the urban rural migration and also

becoming the strong tool for restructuring the economic growth and development (Johnson,

2011). This is the only reason why government of several countries are now attracted to the

growth of small and medium enterprises along with the researchers, academics as well as policy

makers across the world in finding out several pathways for the development of these small scale

enterprises and among the most efficient initiatives comes the sue of e commerce for the

marketing and operational purposes. In this current era, the small industries are heavily adopting

the internet facilities due to the usage increment of laptops, personal computers, cheap sources of

communication, cost effectiveness and increase in the usage of the communication technology.

The information communication technology helps in the improvement of the business

competition after the implementation of internet (Chen et al, 2011). It is providing several

opportunities for the small and medium scale enterprises to compete equally with the corporation

having larger stand in the market. The electronic commerce also having a positive impact on the

business operations as it sis conveying a variety of benefits and the companies are leaving behind

the usage of this new system and cannot compete favorably with the global place of market

(Noor, 2009). The small business particularly is now helping to overcome the major

disadvantages like the limited financial support, size, human and technological resources as well

the limited exposure towards the global market place after the adoption of the internet

technologies (Olatokun and Bankole, 2011).

In today’s world each and everything is available on internet for buying and selling purposes

including booking of hotel, reservation tickets for travel, travel services stock market and

financial services. In the field of education also there are n numbers of competitors over the

internet that provides schooling and also there are many degree providing schools also

functioning online. Thus the meeting of sellers and buyers over the internet for exchange of

products, services, information and payments can be all termed as internet economy. The

traditional market for doing business is termed as ‘brick and mortal’ markets where business

occurred only in physical buildings (Jamali, Lund-Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015). On the other

hand the electronic market place is the conductance of business over internet where the buyers

and sellers do not come to see or know or meet physically and all the deals are done online or

through a telecommunication network. Across the world the popularity of internet has grown at

an immense rate where U.S. is leading in the world in case of technology, crazy internet users as

well as in website sophistication. Americans leave behind all the people who shop over internet

in any country and this provides an indication of popularity of internet commerce and indicates

clear application of internet in every process of business in very near future. It has been now

predicted that this e-commerce will definitely overtake the existence of physical industries ad

their economy in near future (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J., 2002). The popularity and

growing acceptance of this e-commerce all over the world is basically because of several factors

like technological development and is still advancing. There is increases encouragement, support

and cooperation from the regulatory environment. There is increased level of knowledge in

consumers and growing sophistication and economical status of people has made e-commerce a

trend in today’s world. As the whole world is developing and adopting the e-commerce as their

first choice, it has become necessary to implement this and make this popular in Nigeria as well

(Jamali, Lund-Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015).

.

With the advancement of the computer and technology brought through the internet and it is

helping for considering the theories involving the innovations. The internet revolution is quite

different from the other sort of innovation because of its unusual driving innovation involved in

it. This helps in explaining how the technology is driving such as the internet can be involved in

the area which is beyond the previous innovations (Chen and Crowston, 2001). The revolution of

the internet also encompasses information along with providing various opportunities which is

revolving around the globalization (Nzeako, 1999). The usage of the internet also helped in

increasing the level of technology as there are various patterns of removing the crime. There are

more positive an impact using the internet like it is promoting the job search, improvement in

buying and selling of commodities and services, increasing employment, derivation of useful

information, ability to research some materials for the business or education purposes (Young

Media Association, 2007).

In today’s world, there are a number of people using the internet and generating a billion of

dollars just using the internet every year. On the basis of report generated by the MacAfee report

on criminology (2007), the Asia, North America, Africa and Europe has increase the e commerce

at a very high rate but among these countries, only Africa has spend a huge amount for

introducing e commerce in the area of banking sector with the mode of withdrawing cash

through online banking with the help of using ATM cards as well as debit cards and by using the

domically accounts for business and online transactions. In the country like Africa, where the

revolution of internet is just being introduced, the economy is highly prone to the hackers’

difficulties. The major difference which is lying with the Africa coma pare to the other countries

is its mode of transaction is as the part of their culture and also meeting the demand of the people

if there were hackers present. In the recent research observation, it has been seen that about 2

million American people were robbed by accessing their account in the year 2006 along with the

online transaction resulting in the usage of credit cards were reported the loss for about more

than 100 million people across America and out of which there were 30 million is just from the

online transaction. In comparison to United States, Africa has more numbered hackers which is

forming the negative effect of the economy of African countries (Oyenuga,et al , 2013). On the

basis of research done by (Nyirenda-jere, et al, 2015), the penetration level of the internet is

rising to about more than 20 % and is growing fast day by day. The subscription through mobile

is also rising daily which has noticed an increment of more than 90% in the recent times. The

countries like Morocco have the level of penetration increment by 50% as compare to other

countries which is very less than 2%. In addition to this the African countries is paying more

than 30 minutes internet access as compare to the other countries in the world. It was quite

evident that after the creation of the exchange point of internet, it is helping in achieving the

desired goals in the local level of any business outcomes. With the advantages of the increment

in the internet usage outcomes there is also increment in the cybercrime as well as increase in the

security concern related to the internet. The African countries can only opt secured environment

and privacy protection if they join hand with the internet governance member of the economy.

The infrastructure which is required in order to manage the growth of the internet revolution is

becoming quite significant (Marsh, 2009). The importance of growing communication through

the mobile and the rate of penetration through the internet are going in very large quantity as

assigned to the effort given by the Government of Africa who is currently working with the

stakeholders as well as retailers in order to promote the development of the internet facilities.

