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INTRODUCTION
For the process of economic growth and industrialization the Small and Medium Scale
Enterprises (SMEs) plays a very crucial role in developing and developed countries. For
developing nations like Nigeria, the country has great interest in contributing towards the
development of SMEs. SMEs provide great advantages to the developing nations. SMEs have
been known to increase output and per capita income, increases regional economy and promotes
resource utilization in an effective manner, encourage entrepreneurship and all these factors lead
to growth and development of the country. The SMEs having labor intensive work also create
employment opportunities for people of the nation and this also leads to development of the
nation. The SMEs can be established quickly and can produce quick returns. Thus these
industries contribute to nations by achieving economic and socio-economic objective in very
short period of time and thus also contribute towards the alleviation of poverty (Jamali, Lund-
Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015).
After the emergence of the internet in the several countries of the world, it also started gaining
the strategic growth in the internet penetration i.e. from 0.78% to 20.0% in the year 2000 to the
year 2014. From the general statistics of few countries the internet penetration of the African
countries represents that there is a huge growth in the internet connection usage from most of the
countries but at a different rate of course. Further it has also been observed that the technology
usage has been reflected in most of the countries of Africa (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J.,
2002). There is much importance of Small and Medium scale industries which are really cannot
be overlooked for the development of economy of developing countries as SMEs plays an
important role for the development of economy in countries like Nigeria. The SMEs concept is
significantly dynamic and relative in nature. In the present scenario there is no fundamental
definition of SMEs which has been widely accepted as the definition keeps on changing and
mostly depends on the level of development of a country. From one country to other the
definition of the SMEs are generally changing and it is mostly based on the assets and
employment or even both together. According to some researchers SMEs mostly being defined
as the major criteria like the assets’ value, employment along with the use of energy. Some
researchers also suggest that the SMEs are mostly defined by various numbers of factors as well
as criteria like age size, location, structure, number of employees, organization, volumes of sales,

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ownership, and assets with the help of technology and innovation. The number of workers is also
considered to be one of the appropriate measures of small and medium scale enterprises because
of the organizational structure differences which can occur with size (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.;
Fintz, J., 2002). Some researchers also suggest that every country generally derives their own
definition on the basis of role for which the small and medium scale industries are expected to
play along in the particular economy (Saunders et al, 2009). With the variation in definition
among the countries can also give the difference in the organization at various levels for the
development of economy. For instance, the business department, Regulatory and enterprises
reform use the following definition: Micro firm must have 0. 10 employees, small firm can have
0 to 49 employees, medium firm can have 50 to 249 employees and the largest firm must have
more than 250 employees (Saunders et al, 2009). The commission of European Union also gave
the defini9tion of SMEs by using the same number of employees which has been used previously
by other government organization mentioned above but gave additional criteria of annual
turnovers. The micro enterprises which is having less than that of 10 employees and also having
a turnover of more than 2 million $ or the balance sheet must not exceed the total of 2 million $.
The small enterprises also employ less than 50 number of workers or have the turnover of less
than 10 million $ and the annual balance sheet must not exceed 10 million $. The medium sized
enterprises are the one with fewer than 250 number of workers and also have the annual turnover
which is not exceeding more than 45 million $. Despite of constant support, launching various
schemes, policies and programs in order to help the SMEs of Nigeria to grow and develop, their
response and action does not even reach the expectations. They represent approximately 90% of
manufacturing and industrial sectors in numerical terms but their contribution towards GDP is
approximately only 1% where as Asian SMEs contribute 40%, 50% in US or Europe and 0% in
Ghana as suggested by a literature. Researcher and policy makers have found the reason for this
where they report that people always have an excuse of finance, inappropriate sills for
management, problems in accessing the global market, poor infrastructure and inappropriate
entrepreneurial skills (Johnson, (2010)).
Internet has nowadays become a novel source of economic revitalization and has reduced the
distance related expenditure. The internet economy is growing at a high rate nowadays and
taking advantage of this many developed and developing countries including Nigeria want the
economy of their country to grow and develop. The departments of SMEs have recently made a

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small business world interacting with other SMEs and identified four areas which need priority
and they include access to capital, business environment, and information and support services.
Nigeria was found to have high capacity for entrepreneurial development (Cloete, E.; Courtney,
S.; Fintz, J., 2002). They also found many obstacles including high fee, permit requirements,
land and construction problems, etc. in making these SMEs successful. Nigeria has previously
invested in non-internet related information technologies, has established contacts with various
buyers, sellers and has gained profits and efficiency through establishment of electronic links.
Internet has various advantages over other IT sources due to is open and ubiquitous
characteristic, low cost for access and ease of use. Nowadays because of the above factors
Nigeria has seen great increase in internet adoption by both business as well as the consumers
(Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J., 2002).
Along with the above mentioned advantages there are certain barriers to adoption of E-
commerce by SMEs. Many SMEs even today have not been able to achieve the minimum levels
of adoption of E-commerce. According to literature the barriers against adoption of E-commerce
by SMEs have attained lower levels of adoption than predicted initially despite implementation
of various initiatives undertaken by the government. Studies have also found that the managers
of these SMEs are still not convinced that they can implement the use of E-commerce in their
business and product line. Even if they understand the importance they are still very reluctant to
use E-commerce for their e business. They also think that the current set of customers do not
support the use of E-commerce. Moreover they do not observe any scope of profit by using E-
commerce in their business field (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J., 2002). Other barriers for
adoption of E-commerce can be termed as either external or internal to an organization where
external barriers include difficulties for finance, obtaining technology, technological information
and choice of using appropriate software and hardware. The external barriers have been further
divided in demand barrier which is due to the product pipeline not fitting with E-commerce or
not meeting with the customer demand. The second part of external barrier is environmental
barrier which includes the government regulations and security problems. In a study conducted
by Iddris in the year 2012 on adoption of e-commerce solutions in SMEs in Ghana, he found that
major barriers for adoption of e-commerce are initial cost, lack of skilled members, security,
non-acceptance by culture and people, lack of interest from the side of management and
underdeveloped regulatory and legal systems. Similarly a study conducted by MacGregor and

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Vrazalic in the year 2006 grouped the E-commerce barrier into two categories which are ‘Too
Difficult’ where there is complexity in implementing that technique, high cost of investment,
lack of knowledge and the second group was ’Unsuitable’ where the E-commerce
implementation could not be used for the business. The E-commerce must match the way of
doing business by the organizations, the clients and its implementation must provide advantage
to the organization. According to this study these two factors are not dependent and are
uncorrelated. In 2011 Apulu and Ige reported lack of adequate infrastructure, electricity, proper
services provided by the internet service providers are the major factors contributing to lack of
utilization of E-commerce in various businesses. Cost is another barrier in adoption of E-
commerce by SMEs. Lack of government, management support, risk of loss of data and other
issues are some other risk factors because of which people are reluctant to incorporate it into
their business (Faloye, 2014).
Nigerian government has taken any steps to renovate the SMEs by establishing Industrial
Development Centres (IDC) in year 1960, in 1989 National Directorate of Employment (NDE),
in 2001 Bank of Industry (BOI) was established, SMEDAN established in 2003, in 2005 Micro
Finance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria was launched and with the
help of this microfinance banks were established, for manufacturing sectors refinancing and
restructuring of bank loans the N200 billion intervention fund was formed. Central Bank of
Nigeria in 2010 formed Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Scheme, in 1977 was
launched The Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund, in 2011 Nigerian Incentive-Based
Risk Sharing System for agriculture was launched, N100 billion ($0,625 billion) Bond-Funded
Cotton, Textiles and Garment Industry Revival Scheme, which facilitated and guaranteed
external finance through the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, African
Development Bank and other organizations. With the growth of the mobile phone usage in the
various part of the world there has been also the expansions of the application stores. It has been
reported that in the year 2013, there has been 146 developers introduced more than 420
applications. The internet has been used for the commercial purposes with the help of mobile
operators with the help of using payment gateway called M pesa (Mnad C Satacchi moblile,
2013). Furthermore the usage of the mobile phone is still by and large depending on the foxed

