In this paper the main focus will beon the e-commerce and the factors that are affecting it in the Middle East andthe main two focus countries will be Jordan And UAE as they are considered tobe in the circle of emerging markets but in a two different levels.IntroductionElectronic commerce (EC) or e-commercesystems use the latest tools for automating and streamlining the flow oftransactions between companies and individuals, for example letters, inquiries,payments and delivery notes. EC systems transfer information between computer systemsand enable users to integrate their functions, activities and procedures with unprecedentedaccuracy and speed .
EC systems can be divided into two levels (Sahawneh, 2005).Online shopping in the Middle East israpidly evolving and has grown by 1500% over the last decade. With a dynamicyoung population and with one of the highest global per capita internetpenetration levels the online spending potential is quickly emerging as one ofthe highest in the world (www.indivirtualdubai.com) Internet World Stats (2017) statesthat the number of internet users globally is approximately 3.
9 Billion worldwide,and 147 million in the Middle East. This revolution in E-commerce is provedthrough the frequency in which the organizations have taken their opportunitiesto use the internet for commercial purposes In developing countries, the growthin use of the internet and the WWW offers good opportunities for economicgrowth and development. Bajaj et al. (2001, p. 363) have suggested that thereis a need for developing countries, if they wish to match growth in thedeveloped world, to “overcome the dangers of isolation and polarization” byimproving their information infrastructure. Thus, the best promise for growthin developing countries is through the development of information technology(IT) industries and greater social applications of IT. At the same time, theseIT industries must be compatible with local conditions and conducive to industrialization.
Since most studies in the ?eld have been conducted in developed countries,there is scope for further research in the conditions prevalent in developingcountries such as Jordan. E-commerce in JordanTwo studies have mainly focused onJordan’s position in e-commerce world First Sahawneh(2003) even though thisstudy has abided more on the Benefits of E-commerce in Jordan than thelimitations and factors that might affect the process of e-commerce, Second wasthe Jordanian Chamber of Commerce when it contended that e-commerce in Jordanis not fully ready and it at an early stage and needs more development. Thoughboth studies shows limitations to the existing e-commerce potential in Jordan,they didn’t shown evidences based on an academic research to build theirstudies but as an alternative they suggested that the main limitations inJordan’s are language barriers, underdeveloped legal protection, high costs,unresolved payment solutions, underdeveloped logistics and limiting governmentlegislation.In this report the steps of thosestudies will be emphasized based on other new reports and articles with arelation to Jordan’s e-commerce.Jordan is a successful model as adeveloping country; give the responsive engagement of the internationalcommunity. Jordan is considered one of the major players in the Middle East,especially in economics and politics (Naser, 1998). This may be due, in part,to its focusing on the application of e-commerce, and IT.
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Sahawneh (2003)mentions that B2B e-commerce applications in Jordan are incorporated mostly intotransactions undertaken between a few Jordanian institutions with non-JordanianpartnersJordan was ranked as 54thout of 68 countries in its information technology and information systemreadiness rankings in The Economist Intelligence Unit (2010) reports. And thiscan be noticed as an indicator that organizations in Jordan might or mostlywill meet the requirements and conditions to conduct e-commerce systems, although in this paper our focus willdemonstrate the obstacles that face those organizations some of those factorsare internal such as strategy experiences and perceptions of the origination’s management,while pointing on some external factors such as readiness of local and global trading partnersto adapt e-commerce systems and the external pressure by local and globaltrading partners who adopt e-commerce systems, including the infrastructure,network availability and online transactions. There are five primary economicsectors in Jordan: industrial, services, trade, agriculture and construction Jordan is being highly driven andmotivated towards upgrading its infrastructure in order to accelerate fullreadiness for e-commerce and its systems adaption, identifying all of thebenefits of e-commerce and its applications especially on the e-governmentapproach. AL-Jaghoub and westrup(2003) stated that the Jordanian methodologiestoward the adaption and development of Information and communicationtechnologies segment as a part of competitiveness, which makes it put its ownsignature on the highly globalized world, by applying the latest technologiesto communication services and other governmental and non-governmental sectorssuch as Internet service providers (Orange ,Zain ,Umniah), national informationcenter, E-Banking and e-government, this leaded to a boosted profile of theJordanian companies in e-commerce Factors affecting Jordan’se-commerceIn recent years most of small to bigsized companies especially banks in Jordan are relying on e-commerce on itsdaily processes and transactions completion, this can be considered as a partand result of the IT revelation that affects both sides developed anddeveloping counties around the world, Jordan is being highly affected by thisrevolution and trying its best to get all the advantages possibly available,yet there is a gap that appears between Jordan and developed countries in theadaption of this revolution in all types of firms not only on a specified levelor sector ,this gap is due to many factors that will be mentioned below in thisreport.1.