After the arrival of internet in Africa and as traced to the United States based ARPRANET in the

year 1960 where 1sttype of network came after the three decades in the University of Rhodes in

south Africa. The technology that has been brought about mailing system which was used as the

basis of transport and the other facilities were replaced with connection of internet with the line

of about 9600 bps. This actually lead to the existence of the internet service providers where both

of them were leased line connection for the purpose of commerce (Chen et al, 2011). The

countries which started the use of the internet in the year 1991 were South Africa and Tunisia

along with Egypt in the year 1992 and Algeria and Zambia in the year 1994. After this initiation,

almost 53 countries from the African continent were having the connectivity to the internet

(Gilmore et al, 2007).

After the emergence of the internet in the several countries of the world, it also started gaining

the strategic growth in the internet penetration i.e. from 0.78% to 20.0% in the year 2000 to the

year 2014. From the general statistics of few countries the internet penetration of the African

countries represents that there is a huge growth in the internet connection usage from most of the

countries but at a different rate of course. Further it has also been observed that the technology

usage has been reflected in most of the countries of Africa. For example the countries like South

Africa, Nigeria and the Northern Africa also leads to the continent that has been subscribed to

the use of internet but of the countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe are not increasing the

penetration rate of the internet usage gradually. Due to the arrival of the internet revolution in

the country of Africa, it has gone far very positively and also been influenced by the usage of

mobiles (Stelzner, 2013). For instance, the usage of smart phone which is having the demand in

the market with the growing percentage of the mobile users also increasing the usage of internet

in every part of the countries (Marsh, 2009). With the growth of the mobile phone usage in the

various part of the world there has been also the expansions of the application stores. It has been

reported that in the year 2013, there has been 146 developers introduced more than 420

applications. The internet has been used for the commercial purposes with the help of mobile

operators with the help of using payment gateway called M pesa (Mnad C Satacchi moblile,

2013). Furthermore the usage of the mobile phone is still by and large depending on the foxed

internet backbones. Investment as well as the effort which is required to develop the facilities of

internet is still striving in most of the part of the world (Goldstruck, 2012). The small scale

industries in the growing economy has been used like a scheme for the services to remove

poverty, securing food, services and growth of the industrialization as well as used for the money

making tool for making a reformation for the progress and growth in the industries (Johnson,

2011). Based on the research done by Pezderka & Sinkovics (2010), it has also been focused on

the internalization of the medium and small scale industries particularly in the concepts

involving e risk and their implications. The study also described that the awareness regarding the

potential risk associated with the online internalization comprises if the step of effective online

management of risk. The practice of internet marketing also includes the use of the website of

the company together with the promotional activities online along with search engine promotion,

email marketing, interactive promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the

other websites. Therefore, the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for

acquiring the new customers and also providing the services to the customer existing and to

maintain a healthy relationship with the customers (Stelzner, 2013).

In some of the studies, it is also quite evident that the lack of voltage and other resources,

liveliness, security problems in retails and the shortage of the successful and authoritarian

schemes are some of the major challenges which is inhibiting the approval as well as increase in

the retail using the internet facilities by the small and medium scale enterprises. Some of the

researchers also suggested that the purpose of bringing the internet revolution is to be accessible

by the retailers is for its utilization adequately and in essence must be the condition for the

standards provision of the power of the customers. In addition to that, there must be efficient

methods that offer a mechanism of defence to both the sellers and the buyers on the internet must

be available readily and there must be some impact created on the mind of people using internet

as a part of expanding small and medium scale enterprises and must support the meetings and

arrangements for the business start-ups through the use of the internet (Gilmore et al, 2007).

According to some researcher, the main determinant of the internet marketing is deciding the

targeted customer and the infrastructure the SMEs are having. The strategy and the aim of

business are some of the other influencer of the internet marketing in the SMEs. The lack of

sufficient amount of planning always hinders the growth of the internet based marketing in the

SME. Some studies described that the awareness regarding the potential risk associated with the

online internalization comprises if the step of effective online management of risk. The practice

of internet marketing also includes the use of the website of the company together with the

promotional activities online along with search engine promotion, email marketing, interactive

promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the other websites (Stelzner,

2013). Therefore, the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for acquiring the

new customers and also providing the services to the customer existing and to maintain a healthy

relationship with the customers. The internet marketing implementation can also change the

nature of the business across the world for the small and medium enterprises as the internet

revolution is bringing the fast and the efficient communication channel for the purpose of

marketing (Gilmore et al, 2007).

Methodology-

The research methodology includes the research designs, the size of the population for study, the

characteristics of the study, the population under consideration , techniques used, sample

collection, sources of the data, data analysis method and limitation of the research methodology.

For the proposed study, two methods are used for designing the survey and to collect data

namely qualitative and quantitative research. The population here refers to the whole size of the

individuals included in the study. Since it was practically impossible to cover whole population

hence a sample of 100 individuals have been considered. The characteristics of population of

small and medium scale enterprises those were located in the lagos, Nigeria. The participants

were from these small and medium scale enterprises and were asked to fill up the questionnaires.

The participants belonged to different departments of these enterprises. Out of 150 participants

contacted 100 completed the questionnaires and returned them that accounted more than 80%

response rate. The questionnaires used for measuring the reported variables were designed in two

sections. The first section consisted of the carefully chosen questions that relates to the impact of

the information technology on the SMES of the responding individuals whereas the second part

is to provide background information of the respondents. The questionnaires were to

administered and collection of data was direct. The analysis of the data is carried out using a

combination of statistical calculations and narratives. Apart from this exploratory analysis has

also been used for the determination of the significant factors in the development of the SMES in

Nigeria.