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internet backbones. Investment as well as the effort which is required to develop the facilities of
internet is still striving in most of the part of the world (Goldstruck, 2012). The small scale
industries in the growing economy has been used like a scheme for the services to remove
poverty, securing food, services and growth of the industrialization as well as used for the money
making tool for making a reformation for the progress and growth in the industries (Johnson,
2011).
Recently, there has been increment in the use of internet and communication technologies within
the organization which has been significantly changed the manner by which the organization
communicate and operate. The internet plays a major role in the current knowledge based
economy are mostly applied on a wide range and different areas within a single organization.
The revolution in the use of the internet technology has been profound as the implication for both
social and economic development and also have pervaded in every aspect of the human life.
Most of the organization generally tends to get to rely heavily on the solution for growing and
developing their business on a larger scale. According to some of the researchers, the internet
marketing have the ability for enhancing, controlling and coordinating various operations within
the organization and also helps in increasing the utility of management system like customer
management as well as several others. So the internet marketing is considered to be the vital tool
for having the efficiency in administration of any firm and also in the delivery of various services
to the clients (Marsh, 2009). According to some authors, the firms present across the world are
now a day’s utilizing internet marketing not only for the purpose of cutting the cost and
improvement in efficacy but also for the purpose of proving a good and long lasti8ng customer
services. Most of the business can now have the interaction in more efficient manner with the sue
of internet, The dissemination and sharing of the information also is major role played by the use
of internet technology which is assisting in increment in the information of supply chain in any
organization. The sellers and the buyers are now quite free and able for information sharing and
also transfer of goods across the national and international borders with the help of internet
marketing which helps in the increment of supply chain globally. This is bringing the openness
and also the level of transparency within the organization. It was also stated that the usage of
internet marketing in various SMEs has also helped in the reduction of the cost of transaction and
also overcoming the constraints of distance by cutting short the boundaries and also assisting in
improvement in qualities in the firm. The role of internet marketing is helping the acquiring,

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managing knowledge and creating which will enable in the diffusion of organizational data
which can be very helpful in making some important decisions and organizational control at
various levels. In the same way, the internet revolution is also helping in the planning of firms
and also improvement in the flexibility within the organization.
In country like Nigeria, The national council of industries also referred the small and medium
scale business enterprises as the business firms which has the total cot including lands must not
be more than 200200 million Naira, But the SMEs development Agency in Nigeria defined the
SMEs by the following criteria: it is a micro enterprise, the number of employees can be 10 and
the annual turnover must be less than 5,00000000 naira, the small enterprise can have 10 to
50people and the annual turnover cannot be more than 6490000000 naira (Marsh, 2009). The use
of the internet among the SMEs according to some of the experts is one of the strategic tools
which are bringing a lot of competitive advantages. Both in developing and developed countries,
the small and medium scale enterprises play a major role in the process of job creation and
industrialization. Some authors have also observed the role of SMEs in the alleviation of poverty
in the countries like Nigeria and also stimulating the domestic and regional growth of economy.
In Nigeria, the small and medium scale enterprises contribution the economy has high
significance as most of the employment in Nigeria is generated through these SMEs. In this
country, there has been a diverse groups of business which is generally operating in various
sector of economy and also accounts for more than 50% of the GDP of Nigeria (Jamali, Lund-
Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015). Based on the research done by Pezderka & Sinkovics (2010), it
has also been focused on the internalization of the medium and small scale industries particularly
in the concepts involving e risk and their implications. The study also described that the
awareness regarding the potential risk associated with the online internalization comprises if the
step of effective online management of risk. The practice of internet marketing also includes the
use of the website of the company together with the promotional activities online along with
search engine promotion, email marketing, interactive promotion and advertising and some
partnership agreement with the other websites.
In order to describe the electronic and internet economy and also their components various terms
can be used which include e-commerce, e-economy, digital economy, e-business, etc. electronic

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commerce is a modern business method which states that the organizations, merchants,
consumers should reduce cost and improve good’s quality, improve services, reduce delivery
time. The use of computer networks is highly recommended for retrieving information. E-
commerce is basically associated with selling, purchasing information, services, products though
internet. In the year 2000 Fraumeni, Manses and Mesenbourg categorized e-economy into parts
where the first was e-business infrastructure which is defined as share total of economic
infrastructure which is used for supporting the process of e-business, performance of e-
commerce transactions which includes software, hardware and telecommunication networks, etc.
the second component consists of e-business which describes the processes followed by business
companies over internet. Third component is e-commerce which is completion of transactions
over internet which also involves ownership transfer, and providing of rights for using goods and
services. Internet economy includes those firms who use internet to conduct their business and
also those institutions which provide services and infrastructures to make this business happen.
Those companies or agents who fulfill the basic needs and platform for this e-commerce to
happen including Hardware, telecommunication, etc. are at the infrastructural levels. Group of
agents who use internet as medium to sell or purchase goods comprise the electronic commerce
levels.
Basically electronic commerce can be defined with the following basic characters:
1. Information and transaction exchanges that occur in e-commerce from the interface
perspective include Business to consumers, business to business and consumer to consumer.
2. From the perspective of communication, the delivery of products, information payment,
services through World Wide Web and internet is known as e-commerce.
3. The activities which electronically support commerce through internet are included in e-
commerce come under business process perspective.
4. The activities that come under online perspective are buying and selling of products,
availability of information and services on internet. Products also include the physical ones and
others can be in form of counseling or news.
5. E-commerce involving activities like use of texts, media, data, internet chatting and telephony,
video chats and web pages come under structural perspectives.

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6. This e-commerce helps the buyers and sellers to get easy information of their benefit and use.
E.g. a common store man can start an open web store website and he can access to all the
customers, competitors, supplies and contractors at his door steps.
Adoption of e-commerce can establish easy connection where business can be directly connected
to vendors, consumers, suppliers only by means of a click over internet, intranet or extranet. This
helps to form new contacts and relationship between consumers and supplies and businessman.
In today’s world each and everything is available on internet for buying and selling purposes
including booking of hotel, reservation tickets for travel, travel services stock market and
financial services. In the field of education also there are n numbers of competitors over the
internet that provides schooling and also there are many degree providing schools also
functioning online.
Thus the meeting of sellers and buyers over the internet for exchange of products, services,
information and payments can be all termed as internet economy. The traditional market for
doing business is termed as ‘brick and mortal’ markets where business occurred only in physical
buildings. On the other hand the electronic market place is the conductance of business over
internet where the buyers and sellers do not come to see or know or meet physically and all the
deals are done online or through a telecommunication network. Across the world the popularity
of internet has grown at an immense rate where U.S. is leading in the world in case of
technology, crazy internet users as well as in website sophistication. Americans leave behind all
the people who shop over internet in any country and this provides an indication of popularity of
internet commerce and indicates clear application of internet in every process of business in very
near future. It has been now predicted that this e-commerce will definitely overtake the existence
of physical industries ad their economy in near future. The popularity and growing acceptance of
this e-commerce all over the world is basically because of several factors like technological
development and is still advancing. There is increases encouragement, support and cooperation
from the regulatory environment. There is increased level of knowledge in consumers and
growing sophistication and economical status of people has made e-commerce a trend in today’s
world. As the whole world is developing and adopting the e-commerce as their first choice, it has
become necessary to implement this and make this popular in Nigeria as well. It has become

