Social readiness for e-transactions : an insight from IT professionals

Abstract

E-commerce, especially e-transactions, is hardly exploited in Sri Lanka. Although Sri Lanka's literacy rate is high, e-transactions usage lags way behind Asian countries with comparable literacy. Its potential to benefit society and improve quality of life has not been realized. The reasons are not clear. Low public awareness of the benefits of ecommerce is no doubt a major factor, but even the people who have initiated are not without reservations. Lack of confidence and trust in internet security and the merchants, delays in delivery and poor infrastructure are among their concerns. Perceived risk is likely to depend on their cultural and educational background, age, income level etc. The objectives of this research were to assess Sri Lankans' readiness for e-transactions, determine the seminal factors, and develop an appropriate model to predict social readiness. A conceptual framework was developed with social readiness for e-transactions as the dependent variable and perceived benefit, perceived risk, ICT trust, internet access and internet experience as independent variables. A specially designed questionnaire was used to gather data from a random sample of IT professionals in Colombo district, with internet access. A very high correlation was observed between social readiness for e-transactions and perceived benefit, ICT trust, internet experience and internet access. A model with very high predictability was developed to predict social readiness for e-transactions. Findings clearly establish that social readiness for e-transactions is positively related to perceived benefit and ICT trust, and importantly, perceived risk was not an influencing factor. Lowe-transactions usage is evidently due to inadequate knowledge and points to the need to educate the general public about internet security measures and benefits of e-transactions. A concerted effort from government, banks, commercial establishments etc. is necessary to promote business over the internet. Internet access must be enhanced simultaneously