Factors Influencing e-Commerce Adoption: A Lesotho Consumers' Perspective.
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Authors
Kobane, MJ
Issue Date
2022-05
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
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Abstract
The Kingdom of Lesotho is still confronted by challenges that act as inhibitors of E-Commerce adoption – these range from lack of trust in E-Commerce systems, lack of technology adoption by corporations, lack of financial resources and Information Technology (IT) expertise (UNCTAD, 2019). A significant population in Lesotho own a smartphone and access internet on a daily basis – the two combined, serve as key drivers for E-Commerce adoption. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the factors that influence E-Commerce adoption from a Lesotho consumers’ perspective. The investigation employed a quantitative research approach, and a survey was distributed online to collect data. 275 participants responded to the survey. Both snowball and purposive sampling techniques were used and data was analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).
A conceptual framework which was proposed to drive the whole investigation was established from adapting TAM along with the factors that were identified to influence E-Commerce adoption from the literature. The research findings that emanated from the CFA revealed five constructs to influence E-Commerce adoption from a Lesotho consumers’ perspective. Three enabling factors identified are: Attitude and Convenience; Time and Cost Savings and Perceived Ease of Use. Whereas inhibiting factors are: Dependability and Accessibility and Policy Initiatives. Meanwhile, descriptive statistics established that 74.6% of consumers have adopted the technology.
Ultimately, a new conceptual framework was developed from the constructs that are unique to Lesotho and it was coined Mokhoro – Which is a Basotho rondavel or hut. The name was inspired by the flow and the design of the model. It was then recommended that to improve on the inhibiting factors, Dependability and Accessibility to be specific; online businesses ought to embed trust-marks or trust badges and security measures as well as a good network and E-Commerce infrastructure. To encourage the adoption of the technology via Policy Initiatives – creation of relevant online consumer protection rules; personal data protection; increasing international cooperation on E-Commerce and Engaging in international E-Commerce talks are the five approaches that policymakers can leverage on to enable E-Commerce adoption.