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important to understand why has it not been accepted in Nigeria and has not gained popularity
(Adekunle Paul Adesola).
This paper focuses on finding the impact of internet revolution in retailing on the SMES present
in Nigeria. This will be achieved by considering the ways in which the internet usage can be
accessed in Africa and the extent to which the internet is being used in Africa. This paper
examines the extent of internet usage as a selling platform by the retailers present in Nigeria and
how it is being used as a selling platform by the retailers and its impact on retailing in Nigeria?
This paper also focuses on understanding the impact of internet on retailing market in Nigeria
and how Nigerian retailers use it as their platform for selling their products. Further this paper
works to find out the reason of using and not using the electronic services to sell their products.
The paper summarizes various strategies following which the Nigerian retailers can prevent
themselves to fall in trap of cyber crimes and developing strategies to move forward to promote
the use of internet for retail selling.
Literature review:
Medium and Small scale companies are playing a major role in the economic growth process in
most of the developing countries across the world. The revolution brought by internet has largely
created an impact on the labour oriented technology, generation of employment in order to
receive a quick return. The internet impacts retailing business up to a very large extent as it
supported several small enterprises to touch the global market by finding suitable suppliers and
reaching out to the customers which gives them a possible return and market their production in
many counties. Medium and small scale industries has been approved usually in the form of
practical output for the satisfaction of business growth as they carry the ability to have originality
in their culture of project (Ugwushi, 2009). The small scale industries in the growing economy
has been used like a scheme for the services to remove poverty, securing food, services and
growth of the industrialization as well as used for the money making tool for making a
reformation for the progress and growth in the industries (Johnson, 2011). Based on the research
done by Pezderka & Sinkovics (2010), it has also been focused on the internalization of the
medium and small scale industries particularly in the concepts involving e risk and their
implications. The study also described that the awareness regarding the potential risk associated
with the online internalization comprises if the step of effective online management of risk. The
practice of internet marketing also includes the use of the website of the company together with

10.
the promotional activities online along with search engine promotion, email marketing,
interactive promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the other websites.
Therefore, the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for acquiring the new
customers and also providing the services to the customer existing and to maintain a healthy
relationship with the customers. The internet marketing implementation can also change the
nature of the business across the world for the small and medium enterprises as the internet
revolution is bringing the fast and the efficient communication channel for the purpose of
marketing. The use of internet can become the sources of information for providing the feedback
as well as maintaining the relationship with all the customers. The internet is helping the markets
to gather the information for customizing the offers to the customers and other prospective. In
this way the internet is affecting the world market (Chen et al, 2011). The review of literature
will be beginning with the introduction of the small and medium scale industries and the internet
revolution, exploration of their benefits as well as opportunities in the form of internet marketing
within the context of the small and medium scale enterprises. According to Gilmore et al (2007),
there has be 80% in the growth of economy that has been attributed to the small and medium
scale enterprise. The foundation of this research has been motivated by the viability which will
be related to the internet marketing opportunities of the small and medium scale enterprises. The
literature survey is done on the basis of the combination of peer reviewed articles, textbooks and
journal etc. The internet marketing is a type of marketing or the advertisement of any particular
products online. This process is generally achieved with the help of various tools and techniques
which is readily available in the internet sources and is easily accessible with the help of medium
of international communication. The tools that are used are not very expensive and sometime
don’t charge any fess for the usage of the businesses (Gilmore et al, 2007). This type of
accessing to the internet calls the attention of not utilizing the internet marketing by the small
and medium scale enterprises. Some of the researchers also proposed some answers like the
encouragement of the small and medium scale industry in the realm of the internet marketing
initially and more importantly the factors which is constraining them from the journey.
The basic principal underlying the marketing is mostly acceptable in both large and small scale
business, but the marketing procedure in terms of small scale business is generally becoming an
issue which is one of the most debatable topics among the researchers and the practitioners. The

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approaches made for the marketing of small scale industries are made in mix and informal
depending on the strategy of running the business by the owner, decision making by their own
and the way they respond to the current opportunities and circumstances. The information
communication technology helps in the improvement of the business competition after the
implementation of internet (Marsh, 2009). It is providing several opportunities for the small and
medium scale enterprises to compete equally with the corporation having larger stand in the
market. The electronic commerce also having a positive impact on the business operations as it
sis conveying a variety of benefits and the companies are leaving behind the usage of this new
system and cannot compete favorably with the global place of market (Noor, 2009). The small
business particularly is now helping to overcome the major disadvantages like the limited
financial support, size, human and technological resources as well the limited exposure towards
the global market place after the adoption of the internet technologies (Olatokun and Bankole,
2011). Therefore the way they make decision is generally chaotic and haphazard on the basis of
the business priorities and personal skills at a particular time point. According to Gilmore et al
(2001), the reason behind begin informal in their approaches, limited and haphazard marketing is
the way they form relationship with the owners who is running the business. Some authors also
highlighted the fact that the skill required for a business setup as well as the technical knowledge
for the service and the product development are not actually comparable to skills required to run
the business in a more successful manners. In some other circumstances the response of the
owner is based on the decision making skill and the opportunities which is tend to be haphazard
and the not generally a chaotic one (Wright, et al., 2005).
In the current business scenario, the manager of the small scale industries are now shifting for
the online retail marketing due to the creation of facilities like internet and laptops. The
revolution brought up by the internet. With the help of internet revolution, certain improvement
in the competitiveness in the business is achieved as it is providing a plenty of opportunities for
the small and medium enterprises to battle with some of the best corporation of the world
(Alberto and Fernando, 2007). The upcoming of the internet revolution have brought up a
positive impact on the overall operation of the business as it is helping in the collection for the
larger profits and bringing up the importance of every small corporation (Noor, 2009). Moreover,
the small enterprises can also have some of their key disadvantages like financial crisis along

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with the activities that are restricted within the area of their coverage around in the global market
due to the impact created by the internet revolution. Ignoring the main fact that the off ramp
increment in the businesses in the global market, it is quite evident that the small industries in the
rural and the urban countries are very slow in the adoption of online retailing than the other
businesses and indeed they are devoting the fewer time in the retail business available online
than the larger organizations (Buckley and Montes, et al 2012). The medium and the small
industries are also included in the slow motion of adopting the online retailing business. In the
present scenario, it has been estimated that more than 50 million users along with the other
companies in telecommunication are providing the internet services across the globe. But there
hasn’t been a significant increment in the online retailing business in most of the developing
countries across the globe. The internet is helping a lot to give out information which is enabling
a gentle communication with the customers and also helping in collection of relevant data in
term of the current market in retail business. Increment ion the services and the goods with the
help of internet is very important and supporting the services like online ordering of the
commodities which is helping the retailers in providing with an enormously bendable and
prosperous new channel of the business. In this way the channel of the internet is providing the
channel of increasing the objective of marketing for the small scale retailers and also improving
the communication with the customers, expanding the line of products, improvement in the
effectiveness of the cost of products, providing some standard offers and also trying to build up a
strong relationship with the customers (Chen et al, 2011). With the innovation of internet based
marketing, there has been a positive response from the customers and there has been extensive
improvement in sales of the small companies since the last 15 years are continuously rising with
the passing years (Ho et al, 2007). According to some researchers it has been mentioned that
there has been asymmetry in the information and it is will increase the power of consumer
regards to the internet and will also promote the precision of the market and allowing the
grouping together of the customer to have more control on the products which they are buying at
the given price. It is also playing an important role in the deciding how the retailers are going to
market their products and also the way they communicate with e customers (Kucuk and
Krishnamurthy, 2007). So the study that is proposed in order to explore the utilization of the
internet revolution by comparing the penetration of the countries penetration in using the internet
and considering the fact that why the people are using internet in developing countries and the

13.
barriers to which the small industries using internet in various countries. Considering the fact of
the small business are allowing the use of internet in benefits on their business, most of the
industries are finding it very difficult to make a fixed cost while creating the website and making
it successfully. There has been a lot of proof to be proposing which implies that the internet is
providing the special treatment regarding the medium sized enterprises as it is highly allowing
them to increase their efficiency of doing trade and its offers very lower prices by doing the same
(Fernie, et al, 2010). Some of the researchers also proposed some answers like the
encouragement of the small and medium scale industry in the realm of the internet marketing
initially and more importantly the factors which is constraining them from the journey. The
media consumption by the customer is generally making a move away from the outlet of the
traditional media towards the more advanced from of the internet options. This type of changes
in the behaviour of the customers are making the prime time for the small and medium size
enterprises to get transition from the local to the digital world of marketing. The facts that
various techniques are generally accessible for supporting the internet marketing also helps in
eradicating the doubt about the small and medium scale enterprises at the online level of internet
marketing. This review of literature will be examining the barriers related to the adoption of
internet marketing by the small and medium scale industries along with that discussing some of
the important tools which will be aiding the successful transition toward the online marketing for
the SME and also will identify the core benefits for the internet marketing for the same.
The internet is playing a pivotal role in the enhancement of the reach of firms in the market as
well as enhancing the operation efficiency. Some researchers also mentioned that the marketing
through internet is managed to fulfil the objectives of the business. On the basis of the research
findings, the sales were getting lower than it was expected with the internet usage as a type of
virtual place of market but it significantly helped in the time consumed to search for the
resources and network development along with sharing the expertise (Chen et al, 2011). The
internet usage efficiently for the development of business is highly dependent on the sector in
which the business is working (Stelzner, 2013). Like some of the business are found to be very
successful in marketing, promoting, distributing, and advertising their services and products with
the help of internet while some of the business were observed to be quite hesitant in using the
internet services for their particular needs. Some of the small enterprises also feel afraid of