Several sources and different methodologies can be used to collect data. According to a

researcher, if a data is in word form, it can be classified as qualitative and can be regarded as

quantitative if they come in the form of numbers. For a research to be successful in terms of

presenting the phenomenon being studied, it is vital to select the appropriate quantitative and

qualitative methods and to understand their application to the research context . Others regard

the choice of methodology or multiplicity of methods for a research as a major problem specially

when it comes to beginning researchers. By some researchers it is preferred to use either a single

method or a multiplicity which is commonly referred to as triangulation (Alonso et al, 2005).

Quantitative method-

The main backbone of quantitative research lies in the development of metrics or numbers that

can be used to describe the phenomenon, such as objects and relationships, under study. The

issue under study as well as data analysis involves the application of numerical approach.

Statistical analysis techniques can be subsequently used for analyzing such data. It is suitable to

measure behaviors and also the descriptive aspects, quantitative methods are the best suited. This

allows comparison and replication (Ongori et al, 2010). A researcher argued that quantitative

data not only allows large scale data collection and analysis at a reasonable cost and effort but

also gives statistical proof (Saunders et al, 2009). Human behavior can be explained by what

may be termed "social facts", these are the assumptions that characterize quantitative research

design. The social facts can be investigated by methodologies that utilize "the deductive logic of

natural sciences”. The primary concern of qualitative research has always been with defining an

epistemological methodology for determining the truth/value and is usually flexible when it

comes to dealing with data and allowing researchers to conduct comparative analysis, statistical

analysis and repeatability of data collection in order to verify reliability. Some researchers

identify some characteristics of quantitative research as follows: its visible truthfulness or reality

to exist in the world, this existence can be objectively and quantitatively measured, in terms of

the relationship between the investigator and what is being investigated (Adebayo et al, 2013).

The first and foremost requirement of quantitative research paradigm as suggested, is that, the

researchers should remain distant and independent of what is being researched to ensure an

objective assessment of the situation . Some researchers were able to identify the strengths of

quantitative methodologies which certainly include: allowance of comparison and replication;

reliability and variability is determined more objectively than qualitative methods; emphasizing

on the needs to formulate hypotheses for subsequent verification; helping in search for casual

explanations and fundamental laws; and, in order to facilitate analysis the whole is reduced to the

simplest possible element (Arendeti, 2008).

Stated by a researcher, since the aim of the study is to develop generalization that can contribute

to the theory and can enable a researcher to better predinternet marketing and explain some

phenomenon, therefore in quantitative research, concepts, variables and hypotheses are selected

prior to the study and remain fixed all through the study (Ongori et al, 2010). However, certain

researchers argued that there is a major disadvantage of quantitative research, which is that, as a

general rule, there is a loss of many social and cultural aspects of the organization or they may be

treated in a superficial manner. Some of them also stated, that quantitative data also tends to

convey very less meaning to most of the people until and unless they are processed and analyzed.

Graphs, charts and statistics are certain quantitative analysis techniques, allow researchers to

explore, present, describe and examine relationship and trends within data. The range of a

quantitative data can be from simple counts such as frequency of occurrences to more complex

data such as test scores, prices or rental cost. Qualitative methods in contrast to quantitative

methods concentrate more on increasing the richness of the data about the social process in a

research problem and tend to be mostly subjective (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008).

Qualitative Method

The qualitative research is generally based on words rather than the numbers. It is designed in

those ways which is associated with the interpretative approaches that depend on the informants

other than the measurement of the observable and discrete behavior. It is generally helps in

answering the question based on the nature of the phenomenon that helps in the description as

well as understanding of the phenomena from the point of view of informants. On the basis of

few researchers, qualitative research generally hesitates in the adaption of the generalization of

the objective products for the research endeavors. Therefore is very much wrong if we make the

difference between the qualitative and quantitative research on the basis of numbers. The

qualitative research strength generally lies in the responsive and flexible interaction between the

respondents and the interviewers. The qualitative research helps in the explanation of the various

complex issues which is within the natural ways of the phenomenon of the research in detailed

manner. The research related to the qualitative analysis generally means any type of research

which produces the findings which is not arrived by the means of the procedures which are

statistics or just by the means of quantifications. In qualitative type of research the probing of

meaning can be done and the covering of topics can be easily done with wide angles. The

questions are made clear for all the participants which is considered to be the advantages in

exploring the concept and the relation lies between them. Some researchers also explain that the

greatest strength of the qualitative based research is the data validity that has been obtained

because the individuals are generally interviewed in quite details to get the results that can be

considered as true, believable and correct reports for the experiences and the views. The

paradigm of the qualitative research is also called as the naturalistic, constructive, post positive

and interpretative approach. In the context of research, where the topic is written certainly about,

the qualitative approach is generally used to provide the in depth knowledge about the

investigated phenomenon. The methods of qualitative research are generally designed to help the

research people for understanding people and whatever they do or say. This type of research

always use a naturalistic approach which seeks in understanding the phenomenon of the context

specific settings like the real world settings of the researcher don’t make any attempt for

manipulating the interest phenomenon. It is generally designed for helping the researchers for

understanding the cultural and the social context of the people. It is generally impossible

virtually for understanding why the people did something, or why it is happening in the

organization with even talking to the people about the same. For instance, if the restrinternet

marketingion is applied for the police for using the quantitative data only the there will be no

crime that can be solved. In other case if the judges and the lawyer are also not allowed for

questioning and also cross examining the witnesses in the courtroom then the reliability and the

validity of the decision will be a matter of having serious doubt (Arendeti, 2008). Moreover, if

the researchers want to understanding of the motivation of people, their actions, and their reasons

as well the context of beliefs followed by the actions in depth (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). The

qualitative research don’t depend on the researchers after knowing all the categories and

characteristics of the subjects which is ahead of time and it actually allows the development of

the concepts and gets refined with the progress of the projects (Saunders et al, 2009). Here

