The awareness of e-commerce by SME in Malaysia / Wilda Abdul Haid

As the world stepped into the 21st century, another great revolution that started in the later part of the 20th century since the Industrial Revolution is intensifying at a relentless pace, it is going to cast a profound change in the human civilization. It is the Information revolution! The advancement of the information age is further accelerated with the invention of the Internet, it is changing the whole world into a global village. It is said that a youngster today can acquire information in a year equivalent to what an older folk can acquire in his/her entire life, that shows how much and how fast information can be disseminated to the public over the electronic media, including the Internet. The part of human civilization that is most affected by the information age is none other than the business world. The most popular and exciting companies now are the so-called dot.com companies, companies that have branched out or totally transported the whole business to the Internet. The style of doing business using the electronic media especially the Internet is popularly known as e-commerce or e-business, the most used term in the media today. The ecommerce business is in a state of rapid evolution. Driven by expansion of the Internet and the advancement in information and communications technologies, e commerce is fast being regarded as the way to go global at the touch of a button. How is Malaysian business sector rising to face the challenges of the fast moving and ever changing information age, especially e-commerce? Therefore, this research is conducted to assess the adoption of e-commerce in Malaysia in the term of awareness and implementation of e-commerce by SME, and to recognized the impact, potential barriers and success factors towards incorporating e-commerce in their Business.