14.
jumping into the bandwagon but they are also afraid of the fact that the current business is now
moving the online retail stores. The internet is now becoming a type of strategic tool for every
type of business in this era of increasing business competitions (Marsh, 2009). . The use of term
internalization describes the usage of ICT for the purpose of internalization as well as for the
active online internalization. The term AOI is a type of entry in the foreign market which
involves transactions through internet which is taking place as a virtual rather than the spatial or
the real domains. According to Matthew and Healy (2008), there has been significant influence
of the internet in the penetration of the international market and also the development of several
small and medium enterprises in Australia. The study also found out that the internet has also
influenced the traditional technique of accessing as well as processing the information by
enhancement in the communication interactions. Based on the research done by Pezderka &
Sinkovics (2010), it has also been focused on the internalization of the medium and small scale
industries particularly in the concepts involving e risk and their implications. The study also
described that the awareness regarding the potential risk associated with the online
internalization comprises if the step of effective online management of risk. The practice of
internet marketing also includes the use of the website of the company together with the
promotional activities online along with search engine promotion, email marketing, interactive
promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the other websites. Therefore,
the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for acquiring the new customers
and also providing the services to the customer existing and to maintain a healthy relationship
with the customers. The internet marketing implementation can also change the nature of the
business across the world for the small and medium enterprises as the internet revolution is
bringing the fast and the efficient communication channel for the purpose of marketing. The use
of internet can become the sources of information for providing the feedback as well as
maintaining the relationship with all the customers. The internet is helping the markets to gather
the information for customizing the offers to the customers and other prospective. In this way the
internet is affecting the world market (Gilmore et al, 2007).
The vehicle used for sustaining the major part of the industrial development in the form of
internet has the capacity to process and promote the indigenous culture of the enterprises
(Ugwushi, 2009). In most of the counties with developing phase of the economy, the small and
medium scale industries are used as the source of generation employment, alleviation of poverty,

15.
security of food, rapid industrialization and reversal of the urban rural migration and also
becoming the strong tool for restructuring the economic growth and development (Johnson,
2011). This is the only reason why government of several countries are now attracted to the
growth of small and medium enterprises along with the researchers, academics as well as policy
makers across the world in finding out several pathways for the development of these small scale
enterprises and among the most efficient initiatives comes the sue of e commerce for the
marketing and operational purposes. In this current era, the small industries are heavily adopting
the internet facilities due to the usage increment of laptops, personal computers, cheap sources of
communication, cost effectiveness and increase in the usage of the communication technology.
The information communication technology helps in the improvement of the business
competition after the implementation of internet (Chen et al, 2011). It is providing several
opportunities for the small and medium scale enterprises to compete equally with the corporation
having larger stand in the market. The electronic commerce also having a positive impact on the
business operations as it sis conveying a variety of benefits and the companies are leaving behind
the usage of this new system and cannot compete favorably with the global place of market
(Noor, 2009). The small business particularly is now helping to overcome the major
disadvantages like the limited financial support, size, human and technological resources as well
the limited exposure towards the global market place after the adoption of the internet
technologies (Olatokun and Bankole, 2011).
In today’s world each and everything is available on internet for buying and selling purposes
including booking of hotel, reservation tickets for travel, travel services stock market and
financial services. In the field of education also there are n numbers of competitors over the
internet that provides schooling and also there are many degree providing schools also
functioning online. Thus the meeting of sellers and buyers over the internet for exchange of
products, services, information and payments can be all termed as internet economy. The
traditional market for doing business is termed as ‘brick and mortal’ markets where business
occurred only in physical buildings (Jamali, Lund-Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015). On the other
hand the electronic market place is the conductance of business over internet where the buyers
and sellers do not come to see or know or meet physically and all the deals are done online or
through a telecommunication network. Across the world the popularity of internet has grown at
an immense rate where U.S. is leading in the world in case of technology, crazy internet users as

16.
well as in website sophistication. Americans leave behind all the people who shop over internet
in any country and this provides an indication of popularity of internet commerce and indicates
clear application of internet in every process of business in very near future. It has been now
predicted that this e-commerce will definitely overtake the existence of physical industries ad
their economy in near future (Cloete, E.; Courtney, S.; Fintz, J., 2002). The popularity and
growing acceptance of this e-commerce all over the world is basically because of several factors
like technological development and is still advancing. There is increases encouragement, support
and cooperation from the regulatory environment. There is increased level of knowledge in
consumers and growing sophistication and economical status of people has made e-commerce a
trend in today’s world. As the whole world is developing and adopting the e-commerce as their
first choice, it has become necessary to implement this and make this popular in Nigeria as well
(Jamali, Lund-Thomsen, & Jeppesen, 2015).
.
With the advancement of the computer and technology brought through the internet and it is
helping for considering the theories involving the innovations. The internet revolution is quite
different from the other sort of innovation because of its unusual driving innovation involved in
it. This helps in explaining how the technology is driving such as the internet can be involved in
the area which is beyond the previous innovations (Chen and Crowston, 2001). The revolution of
the internet also encompasses information along with providing various opportunities which is
revolving around the globalization (Nzeako, 1999). The usage of the internet also helped in
increasing the level of technology as there are various patterns of removing the crime. There are
more positive an impact using the internet like it is promoting the job search, improvement in
buying and selling of commodities and services, increasing employment, derivation of useful
information, ability to research some materials for the business or education purposes (Young
Media Association, 2007).
In today’s world, there are a number of people using the internet and generating a billion of
dollars just using the internet every year. On the basis of report generated by the MacAfee report
on criminology (2007), the Asia, North America, Africa and Europe has increase the e commerce
at a very high rate but among these countries, only Africa has spend a huge amount for
introducing e commerce in the area of banking sector with the mode of withdrawing cash
through online banking with the help of using ATM cards as well as debit cards and by using the

17.
domically accounts for business and online transactions. In the country like Africa, where the
revolution of internet is just being introduced, the economy is highly prone to the hackers’
difficulties. The major difference which is lying with the Africa coma pare to the other countries
is its mode of transaction is as the part of their culture and also meeting the demand of the people
if there were hackers present. In the recent research observation, it has been seen that about 2
million American people were robbed by accessing their account in the year 2006 along with the
online transaction resulting in the usage of credit cards were reported the loss for about more
than 100 million people across America and out of which there were 30 million is just from the
online transaction. In comparison to United States, Africa has more numbered hackers which is
forming the negative effect of the economy of African countries (Oyenuga,et al , 2013). On the
basis of research done by (Nyirenda-jere, et al, 2015), the penetration level of the internet is
rising to about more than 20 % and is growing fast day by day. The subscription through mobile
is also rising daily which has noticed an increment of more than 90% in the recent times. The
countries like Morocco have the level of penetration increment by 50% as compare to other
countries which is very less than 2%. In addition to this the African countries is paying more
than 30 minutes internet access as compare to the other countries in the world. It was quite
evident that after the creation of the exchange point of internet, it is helping in achieving the
desired goals in the local level of any business outcomes. With the advantages of the increment
in the internet usage outcomes there is also increment in the cybercrime as well as increase in the
security concern related to the internet. The African countries can only opt secured environment
and privacy protection if they join hand with the internet governance member of the economy.
The infrastructure which is required in order to manage the growth of the internet revolution is
becoming quite significant (Marsh, 2009). The importance of growing communication through
the mobile and the rate of penetration through the internet are going in very large quantity as
assigned to the effort given by the Government of Africa who is currently working with the
stakeholders as well as retailers in order to promote the development of the internet facilities.
After the arrival of internet in Africa and as traced to the United States based ARPRANET in the
year 1960 where 1sttype of network came after the three decades in the University of Rhodes in
south Africa. The technology that has been brought about mailing system which was used as the
basis of transport and the other facilities were replaced with connection of internet with the line
of about 9600 bps. This actually lead to the existence of the internet service providers where both

