E-Commerce

216E-Commercepractices in different regions of the nation. Only through local knowledge and personalnetworking, can a deal be executed successfully between two different regions of a country.The complex communication pattern, including the high power distance and the rich,informal way of business communication also made it essential to carry out businessthrough proper channels and in a face-to-face manner in order to negotiate successfully withthe trading partners. This, in turn, reduces the relevance of e-Commerce technologies to thebusinesses.Lack of trust among trading partnersAfter a decade of e-Commerce development and diffusion in China, it appears that someorganisations finally started to develop a sense of trust within their business relationships.All respondents except one confirmed the existence of a trusting relationship with theirtrading partners. However, the level of trust is still considered to be low. When asked aboutthe sharing of information with their partners, all IT capable organisations indicatedreluctance in sharing important information. It appears that although businesses have madeimprovements in the trust level among trading partners, they are still largely cautious incooperating with their partners, as highlighted in the following interview excerpt of theMarketing Manager of Company C:“We trust our trading partners as much as they can be trusted.”Furthermore, as revealed in our interviews, the concern that the suppliers will not hesitateto take advantage of the situation if they are not monitored carefully is still prevalent amongthe major grocery retailers. Conflicts between large retailers and their suppliers arewidespread in China, which sometimes can escalate to violent confrontations between thetwo parties (Dickson and Zhang 2004; Liu and Wang 1999). As a result, lack of trust isbelieved to be one of the major impediments to B2B e-Commerce adoption.In general, Chinese culture is currently not ready to fully support e-Commerce activities.The inherent mistrust between business partners and the demand for face-to-face interactionseverely reduces the usefulness of e-Commerce technologies for Chinese organisations.Given the change-resistant nature of cultural values, e-Commerce adoption efforts in Chinawill continue to face significant cultural barriers in the future.StateChinese government strongly drives e-Commerce adoption but its strict informationoversight impedes future developmentThe influence of the state can be measured through respondents’ reliance upon thegovernment’s support for their e-Commerce adoption efforts. It is clear that the respondentsregard government support as one of the major drivers for adoption and the main reason forusing such technologies in the first place. Such responses are reflective of the nature of thestate. With China being ruled by the Central Communist Party, the effect of its heavypromotion of e-Commerce development has become apparent at the organisational level inthe grocery industry. It is a testimonial to the influence an authoritarian state can have on e-Commerce adoption.However, it was also noted that most of the respondents expressed their concern over theprivacy and security of business data if they conducted business online, due to the strictoversight of the nation. In fact, the issue of data security is the second main institutionalbarrier to e-Commerce development, more so than the lack of a legal framework for Chinesebusinesses. The Chinese government’s strict control over the information exchanged on