Interview guide was helpful for researcher to make decision of best utilization of time for an

interview. Wu also agreed Interview guide as a helpful tool for researcher with respect to

interview time utilization. In appendix D all the interview questions are mentioned (Alonso et al,

2005). Structure of interview starts with introduction of interviewer first which was preceded by

brief description of the objective of the present research work. First set of questions are related to

the background detail of the participant as well as respective companies. Many questions were

focused on the types of software applications that were in use in the different SMEs (e.g.

spreadsheets; databases; accounting packages; statistical packages; communication software used

for internet, email, word processing software, and so on) and the use of other internet marketing

applications (such as stock control, Sage, CRM, ERP amongst others) (Ongori et al, 2010).

Justification of the Chosen Research Method-

It is very important for describing the method of research with many specifications. The choice

of qualitative research is generally selected for its consistency with the aim of the research for

ascertains the phenomenon which is complex by considering the context of the settings. The

reasons for choosing the qualitative method of research for the research which is going to be

done on the research problem has been described in previous sections. Generally, the questions

like how, why and what are appropriately examined using the research approach of qualitative

questions and secondly the qualitative research approach also helps in accepting the subjectivity

and complex city and also helps in enabling the researchers for using their interpretation and

observation of the phenomenon in getting the insights in discovering the meaning of a particular

experience, historical and cultural events. And on the other hand the research based on

quantitative methodology is not suitable for explaining and exploring the complexities and it is

generally more appropriate of the confirmation which as already been known for a particular

phenomenon (Alonso et al, 2005). The quantitative research just allows getting familiar with the

concept or the problem which is to be studied and also helps in generating the hypothesis that is

to be subjected. The other reason for choosing the qualitative approach is based on the

epistemology of the research. Therefore the adoption of the interprevitist epistemological by the

researcher which is aimed for the identification of the factors which is motivating the adoption of

this approach and also the effective utilization of internet marketing by the SMEs of the Nigeria

and also influences the performances of the organization, which is generally consistent with the

mode of qualitative research (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). Moreover, the paradigm of the

interpretivist is quite suitable for the purpose of research which actually recognizes the SMEs

characteristics and also their functions based on the economy of Nigeria. This approach also

raise several questions on the general finding and its has been said by several researchers that the

genaralisability is not actually crucial as the research aim is to capture the complexities of the

situation as well. The research also adopts the inductive approach in place of the destructive one

as it want to understand the deeper meaning of the research questions (Arendeti, 2008).

Research Paradigm

The given write up here discusses about the procedure by which the researchers had conducted

the research along with stating the justifications for the approach that was taken by them. The

research methods implemented for capturing the data that achieves the research aim are

addressed here. This study used the qualitative research method in order to identify strategies

that are assisting in increasing the adoption as well as, the effective utilization of Information and

Communication Technology (internet marketing) in Nigeria's Small and Medium Scale

Enterprises (SMEs) (Arendeti, 2008). Based on previous decisions, it was decided that the most

appropriate methodology for this study was the use of the interprevist philosophical paradigm

within a qualitative methodology. Some researchers noted that, in order to understand human

thoughts and action in social and organizational context, interpretive research could help

Information System (IS) researchers. Moreover, the research not only will help understand

emerging issues that are relevant to the subject but also is exploratory and descriptive (Adebayo

et al, 2013).

Background

The background information of the individuals included in the study are presented in the table

below,

frequency Percentage Valid percent Cumulative

percent

Male 45 72.6 72.6 72.6

Female 17 27.4 27.4 100

Total 62 100 1000

From the above results it was reflected that 73% of the participants were male and 27% of them

were female. This result also indicated that managing the SMES in Nigeria is done more by men

than women.

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent

HND 9 14.5 14.5 21.0

BSC 37 59.7 59.7 80.6

MSC 6 9.7 9.7 90.3

MBA

TOTAL

6

58

9.7

100

9.7

100

100

The above table depicts that the educational level of the individuals included in the study is

14.5% with Higher National Diploma, 59.7% of total respondents are having Bachelor’s degree

while with 6 respondents having Master’s degree. And 9.7% only have Masters In Business

Administration qualification. Hence the result indicates that major portion of SMES management

consist of Bachelor degree holders.

Impact of Information Technology on SMEs in Nigeria:

In order to determine correctly the impact of the Information Technology on SMEs in Nigeria, it

is important to determine the extent up to which the Information Technology has influenced the

business environments of SMEs. The following table explores the impact of the Information

Technology on Nigerian SMEs.

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.Deviation

Introduction

of IT in SME

to change the

process and

the products

62 100 200 10010 49106

IT employed

in SMEs for

making their

services more

62 100 400 18006 74303

easy

Use of IT in

SMEs for

opening up

new

oppurtunities

62 100 400 20000 91303

From the above table it can be inferred that the most important effect of the IT on SMES is the

introduction of the IT for changing the process and the product followed by the use of IT in

opening up the new opportunities.