18.
of them were leased line connection for the purpose of commerce (Chen et al, 2011). The
countries which started the use of the internet in the year 1991 were South Africa and Tunisia
along with Egypt in the year 1992 and Algeria and Zambia in the year 1994. After this initiation,
almost 53 countries from the African continent were having the connectivity to the internet
(Gilmore et al, 2007).
After the emergence of the internet in the several countries of the world, it also started gaining
the strategic growth in the internet penetration i.e. from 0.78% to 20.0% in the year 2000 to the
year 2014. From the general statistics of few countries the internet penetration of the African
countries represents that there is a huge growth in the internet connection usage from most of the
countries but at a different rate of course. Further it has also been observed that the technology
usage has been reflected in most of the countries of Africa. For example the countries like South
Africa, Nigeria and the Northern Africa also leads to the continent that has been subscribed to
the use of internet but of the countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe are not increasing the
penetration rate of the internet usage gradually. Due to the arrival of the internet revolution in
the country of Africa, it has gone far very positively and also been influenced by the usage of
mobiles (Stelzner, 2013). For instance, the usage of smart phone which is having the demand in
the market with the growing percentage of the mobile users also increasing the usage of internet
in every part of the countries (Marsh, 2009). With the growth of the mobile phone usage in the
various part of the world there has been also the expansions of the application stores. It has been
reported that in the year 2013, there has been 146 developers introduced more than 420
applications. The internet has been used for the commercial purposes with the help of mobile
operators with the help of using payment gateway called M pesa (Mnad C Satacchi moblile,
2013). Furthermore the usage of the mobile phone is still by and large depending on the foxed
internet backbones. Investment as well as the effort which is required to develop the facilities of
internet is still striving in most of the part of the world (Goldstruck, 2012). The small scale
industries in the growing economy has been used like a scheme for the services to remove
poverty, securing food, services and growth of the industrialization as well as used for the money
making tool for making a reformation for the progress and growth in the industries (Johnson,
2011). Based on the research done by Pezderka & Sinkovics (2010), it has also been focused on
the internalization of the medium and small scale industries particularly in the concepts

19.
involving e risk and their implications. The study also described that the awareness regarding the
potential risk associated with the online internalization comprises if the step of effective online
management of risk. The practice of internet marketing also includes the use of the website of
the company together with the promotional activities online along with search engine promotion,
email marketing, interactive promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the
other websites. Therefore, the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for
acquiring the new customers and also providing the services to the customer existing and to
maintain a healthy relationship with the customers (Stelzner, 2013).
In some of the studies, it is also quite evident that the lack of voltage and other resources,
liveliness, security problems in retails and the shortage of the successful and authoritarian
schemes are some of the major challenges which is inhibiting the approval as well as increase in
the retail using the internet facilities by the small and medium scale enterprises. Some of the
researchers also suggested that the purpose of bringing the internet revolution is to be accessible
by the retailers is for its utilization adequately and in essence must be the condition for the
standards provision of the power of the customers. In addition to that, there must be efficient
methods that offer a mechanism of defence to both the sellers and the buyers on the internet must
be available readily and there must be some impact created on the mind of people using internet
as a part of expanding small and medium scale enterprises and must support the meetings and
arrangements for the business start-ups through the use of the internet (Gilmore et al, 2007).
According to some researcher, the main determinant of the internet marketing is deciding the
targeted customer and the infrastructure the SMEs are having. The strategy and the aim of
business are some of the other influencer of the internet marketing in the SMEs. The lack of
sufficient amount of planning always hinders the growth of the internet based marketing in the
SME. Some studies described that the awareness regarding the potential risk associated with the
online internalization comprises if the step of effective online management of risk. The practice
of internet marketing also includes the use of the website of the company together with the
promotional activities online along with search engine promotion, email marketing, interactive
promotion and advertising and some partnership agreement with the other websites (Stelzner,
2013). Therefore, the internet marketing is supporting the marketing objectives for acquiring the
new customers and also providing the services to the customer existing and to maintain a healthy
relationship with the customers. The internet marketing implementation can also change the

20.
nature of the business across the world for the small and medium enterprises as the internet
revolution is bringing the fast and the efficient communication channel for the purpose of
marketing (Gilmore et al, 2007).
Methodology-
The research methodology includes the research designs, the size of the population for study, the
characteristics of the study, the population under consideration , techniques used, sample
collection, sources of the data, data analysis method and limitation of the research methodology.
For the proposed study, two methods are used for designing the survey and to collect data
namely qualitative and quantitative research. The population here refers to the whole size of the
individuals included in the study. Since it was practically impossible to cover whole population
hence a sample of 100 individuals have been considered. The characteristics of population of
small and medium scale enterprises those were located in the lagos, Nigeria. The participants
were from these small and medium scale enterprises and were asked to fill up the questionnaires.
The participants belonged to different departments of these enterprises. Out of 150 participants
contacted 100 completed the questionnaires and returned them that accounted more than 80%
response rate. The questionnaires used for measuring the reported variables were designed in two
sections. The first section consisted of the carefully chosen questions that relates to the impact of
the information technology on the SMES of the responding individuals whereas the second part
is to provide background information of the respondents. The questionnaires were to
administered and collection of data was direct. The analysis of the data is carried out using a
combination of statistical calculations and narratives. Apart from this exploratory analysis has
also been used for the determination of the significant factors in the development of the SMES in
Nigeria.
Several sources and different methodologies can be used to collect data. According to a
researcher, if a data is in word form, it can be classified as qualitative and can be regarded as
quantitative if they come in the form of numbers. For a research to be successful in terms of
presenting the phenomenon being studied, it is vital to select the appropriate quantitative and
qualitative methods and to understand their application to the research context . Others regard
the choice of methodology or multiplicity of methods for a research as a major problem specially

21.
when it comes to beginning researchers. By some researchers it is preferred to use either a single
method or a multiplicity which is commonly referred to as triangulation (Alonso et al, 2005).
Quantitative method-
The main backbone of quantitative research lies in the development of metrics or numbers that
can be used to describe the phenomenon, such as objects and relationships, under study. The
issue under study as well as data analysis involves the application of numerical approach.
Statistical analysis techniques can be subsequently used for analyzing such data. It is suitable to
measure behaviors and also the descriptive aspects, quantitative methods are the best suited. This
allows comparison and replication (Ongori et al, 2010). A researcher argued that quantitative
data not only allows large scale data collection and analysis at a reasonable cost and effort but
also gives statistical proof (Saunders et al, 2009). Human behavior can be explained by what
may be termed "social facts", these are the assumptions that characterize quantitative research
design. The social facts can be investigated by methodologies that utilize "the deductive logic of
natural sciences”. The primary concern of qualitative research has always been with defining an
epistemological methodology for determining the truth/value and is usually flexible when it
comes to dealing with data and allowing researchers to conduct comparative analysis, statistical
analysis and repeatability of data collection in order to verify reliability. Some researchers
identify some characteristics of quantitative research as follows: its visible truthfulness or reality
to exist in the world, this existence can be objectively and quantitatively measured, in terms of
the relationship between the investigator and what is being investigated (Adebayo et al, 2013).
The first and foremost requirement of quantitative research paradigm as suggested, is that, the
researchers should remain distant and independent of what is being researched to ensure an
objective assessment of the situation . Some researchers were able to identify the strengths of
quantitative methodologies which certainly include: allowance of comparison and replication;
reliability and variability is determined more objectively than qualitative methods; emphasizing
on the needs to formulate hypotheses for subsequent verification; helping in search for casual
explanations and fundamental laws; and, in order to facilitate analysis the whole is reduced to the
simplest possible element (Arendeti, 2008).
Stated by a researcher, since the aim of the study is to develop generalization that can contribute
to the theory and can enable a researcher to better predinternet marketing and explain some

