E-Commerce Adoption among Civil Servants of Selected States in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Electronic commerce has been recognized globally as a mechanism for business concerns to reach global market, thus an essential tool for the efficient administration of any organization and in the delivery of services to clients. Scholars have compared the way the Internet has changed the rules of business to the way automatic teller machines have transformed the customer’s banking experience. The basis of comparison is that the customers are more comfortable doing things themselves with the ease, speed and convenience that internet technology provides. Despite the increasing number of online users as well as products that are being offered on the Web, there is relatively little work in the literature that specifically examined the factors considered and challenges faced by ecommerce adopters especially in a developing country like Nigeria. It was against this backdrop this paper examines e-commerce adoption among civil servants of selected states of southwestern Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the reason civil servants adopt ecommerce; and the impact of certain socio-demographic variables on e-commerce adoption. Rational Choice Theory was used as the theoretical basis for the study. The study was descriptive in nature, thus, adopted quantitative methods (i.e. questionnaires) to gather relevant data. Frequency distribution, simple percentages, and Chi-square analysis were used to analyze and test hypotheses for the Study. The study made its findings and corresponding recommendations.

Keywords: Civil Servants, Challenges, E-commerce, Socio-demographics, Nigeria