Conclusion:

The conclusion that can be drawn from the present research study is that Information Technology

has a great impact of the productivity of the SME industry in Nigeria. The stakeholders in the

SMES also agree that with the introduction of the IT at different processes in SMES helps in

boosting productivity and profitability. With the use of IT, managing the information in SMES

become more easy with reduced transaction costs and speeding up the entire process

Following are the survey questionnaires that will be used for the purpose of survey and the

question will be close ended as the participants only have to tick the desired options given with

the question. The question will be asked in the form of survey to the student of educational

institution about the various issues regarding internet marketing in Nigeria, The sample size of

the students will be 200.

1. The cost of training the employees along with adequate financial sources is hindering the

option of internet marketing in Nigeria by the SMEs. Up to which extent do you think agree

with this?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

2. The supportive measures taken by government such as Nigerian policies of SMEs are not

sufficient and also prevent various SMEs from effectively utilizing and adopting internet

marketing. To which extent does agree with this view?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

3. Due to the irregular services that is being provided by the ISPs due to the low signal

bandwidth, with very high cost of subscription along with frequency of subscription and

disconnection is known to be very common issue in preventing Nigeria to use internet

marketing by SMEs. To which extent does agree with this view?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

4. The SMEs of the Nigeria is having various taxes to be paid and also levies the due a very

high level of corruption in the country. To which extent does agree with this view?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

5. The potential of internet revolution are yet to be fully utilized by the SMEs of the Nigeria

and now owing due to lack of several resources and support from bank. To which extent does

agree with this view?

Please tick] one option ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly

Agree

6. The infrastructural facilities lacking in the SMEs are the major drawback and challenge for

the SMEs in Nigeria. To which extent does agree with this view?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Ag

7. The deficiencies in the skill and knowledge lacking within the employees is actually

preventing the adoption of internet marketing by the SMEs in Nigeria Skills To which extent

does agree with this view?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

8. There is a lacking of the awareness among all the manager and owner in the adoption of

internet marketing in Nigeria in the SMEs of Nigerai. To which extent does agree with this

view?

Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

Interviews

Interview is an effective and qualified method for communication between the individuals which

transfer the information in efficient way. In society interview is classified as important form of

communication which is also suggested by Putins and Petelin. Interview is conducted on the

basis of plans and structure prepared by interviewer and followed in predetermined objective and

takes place between two or more people which stand interview as totally different from casual

conversations explained (Alonso et al, 2005). It is suggested by Marshall and Rossman that for

elaborative and explorative focus of research, proper research strategies should comprises with in

depth interviews on field studies which is concern objective of present research work. Several

semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-designed questionnaires for better

understandable results. Such interviews were helpful for interviewer to understand in depth the

problem taken for present study (Adebayo et al, 2013). Walsham ,Levy and Powell identified

that impactful parameter for successful cases is interview as it provide better interpretation of

events from participant to interviewer. In case study research semi-structured interviews are

highly flexible and very important which is pointed by Gilliam also. In present research work, as

earlier mentioned in section 4.8.1, semi-structured interviews were initially conducted with 25

SMEs in Nigeria between December 2009 to February 2010 from which seven SMEs were

finally selected and used as case studies, and an interview protocol was used as a guide. Here

Interview guide was helpful for researcher to make decision of best utilization of time for an

interview. Wu also agreed Interview guide as a helpful tool for researcher with respect to

interview time utilization. In appendix D all the interview questions are mentioned. Structure of

interview starts with introduction of interviewer first which was preceded by brief description of

the objective of the present research work (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). First set of questions are

related to the background detail of the participant as well as respective companies. Many

questions were focused on the types of software applications that were in use in the different

SMEs (e.g. spreadsheets; databases; accounting packages; statistical packages; communication

software used for internet, email, word processing software, and so on) and the use of other

internet marketing applications (such as stock control, Sage, CRM, ERP amongst others) (Ongori

et al, 2010)

Interview Questionnaires-

The interview questions which will be asked to the students of educational institution and this

will be open ended questionnaires which will be evaluated after the process of short interview.

The sets of interview questionnaires will be asked in a group of 5 students and the sample size

will be of 200 students.

1. How do you believe that Nigerian electricity board can assist in non interrupt Internet and

electric facility for improvement of SME?

2. How the government of Nigeria is is ensuring to provide internet facility to remote area

where the SMEs are located?

3. What do you think the Nigerian culture and economic status supporting the adoption of

internet marketing?

4. What are the factors do you think education and training can play a huge role in internet

marketing adoption by SMEs in Nigeria?

5. What are the infrastructure facilities required by the SMEs in Nigeria to get the best facilities

of internet?

6. How does the training and awareness program for the managers and the owners of SMEs in

Nigeria will be helping them in adoption of internet marketing?

7. How the cultural and social factor does is affecting the adoption of internet marketing among

SMEs in Nigeria?

8. How do you think the policies and regulation of government will be helping/hindering the

internet marketing regulation in Nigeria SMEs?

Sample Size-

The data will be obtained by two ways i.e. by primary and secondary methods. There will be

approximately 70 literature surveys has been done to carry out the research in order to solve the

research question. The secondary data utilizes the sources through which the statistical analysis

has been done along with the survey about the research about internet marketing adoption

previously done so far.

The primary data has been collected through various questionnaires from the various university

students with a set of open and close ended questions mentioned previously. The number of

participants was 300 out of which 230 were undergraduate students and rest of them was post

graduate.