22.
phenomenon, therefore in quantitative research, concepts, variables and hypotheses are selected
prior to the study and remain fixed all through the study (Ongori et al, 2010). However, certain
researchers argued that there is a major disadvantage of quantitative research, which is that, as a
general rule, there is a loss of many social and cultural aspects of the organization or they may be
treated in a superficial manner. Some of them also stated, that quantitative data also tends to
convey very less meaning to most of the people until and unless they are processed and analyzed.
Graphs, charts and statistics are certain quantitative analysis techniques, allow researchers to
explore, present, describe and examine relationship and trends within data. The range of a
quantitative data can be from simple counts such as frequency of occurrences to more complex
data such as test scores, prices or rental cost. Qualitative methods in contrast to quantitative
methods concentrate more on increasing the richness of the data about the social process in a
research problem and tend to be mostly subjective (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008).
Qualitative Method
The qualitative research is generally based on words rather than the numbers. It is designed in
those ways which is associated with the interpretative approaches that depend on the informants
other than the measurement of the observable and discrete behavior. It is generally helps in
answering the question based on the nature of the phenomenon that helps in the description as
well as understanding of the phenomena from the point of view of informants. On the basis of
few researchers, qualitative research generally hesitates in the adaption of the generalization of
the objective products for the research endeavors. Therefore is very much wrong if we make the
difference between the qualitative and quantitative research on the basis of numbers. The
qualitative research strength generally lies in the responsive and flexible interaction between the
respondents and the interviewers. The qualitative research helps in the explanation of the various
complex issues which is within the natural ways of the phenomenon of the research in detailed
manner. The research related to the qualitative analysis generally means any type of research
which produces the findings which is not arrived by the means of the procedures which are
statistics or just by the means of quantifications. In qualitative type of research the probing of
meaning can be done and the covering of topics can be easily done with wide angles. The
questions are made clear for all the participants which is considered to be the advantages in
exploring the concept and the relation lies between them. Some researchers also explain that the
greatest strength of the qualitative based research is the data validity that has been obtained

23.
because the individuals are generally interviewed in quite details to get the results that can be
considered as true, believable and correct reports for the experiences and the views. The
paradigm of the qualitative research is also called as the naturalistic, constructive, post positive
and interpretative approach. In the context of research, where the topic is written certainly about,
the qualitative approach is generally used to provide the in depth knowledge about the
investigated phenomenon. The methods of qualitative research are generally designed to help the
research people for understanding people and whatever they do or say. This type of research
always use a naturalistic approach which seeks in understanding the phenomenon of the context
specific settings like the real world settings of the researcher don’t make any attempt for
manipulating the interest phenomenon. It is generally designed for helping the researchers for
understanding the cultural and the social context of the people. It is generally impossible
virtually for understanding why the people did something, or why it is happening in the
organization with even talking to the people about the same. For instance, if the restrinternet
marketingion is applied for the police for using the quantitative data only the there will be no
crime that can be solved. In other case if the judges and the lawyer are also not allowed for
questioning and also cross examining the witnesses in the courtroom then the reliability and the
validity of the decision will be a matter of having serious doubt (Arendeti, 2008). Moreover, if
the researchers want to understanding of the motivation of people, their actions, and their reasons
as well the context of beliefs followed by the actions in depth (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). The
qualitative research don’t depend on the researchers after knowing all the categories and
characteristics of the subjects which is ahead of time and it actually allows the development of
the concepts and gets refined with the progress of the projects (Saunders et al, 2009). Here
Interview guide was helpful for researcher to make decision of best utilization of time for an
interview. Wu also agreed Interview guide as a helpful tool for researcher with respect to
interview time utilization. In appendix D all the interview questions are mentioned (Alonso et al,
2005). Structure of interview starts with introduction of interviewer first which was preceded by
brief description of the objective of the present research work. First set of questions are related to
the background detail of the participant as well as respective companies. Many questions were
focused on the types of software applications that were in use in the different SMEs (e.g.
spreadsheets; databases; accounting packages; statistical packages; communication software used

24.
for internet, email, word processing software, and so on) and the use of other internet marketing
applications (such as stock control, Sage, CRM, ERP amongst others) (Ongori et al, 2010).
Justificationof the Chosen Research Method-
It is very important for describing the method of research with many specifications. The choice
of qualitative research is generally selected for its consistency with the aim of the research for
ascertains the phenomenon which is complex by considering the context of the settings. The
reasons for choosing the qualitative method of research for the research which is going to be
done on the research problem has been described in previous sections. Generally, the questions
like how, why and what are appropriately examined using the research approach of qualitative
questions and secondly the qualitative research approach also helps in accepting the subjectivity
and complex city and also helps in enabling the researchers for using their interpretation and
observation of the phenomenon in getting the insights in discovering the meaning of a particular
experience, historical and cultural events. And on the other hand the research based on
quantitative methodology is not suitable for explaining and exploring the complexities and it is
generally more appropriate of the confirmation which as already been known for a particular
phenomenon (Alonso et al, 2005). The quantitative research just allows getting familiar with the
concept or the problem which is to be studied and also helps in generating the hypothesis that is
to be subjected. The other reason for choosing the qualitative approach is based on the
epistemology of the research. Therefore the adoption of the interprevitist epistemological by the
researcher which is aimed for the identification of the factors which is motivating the adoption of
this approach and also the effective utilization of internet marketing by the SMEs of the Nigeria
and also influences the performances of the organization, which is generally consistent with the
mode of qualitative research (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). Moreover, the paradigm of the
interpretivist is quite suitable for the purpose of research which actually recognizes the SMEs
characteristics and also their functions based on the economy of Nigeria. This approach also
raise several questions on the general finding and its has been said by several researchers that the
genaralisability is not actually crucial as the research aim is to capture the complexities of the

25.
situation as well. The research also adopts the inductive approach in place of the destructive one
as it want to understand the deeper meaning of the research questions (Arendeti, 2008).
Research Paradigm
The given write up here discusses about the procedure by which the researchers had conducted
the research along with stating the justifications for the approach that was taken by them. The
research methods implemented for capturing the data that achieves the research aim are
addressed here. This study used the qualitative research method in order to identify strategies
that are assisting in increasing the adoption as well as, the effective utilization of Information and
Communication Technology (internet marketing) in Nigeria's Small and Medium Scale
Enterprises (SMEs) (Arendeti, 2008). Based on previous decisions, it was decided that the most
appropriate methodology for this study was the use of the interprevist philosophical paradigm
within a qualitative methodology. Some researchers noted that, in order to understand human
thoughts and action in social and organizational context, interpretive research could help
Information System (IS) researchers. Moreover, the research not only will help understand
emerging issues that are relevant to the subject but also is exploratory and descriptive (Adebayo
et al, 2013).
Background
The background information of the individuals included in the study are presented in the table
below,
frequency Percentage Valid percent Cumulative
percent
Male 45 72.6 72.6 72.6
Female 17 27.4 27.4 100
Total 62 100 1000
From the above results it was reflected that 73% of the participants were male and 27% of them
were female. This result also indicated that managing the SMES in Nigeria is done more by men
than women.

