E-procurement Adoption Barriers encountered by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Republic of South Sudan

Abstract

E-procurement adoption is not without its challenges despite facilitating the purchasing process. Hence, this quantitative cross-sectional survey study aimed to examine the e-procurement adoption barriers encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Republic of South Sudan. The 300 SMEs selected out of 1215 SMEs through systematic sampling methods resulted in 213 valid responses with a 71% response rate. Empirical data were derived from the survey questionnaires distributed through Google Forms and Portable Document Format (PDF) via email and evaluated with descriptive and principal component analysis (PCA), relative importance index (RII), and analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Resultantly, multiple national e-procurement implementation methods and incorrect reassembly of data transmitted were ranked the highest barrier among the technological factors, followed by delays in the transmission of data and information, and the technology immaturity due to political and legal factors, lack of widely acceptable e-procurement software solutions and flexibility for management factors, company culture and cost of IT investment for organizational factors. Future works could compare the e-procurement adoption barriers perceived by SMEs in emerging and developed nations and ascertain their e-procurement acceptance. Meanwhile, stakeholders could attract more IT firms in the current market through adequate training, a unified platform, holistic e-procurement adoption techniques, high public awareness, employment of IT experts, forums to exchange ideas on e-procurement, and utilization of passwords, information encryptions, or data. This study proposed employing mixed-method techniques to examine and alleviate SMEs' e-procurement adoption barriers.