Ethical Issues-

The ethical issues regarding the research have been kept in priority. The questionnaires was

asked in such a manner so that it doesn’t harm the confidentially of both student and

government. The research was carried out in very culturally competent method. It was also tried

to remain unbiased while randomly selecting the participants for the research purpose. Most of

the findings which has been reported through the public sources has been properly referenced as

well. The finding will be published later on for a open access by the people from various part of

the world.

Scope & Limitation of Research-

This research has presented the contributions of this research to the body of knowledge which

include the developed framework, the research methods adopted for the study and how they were

applied, key limitations of the present research as well as recommendations for future research.

The research also adds to the body of knowledge by empirically providing evidence that can

increase the knowledge of Internet adoption and usage in small businesses thereby expanding the

research area, in the field of IS. The research findings are beneficial to academics, practitioners,

and policy makers. The research design function is help in ensuring the evidences that are

obtained will help in answering the question that are raised as unbiased as possible. It actually

implies the research project quality will get enhanced with the better understanding of the design

of project. It will also helps in reduction of the ambiguity of the research evidences. It also helps

in the designing of the set of guidelines that are flexible and also helps in the connection of the

paradigms theoretically towards the strategies of enquiry and also the methods for the collection

of the empirical data (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). The case study based strategy of research is

generally ideal when a holistic in depth investigations is required which helps in revealing the

facts from the correspondents with the use of multiple data source like face to face interviews,

written documents, observations etc. The methodology of the qualitative case studies generally

provides the tools for the researchers in order to know the complexity of the phenomenon in their

context (Alonso et al, 2005). It also helps in the exploring of the organizational and individuals

through the complex relationship and interventions, programs and communities and also supports

the events of deconstruction and the reconstruction subsequently in various phenomenon

(Adebayo et al, 2013).

Reasons for Selecting the Current Research Location

This study is generally focusing on the country Nigeria which is significantly interesting and also

the domain of the research as it is becoming one of the most industrialized country in African

continent. Further Nigeria is one of the most densely populated countries in the African continent

which has significantly large natural resources. The telecommunication industries are developing

at very high rate but it is also believed that the deployment of internet marketing is not getting

increased at the same pace. The economic commision of Nigeria also indicated the decrement of

the technology backwardness including the Nigeria (Adebayo et al, 2013). Even if the increase in

the uptake of the internet based marketing in all parts of the world, Nigeria is continuously

lagging behind the adoption of internet marketing and it is very important to pull Nigeria from

the box and also help it to up take the internet marketing in SMEs. On the basis of various such

reasons, the research is focused on adoption of internet marketing by the SMEs in various sectors

and this location was co9nsidred to be perfect among all (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). Some

researchers describe research as something that people carry out in a systematic way to find out

new things that will contribute to their level of knowledge. Further, according to them the

characteristics of a good research include: to ensure that data is collected systematically, they are

interpreted systematically and finding out things is accompanied with a clear purpose of doing it.

The different styles of research include constructive, theoretical, empirical, homothetic,

idiographic, critical, information systems research and so on. For example, the information

system research deals with the development and the use of information systems by individuals,

organizations and society and is mainly based on internet marketing. Hence, this research style is

best suited for this particular study as the research too is concerned with adoption and effective

utilization of internet marketing’s in organization, particularly in the SMES. Other two

researches noted that. The general research using information and technology, involve many

styles and type of work, just like any other discipline (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008).

Research Method

Method can be defined as on systematic and orderly approach that is taken towards data

collection and analysis so that information can be obtained from those data. Alternatively,

methods can be defined as techniques or procedures used for gathering and analyzing data

related to research questions and hypothesis (Saunders et al, 2009). Whereas methodology is

defined as a strategy, plan of action process or design lying behind the choice and use of

particular methods and linking the choice and use of those methods to the desired outcomes.

According to a researcher methodology is defined as the discussion of how a piece of research

should be undertaken. Another researcher stated that four main issues must be addressed by any

research methodology, they are the following : what data is required, from where the data can be

acquired, how the data can be collected and how the collected data can be analyzed. A research

strategy can also be called a research plan or design. A research strategy can be called as an

overall approach that is adopted by a researcher in order to find answers to the research

questions. A design that shapes a researcher's choice and use of particular methods and links

them to desired outcomes, can be defined as a research strategy or plan of action. A

philosophical paradigm, is known as the philosophy of a particular research and is also

sometimes referred to as research paradigm. Some researchers proposed that a framework,

consisting of theories, methods and ways of defining data which explains the relationship

between data and theory, can be offered by a research paradigm/philosophy. Various terms are

used by scholars to describe research approaches and strategies and to understand them, is the

most challenging issue about understanding research design. However, this research is based on

a particular researcher's description of the different terms (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008).

Research Strategy-

One of the most important decisions made by the researchers is the research strategy taken,

which also internet marketingates the major direction of the research. As referred by a

researcher, research strategy is research design and he has defined it as "a logical plan for getting

from here to there, where here may be defined as the initial set of questions to be answered and

there is some set of conclusions to these questions " (Saunders et al, 2009). Two other

researchers also stated that a research strategy should be consisting of the overall rationale; site

selection, population selection or both; the researcher's role; methods of data collection;

managing the data; data analyzing strategy; features of trustworthiness and a plan for

management . An appropriate research approach not only reflects the nature of the study but also

indicates the research objectives. Wide range of methods are involved in conducting a research,

which includes experiments, action research, ethnography, case study, grounded theory and

soon;. This particular research has adopted the survey and case study research strategies

(Saunders et al, 2009).