26.
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
HND 9 14.5 14.5 21.0
BSC 37 59.7 59.7 80.6
MSC 6 9.7 9.7 90.3
MBA
TOTAL
6
58
9.7
100
9.7
100
100
The above table depicts that the educational level of the individuals included in the study is
14.5% with Higher National Diploma, 59.7% of total respondents are having Bachelor’s degree
while with 6 respondents having Master’s degree. And 9.7% only have Masters In Business
Administration qualification. Hence the result indicates that major portion of SMES management
consist of Bachelor degree holders.
Impact of Information Technology on SMEs in Nigeria:
In order to determine correctly the impact of the Information Technology on SMEs in Nigeria, it
is important to determine the extent up to which the Information Technology has influenced the
business environments of SMEs. The following table explores the impact of the Information
Technology on Nigerian SMEs.
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.Deviation
Introduction
of IT in SME
to change the
process and
the products
62 100 200 10010 49106
IT employed
in SMEs for
making their
services more
62 100 400 18006 74303

27.
easy
Use of IT in
SMEs for
opening up
new
oppurtunities
62 100 400 20000 91303
From the above table it can be inferred that the most important effect of the IT on SMES is the
introduction of the IT for changing the process and the product followed by the use of IT in
opening up the new opportunities.
Conclusion:
The conclusion that can be drawn from the present research study is that Information Technology
has a great impact of the productivity of the SME industry in Nigeria. The stakeholders in the
SMES also agree that with the introduction of the IT at different processes in SMES helps in
boosting productivity and profitability. With the use of IT, managing the information in SMES
become more easy with reduced transaction costs and speeding up the entire process
Following are the survey questionnaires that will be used for the purpose of survey and the
question will be close ended as the participants only have to tick the desired options given with
the question. The question will be asked in the form of survey to the student of educational
institution about the various issues regarding internet marketing in Nigeria, The sample size of
the students will be 200.
1. The cost of training the employees along with adequate financial sources is hindering the
option of internet marketing in Nigeria by the SMEs. Up to which extent do you think agree
with this?
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree
2. The supportive measures taken by government such as Nigerian policies of SMEs are not
sufficient and also prevent various SMEs from effectively utilizing and adopting internet
marketing. To which extent does agree with this view?

28.
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree
3. Due to the irregular services that is being provided by the ISPs due to the low signal
bandwidth, with very high cost of subscription along with frequency of subscription and
disconnection is known to be very common issue in preventing Nigeria to use internet
marketing by SMEs. To which extent does agree with this view?
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree
4. The SMEs of the Nigeria is having various taxes to be paid and also levies the due a very
high level of corruption in the country. To which extent does agree with this view?
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree
5. The potential of internet revolution are yet to be fully utilized by the SMEs of the Nigeria
and now owing due to lack of several resources and support from bank. To which extent does
agree with this view?
Please tick] one option ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly
Agree
6. The infrastructural facilities lacking in the SMEs are the major drawback and challenge for
the SMEs in Nigeria. To which extent does agree with this view?
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Ag
7. The deficiencies in the skill and knowledge lacking within the employees is actually
preventing the adoption of internet marketing by the SMEs in Nigeria Skills To which extent
does agree with this view?
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree
8. There is a lacking of the awareness among all the manager and owner in the adoption of
internet marketing in Nigeria in the SMEs of Nigerai. To which extent does agree with this
view?
Please tick [ ( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree
Interviews
Interview is an effective and qualified method for communication between the individuals which
transfer the information in efficient way. In society interview is classified as important form of

29.
communication which is also suggested by Putins and Petelin. Interview is conducted on the
basis of plans and structure prepared by interviewer and followed in predetermined objective and
takes place between two or more people which stand interview as totally different from casual
conversations explained (Alonso et al, 2005). It is suggested by Marshall and Rossman that for
elaborative and explorative focus of research, proper research strategies should comprises with in
depth interviews on field studies which is concern objective of present research work. Several
semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-designed questionnaires for better
understandable results. Such interviews were helpful for interviewer to understand in depth the
problem taken for present study (Adebayo et al, 2013). Walsham ,Levy and Powell identified
that impactful parameter for successful cases is interview as it provide better interpretation of
events from participant to interviewer. In case study research semi-structured interviews are
highly flexible and very important which is pointed by Gilliam also. In present research work, as
earlier mentioned in section 4.8.1, semi-structured interviews were initially conducted with 25
SMEs in Nigeria between December 2009 to February 2010 from which seven SMEs were
finally selected and used as case studies, and an interview protocol was used as a guide. Here
Interview guide was helpful for researcher to make decision of best utilization of time for an
interview. Wu also agreed Interview guide as a helpful tool for researcher with respect to
interview time utilization. In appendix D all the interview questions are mentioned. Structure of
interview starts with introduction of interviewer first which was preceded by brief description of
the objective of the present research work (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). First set of questions are
related to the background detail of the participant as well as respective companies. Many
questions were focused on the types of software applications that were in use in the different
SMEs (e.g. spreadsheets; databases; accounting packages; statistical packages; communication
software used for internet, email, word processing software, and so on) and the use of other
internet marketing applications (such as stock control, Sage, CRM, ERP amongst others) (Ongori
et al, 2010)
InterviewQuestionnaires-
The interview questions which will be asked to the students of educational institution and this
will be open ended questionnaires which will be evaluated after the process of short interview.
The sets of interview questionnaires will be asked in a group of 5 students and the sample size
will be of 200 students.

30.
1. How do you believe that Nigerian electricity board can assist in non interrupt Internet and
electric facility for improvement of SME?
2. How the government of Nigeria is is ensuring to provide internet facility to remote area
where the SMEs are located?
3. What do you think the Nigerian culture and economic status supporting the adoption of
internet marketing?
4. What are the factors do you think education and training can play a huge role in internet
marketing adoption by SMEs in Nigeria?
5. What are the infrastructure facilities required by the SMEs in Nigeria to get the best facilities
of internet?
6. How does the training and awareness program for the managers and the owners of SMEs in
Nigeria will be helping them in adoption of internet marketing?
7. How the cultural and social factor does is affecting the adoption of internet marketing among
SMEs in Nigeria?
8. How do you think the policies and regulation of government will be helping/hindering the
internet marketing regulation in Nigeria SMEs?
Sample Size-
The data will be obtained by two ways i.e. by primary and secondary methods. There will be
approximately 70 literature surveys has been done to carry out the research in order to solve the
research question. The secondary data utilizes the sources through which the statistical analysis
has been done along with the survey about the research about internet marketing adoption
previously done so far.
The primary data has been collected through various questionnaires from the various university
students with a set of open and close ended questions mentioned previously. The number of
participants was 300 out of which 230 were undergraduate students and rest of them was post
graduate.

31.
Ethical Issues-
The ethical issues regarding the research have been kept in priority. The questionnaires was
asked in such a manner so that it doesn’t harm the confidentially of both student and
government. The research was carried out in very culturally competent method. It was also tried
to remain unbiased while randomly selecting the participants for the research purpose. Most of
the findings which has been reported through the public sources has been properly referenced as
well. The finding will be published later on for a open access by the people from various part of
the world.
Scope & Limitationof Research-
This research has presented the contributions of this research to the body of knowledge which
include the developed framework, the research methods adopted for the study and how they were
applied, key limitations of the present research as well as recommendations for future research.
The research also adds to the body of knowledge by empirically providing evidence that can
increase the knowledge of Internet adoption and usage in small businesses thereby expanding the
research area, in the field of IS. The research findings are beneficial to academics, practitioners,
and policy makers. The research design function is help in ensuring the evidences that are
obtained will help in answering the question that are raised as unbiased as possible. It actually
implies the research project quality will get enhanced with the better understanding of the design
of project. It will also helps in reduction of the ambiguity of the research evidences. It also helps
in the designing of the set of guidelines that are flexible and also helps in the connection of the
paradigms theoretically towards the strategies of enquiry and also the methods for the collection
of the empirical data (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). The case study based strategy of research is
generally ideal when a holistic in depth investigations is required which helps in revealing the
facts from the correspondents with the use of multiple data source like face to face interviews,
written documents, observations etc. The methodology of the qualitative case studies generally
provides the tools for the researchers in order to know the complexity of the phenomenon in their
context (Alonso et al, 2005). It also helps in the exploring of the organizational and individuals
through the complex relationship and interventions, programs and communities and also supports
the events of deconstruction and the reconstruction subsequently in various phenomenon
(Adebayo et al, 2013).