Technological (technical) factors.Turban et al. (2010, p. 27)review the technical limitations of e-commerce as insuf?cient system security,reliability, standards, and limited communication protocols. They suggest that inmany areas, telecommunications bandwidths need to be upgraded.Those factors were described in(Humphyeys, Mclvor and Huang, 2003) as the issues related to acquiringappropriate technologies to meet business requirements. These factors couldprohibit firm’s especially smaller businesses from adopting e-commerce such asonline banking. Indeed, a number of studies indicatedthat technical issues especially those related to information security andinformation technology risks were restraining the adoption of e-commerce (Sulaiman,2000; Lawson et al.
, 2013). These factors include positive impact on e-commercespecifically on security and privacy of users, as users of e-commerce takesecurity and privacy very seriously and as the most important and crucialthings to be available in order to make their e-commerce decisions. (Selz and Schubert, 1997). G. Lohse and P.
Spiller (1998) looked at it in two different ways: on one hand, protection oftransactional details of customers, on the other – privacy of personalinformation of the respondents.2. Non-technical Factors.
The non-technical limitations ofe-commerce, according to Turban et al. (2010, p. 27) are ?rst the high cost of e-commercein-house development, especially if lack of expertise leads to errors anddelays. Second is the lack of customer con?dence in making faceless electronic?nancial transactions which suggest insuf?cient security and privacy. Third thesensitive governmental rules and regulations that may delay the development ofe-commerce process.Kotab and Helsen (2001) recognizedsix barriers or limitations to international e-commerce; those barriers are language,culture, availability of personal computers, computer literacy and knowledge,access charges, and government regulations.
Based on different theories andarticles it is clearly showed that the Limitations or factors that affectse-commerce in Jordan are the same on the global market with a little bit of differencedue to some cultural or it can be said as the mindset of e-commerce users in Jordan,Those limitations can be summed asmain limitations under the following: 1. security and trust2. internet experience3. enjoyment4. language5. legal issues6. And technology acceptance (ease of use and usefulness).
A research was done by Muneer Abbad ,RamiAbbad, and Malik Saleh (2011) that showed up exactly the factors that arereally limiting the usage of e-commerce in Jordan, (Abbad,saleh 2011) presentedby A delivery and collection questionnaire was used as a method for obtainingdata from e-commerce customers contacted through a number of universities.Having been given a brief overview of the study, those customers who kindlyagreed to co-operate and complete the questionnaires formed the sample for thestudy. The study was conducted in Arabic, the spoken language in Jordan.Undergraduate students at two Jordanian universities were represented in thesample for this research. The students were chosen on the basis of theirfamiliarity with the internet.
And who also did not use the internet for shoppingin order to study the behavioral factors limiting the employment of e-commerce.Access to this sample was relatively straightforward. The questionnaire used inthis study consisted of main three sections. The ?rst gave brief informationabout the research, the second included questions regarding participantdemographics, and the third contained questions which explored theparticipants’ perceptions of the main limitations of e-commerce. TheStatistical Package for Social Science was used to analyze the data collectedfrom the questionnaires. The statistical methods used were Cronbach’s to checkthe reliability of the data measured, descriptive statistics (such asfrequencies, ratios, mean, SD, etc.), and one-way analysis of variances (ANOVA).
– (Abbad,Saleh 2011).They Concluded and Discussed that themain Limitations of e-commerce in jordan seemed to be non-technical factors,the cause for this result were estimated to be due to the lack of technical awarenessby consumers and mainly by students, in relation to this matter they mentionedthat the Jordanian government aimed to resolve those limitations by focusing onthe legal issues associated with the use of e-commerce For example, thegovernment published the ?rst law in 2001 to protect customers who use e-commercesites. Furthermore the ministry of education has begun teaching courses inseconmdary schools to increase the level of awareness of the benefits ofe-commerce and the knowledge of how to deal with any issues related toe-commerce efficiently.