Survey-

As positivist paradigm seeks patterns to try and explain phenomenon, survey strategies are most

often associated with them. Researchers using that above stated method assume that there are

existing patterns that exist; however according to them, surveys cannot confirm cause and effect

in the same way as compared to scientific experiments but they do give an opportunity to see if

any association is established between variables. Researchers state that surveys play a great role

in obtaining consistent data from a large number of people and patterns and patterns are searched

for in these data. Surveys not always necessarily include questions they can also incorporate

interviews, observation, documents and so on. There are majorly two types of surveys, i.e.

descriptive and analytical. A descriptive study is one which mainly focuses on identifying and

counting a specific population frequency, either at one point in time or at various times for

comparison, whereas, analytical survey focuses on identifying relationships between different

variables. Opportunities for analysis of large amounts of data and making generalization are

provided by surveys (Adebayo et al, 2013).

Directions for further Research

Driven by the findings in this research, SMEs in Nigeria has a long way to go for the sector to be

most relevant, focused, productive enough and play the crucial role it is expected to in relation to

contributing to the growth and development of the economy of Nigeria. The benefits and need to

go for technology development through either technology transfer or technological innovations

or inter-firm linkages should be emphasized in the light of dimensions of global competition and

its negative fall outs as well as positive opportunities, to small and medium scale industries

entrepreneurs through seminars and work shop, at the local level. Hence, for the government to

succeed in reinventing the future of SMEs, it has to extend the current reforms to her educational

system to make it more functional , relevant ,need -oriented and driven. Emphasis should be on

modern technology, practical technological and entrepreneurial studies aimed at producing

entrepreneurs. There is the urgent and dire need for the government to revamp the SME sector of

the economy on order to redress the growing unemployment rate in the country, reduce poverty

level, enhance standard of living and stimulate economic growth and development. Furthermore,

emphasis should be made on encouraging the female gender to participate more in activities of

SMEs in Nigeria and as well include the study of both ICT and SMEs development in her

school's curriculum, establish more vocational schools in both local and urban settlements of the

country. The government should help through enlightenment programmes for the youths right

from grassroots.

The issue of cyber-crime is one that has been discussed by many people with various

perspectives on the issue, most coming at it from different sides than the others. Cyber-crimes

have gone beyond conventional crimes and now have threatening ramifications to the national

security of all countries, even to technologically developed countries as the United States.[7]

According to a publication in [20] which states that “the adoption by all countries of appropriate

legislation against the misuse of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), for

criminal or other purposes, including activities intended to affect the integrity of national critical

information infrastructures, is central to achieving global cyber security”. The publication further

stated that since threats could originate anywhere around the globe, the challenges are inherently

international in scope thus requires international cooperation, investigative assistance, and

common substantive and procedural provisions”. In line with the above, Professor Augustine

Odinma states that “cyber-crime is any illegal acts perpetrated in, on or through the internet with

the intent to cheat, defraud or cause the malfunction of a network device, which may include a

computer, a phones, etc. The illegal act may be targeted at a computer network or devices e.g.,

computer virus, denial of service attacks (DOS), malware (malicious code). the illegal act may

be facilitated by computer network or devices with target independent of the computer network

or device”. Relating cyber-crime to the military in a paper depicting his vested interest in the

country’s military well-being, Major General Umo outlines that cybercrime, cyber terrorism,

cyber warfare, cyber security are one and the same thing. This is because, stealing or forgery

directed at an individual or an organization is synonymous to waging war on the target of the

crime. For additional research, the recommendations for new strategies in order to eradicate

cybercrimes and develop the way forward in promoting internet usage will be considered.

Furthermore, research focus on market course and internet-related cognitions of managers in

predominantly small firms will be considered for other findings. For the general findings, other

studies would be considered broader or other samples, for example by ensuring a depiction of

medium sized enterprises .Also, the degree in which internet usage is included in an SME’s

business processes might vary for different types of internet users and this will be considered as

well (Kula and Tatoglu, 2003; Walczuch et al., 2000

Statistically, Nigeria ranked 43 in EMEA and ranked third among ten nations that commits

cyber-crime in the world. As a corrective measure, the then President of Nigeria, Olusegun

Obasanjo set up National Cyber security Initiative (NCI) in 2003. The Nigerian cybercrime

working group (NCWG) is to meet the objectives of NCI but their effects did not match up to the

rate of growth of cybercrime. Professor Oliver Osuagwu, relating cyber-crime to the collapse of

the educational sector, points out that cybercrime is causing near total collapse of the education

community, particularly in Nigeria, with over 90% of criminals coming from this sector. Wrong

value system has been identified as key factor encouraging cybercrime in Nigeria and the desire

to get rich quick without working for it. Cyber-crime is complex and committed mostly from

remote locations making it difficult to police. The absence of enabling law makes policing even

more difficult.[9]

As earlier stated, the internet has a capacity for more good than bad. This is better explained by

Mrs. R. Moses-Oke in [14] when she said “The oxymoronic nature of the Internet is one of its

unforeseen attributes; at its inception, no one, perhaps, could have clearly foreseen that, and how,

the Internet would someday become a veritable platform for globalized criminal activities. As

has been copiously remarked, the benefits of the Internet have so often been tainted by its

versatility for virtual criminal activities that have vastly devastating physical and social impacts”.

Many will agree that concerns are increasing as Nigeria is increasing its digitalization not only in

the area of commerce and communications, but gradually into the area of electronic banking. In

the past year, electronic banking and the cashless initiative have been in focus a lot. Amaka Eze

in her article [12] for THISDAY live writes, “As the country integrates electronic payment

system into its financial institution; a step that is expected to accelerate the nation’s e-commerce

growth, the negative impact of cybercrime on businesses, and the absence of appropriate laws to

guarantee the legality of online transactions, continue to create fear in the mind of users and

potential online users”. Even as we talk about the rise and dangers of cyber-crime and breach in

cyber security, there is need to focus on a way to reduce or completely eradicate its incidence in

Nigeria. To restore the full glory of cyber security, those involved have to spend time to learn

how cybercrime ring operates and then devise strategies to fight the menace. We cannot fight

today’s crime with yesterday’s technology. It will always be a losing battle if security

professionals are way behind the cyber criminals in terms of technological knowledge. It’s not

just about computing skills, but IT Security expertise (Saunders et al, 2009).

As the general population becomes increasingly refined in their understanding and use of computers and

as the technologies associated with computing become more powerful, there is a strong possibility that

cyber-crimes will become more common. Nigeria is rated as one of the countries with the highest levels

of e-crime activities. Cyber security must be addressed seriously as it is affecting the image of the country

in the outside world. A combination of sound technical measures tailored to the origin of Spam (the

sending ends) in conjunction with legal deterrents will be a good start in the war against cyber criminals.

Information attacks can be launched by anyone, from anywhere. The attackers can operate without

detection for years and can remain hidden from any counter measures”. This indeed emphasizes the need

for the government security agencies to note that there is need to keep up with technological and security

advancements. It will always be a losing battle if security professionals are miles behind the cyber

criminals. Fighting cybercrime requires a holistic approach to combat this menace in all ramifications.

There is need to create a security-aware culture involving the public, the ISPs, cybercafés, government,

security agencies and internet users. Also in terms of strategy, it is crucial to thoroughly address issues

relating to enforcement. Mishandling of enforcement can backfire. The use of internet in

communicating will be considered to be supposed as less invasive than offering online expense

options (Thakur and Srivastava, 2014; Chang et al., 2013).. For instance, SMEs in less-

developed countries may have to deal with a poor telecommunications infrastructure, slow

access speed, high cost and incomplete government regulations (Obiri-Yeboah et al. 2013; Tan et

al., 2010). These factors will be undertaking for further research to help in developing their

markets.

The findings of this research and the research limitations have resulted in the identification of

potential future research directions for investigation. The recommendations for further research

as a result of this study are indicated below. More research is needed to further validate the

findings, in order to increase the generalisation of the results in different areas within Nigeria and

over different regions in Africa. Re-testing the research findings and the recommendations in

different regions within Nigeria especially, will help to determine whether the findings have the

same impact or are less significant in other areas. The framework should be validated in different

contexts to extend the generalisability and contribution of the framework. Also, there could be

further investigations that can extend the framework as new factors could emerge after some

time. Comparative studies can be conducted in other SSA countries, for example Ghana, to

determine differences in the context of developing countries. For example, in the developed

countries, researchers have compared ICT adoption strategies between countries such as the UK

and the USA. In spite of the fact that much research has been conducted in the area of ICT

adoption, the area related to ICT use or utilisation is still relatively new. Thus, more research still

needs to be conducted in other areas within Nigeria as well as other developing countries. Future

research should expand the understanding of ICT adoption and effective utilisation beyond the

scope of the current research. From the review of the literature, it appears that no existing

research had examined the level of utilisation of traditional-based or sophisticated ICT solutions

in SMEs. It will be useful to conduct further research in this area.

It is expected that future research will extend knowledge of ICT adoption and effective

utilisation by considering other regions beyond the area covered by this research. Insights from

the investigation suggest that, as organisations adopt and utilise more sophisticated ICT

applications, issues relating to electricity supply, amongst others, stand as major barriers to ICT

adoption in Nigerian SMEs. However, due to the benefits associated with ICT, some SMEs are

still motivated to utilise more sophisticated ICT applications/systems. The benefits range from

enhanced competitive advantage to improved customer service, increased market reach and so

on. This research found that SMEs’ owners/managers attitudes towards ICT play a key role in

promoting the effective utilisation of ICT amongst employees. Research conducted by

Harindranath et al. (2008b) on adoption issues concluded that “progress in the deployment of

ICT typically depends on a single individual with vision who takes full responsibility for ICT

initiatives, as well as continuing with their regular activities”. It is expected that the findings

obtained in this study would be beneficial in providing some necessary guidance for SMEs

wishing to adopt and effectively use ICT in other developing countries. This research has

fulfilled its goals and expectations and has answered all research questions set out at the

beginning of the study. The research has provided significant contributions towards explaining

the factors influencing/affecting the adoption and effective utilisation of ICT in Nigerian SMEs.

Although many researchers have tried to investigate the factors that affect ICT adoption in

SMEs, no approach had yet been put forward which could serve as a guide in resolving the

problems facing Nigerian SMEs. This chapter has presented the contributions of this research to

the body of knowledge which include the developed framework, the research methods adopted

for the study and how they were applied, key limitations of the present research as well as

recommendations for future research. The research also adds to the body of knowledge by

empirically providing evidence that can increase the knowledge of ICT adoption and usage in

small businesses thereby expanding the research area, in the field of IS. The research findings are

beneficial to academics, practitioners, and policy makers.

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