32.
Reasons for Selecting the Current Research Location
This study is generally focusing on the country Nigeria which is significantly interesting and also
the domain of the research as it is becoming one of the most industrialized country in African
continent. Further Nigeria is one of the most densely populated countries in the African continent
which has significantly large natural resources. The telecommunication industries are developing
at very high rate but it is also believed that the deployment of internet marketing is not getting
increased at the same pace. The economic commision of Nigeria also indicated the decrement of
the technology backwardness including the Nigeria (Adebayo et al, 2013). Even if the increase in
the uptake of the internet based marketing in all parts of the world, Nigeria is continuously
lagging behind the adoption of internet marketing and it is very important to pull Nigeria from
the box and also help it to up take the internet marketing in SMEs. On the basis of various such
reasons, the research is focused on adoption of internet marketing by the SMEs in various sectors
and this location was co9nsidred to be perfect among all (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008). Some
researchers describe research as something that people carry out in a systematic way to find out
new things that will contribute to their level of knowledge. Further, according to them the
characteristics of a good research include: to ensure that data is collected systematically, they are
interpreted systematically and finding out things is accompanied with a clear purpose of doing it.
The different styles of research include constructive, theoretical, empirical, homothetic,
idiographic, critical, information systems research and so on. For example, the information
system research deals with the development and the use of information systems by individuals,
organizations and society and is mainly based on internet marketing. Hence, this research style is
best suited for this particular study as the research too is concerned with adoption and effective
utilization of internet marketing’s in organization, particularly in the SMES. Other two
researches noted that. The general research using information and technology, involve many
styles and type of work, just like any other discipline (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008).
Research Method
Method can be defined as on systematic and orderly approach that is taken towards data
collection and analysis so that information can be obtained from those data. Alternatively,

33.
methods can be defined as techniques or procedures used for gathering and analyzing data
related to research questions and hypothesis (Saunders et al, 2009). Whereas methodology is
defined as a strategy, plan of action process or design lying behind the choice and use of
particular methods and linking the choice and use of those methods to the desired outcomes.
According to a researcher methodology is defined as the discussion of how a piece of research
should be undertaken. Another researcher stated that four main issues must be addressed by any
research methodology, they are the following : what data is required, from where the data can be
acquired, how the data can be collected and how the collected data can be analyzed. A research
strategy can also be called a research plan or design. A research strategy can be called as an
overall approach that is adopted by a researcher in order to find answers to the research
questions. A design that shapes a researcher's choice and use of particular methods and links
them to desired outcomes, can be defined as a research strategy or plan of action. A
philosophical paradigm, is known as the philosophy of a particular research and is also
sometimes referred to as research paradigm. Some researchers proposed that a framework,
consisting of theories, methods and ways of defining data which explains the relationship
between data and theory, can be offered by a research paradigm/philosophy. Various terms are
used by scholars to describe research approaches and strategies and to understand them, is the
most challenging issue about understanding research design. However, this research is based on
a particular researcher's description of the different terms (Ashrafi & Murtaza, 2008).
Research Strategy-
One of the most important decisions made by the researchers is the research strategy taken,
which also internet marketingates the major direction of the research. As referred by a
researcher, research strategy is research design and he has defined it as "a logical plan for getting
from here to there, where here may be defined as the initial set of questions to be answered and
there is some set of conclusions to these questions " (Saunders et al, 2009). Two other
researchers also stated that a research strategy should be consisting of the overall rationale; site
selection, population selection or both; the researcher's role; methods of data collection;
managing the data; data analyzing strategy; features of trustworthiness and a plan for
management . An appropriate research approach not only reflects the nature of the study but also
indicates the research objectives. Wide range of methods are involved in conducting a research,

34.
which includes experiments, action research, ethnography, case study, grounded theory and
soon;. This particular research has adopted the survey and case study research strategies
(Saunders et al, 2009).
Survey-
As positivist paradigm seeks patterns to try and explain phenomenon, survey strategies are most
often associated with them. Researchers using that above stated method assume that there are
existing patterns that exist; however according to them, surveys cannot confirm cause and effect
in the same way as compared to scientific experiments but they do give an opportunity to see if
any association is established between variables. Researchers state that surveys play a great role
in obtaining consistent data from a large number of people and patterns and patterns are searched
for in these data. Surveys not always necessarily include questions they can also incorporate
interviews, observation, documents and so on. There are majorly two types of surveys, i.e.
descriptive and analytical. A descriptive study is one which mainly focuses on identifying and
counting a specific population frequency, either at one point in time or at various times for
comparison, whereas, analytical survey focuses on identifying relationships between different
variables. Opportunities for analysis of large amounts of data and making generalization are
provided by surveys (Adebayo et al, 2013).
Directions for further Research
Driven by the findings in this research, SMEs in Nigeria has a long way to go for the sector to be
most relevant, focused, productive enough and play the crucial role it is expected to in relation to
contributing to the growth and development of the economy of Nigeria. The benefits and need to
go for technology development through either technology transfer or technological innovations
or inter-firm linkages should be emphasized in the light of dimensions of global competition and
its negative fall outs as well as positive opportunities, to small and medium scale industries
entrepreneurs through seminars and work shop, at the local level. Hence, for the government to
succeed in reinventing the future of SMEs, it has to extend the current reforms to her educational
system to make it more functional , relevant ,need -oriented and driven. Emphasis should be on
modern technology, practical technological and entrepreneurial studies aimed at producing
entrepreneurs. There is the urgent and dire need for the government to revamp the SME sector of

35.
the economy on order to redress the growing unemployment rate in the country, reduce poverty
level, enhance standard of living and stimulate economic growth and development. Furthermore,
emphasis should be made on encouraging the female gender to participate more in activities of
SMEs in Nigeria and as well include the study of both ICT and SMEs development in her
school's curriculum, establish more vocational schools in both local and urban settlements of the
country. The government should help through enlightenment programmes for the youths right
from grassroots.
The issue of cyber-crime is one that has been discussed by many people with various
perspectives on the issue, most coming at it from different sides than the others. Cyber-crimes
have gone beyond conventional crimes and now have threatening ramifications to the national
security of all countries, even to technologically developed countries as the United States.[7]
According to a publication in [20] which states that “the adoption by all countries of appropriate
legislation against the misuse of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), for
criminal or other purposes, including activities intended to affect the integrity of national critical
information infrastructures, is central to achieving global cyber security”. The publication further
stated that since threats could originate anywhere around the globe, the challenges are inherently
international in scope thus requires international cooperation, investigative assistance, and
common substantive and procedural provisions”. In line with the above, Professor Augustine
Odinma states that “cyber-crime is any illegal acts perpetrated in, on or through the internet with
the intent to cheat, defraud or cause the malfunction of a network device, which may include a
computer, a phones, etc. The illegal act may be targeted at a computer network or devices e.g.,
computer virus, denial of service attacks (DOS), malware (malicious code). the illegal act may
be facilitated by computer network or devices with target independent of the computer network
or device”. Relating cyber-crime to the military in a paper depicting his vested interest in the
country’s military well-being, Major General Umo outlines that cybercrime, cyber terrorism,
cyber warfare, cyber security are one and the same thing. This is because, stealing or forgery
directed at an individual or an organization is synonymous to waging war on the target of the
crime. For additional research, the recommendations for new strategies in order to eradicate
cybercrimes and develop the way forward in promoting internet usage will be considered.
Furthermore, research focus on market course and internet-related cognitions of managers in
predominantly small firms will be considered for other findings. For the general findings, other

36.
studies would be considered broader or other samples, for example by ensuring a depiction of
medium sized enterprises .Also, the degree in which internet usage is included in an SME’s
business processes might vary for different types of internet users and this will be considered as
well (Kula and Tatoglu, 2003; Walczuch et al., 2000
Statistically, Nigeria ranked 43 in EMEA and ranked third among ten nations that commits
cyber-crime in the world. As a corrective measure, the then President of Nigeria, Olusegun
Obasanjo set up National Cyber security Initiative (NCI) in 2003. The Nigerian cybercrime
working group (NCWG) is to meet the objectives of NCI but their effects did not match up to the
rate of growth of cybercrime. Professor Oliver Osuagwu, relating cyber-crime to the collapse of
the educational sector, points out that cybercrime is causing near total collapse of the education
community, particularly in Nigeria, with over 90% of criminals coming from this sector. Wrong
value system has been identified as key factor encouraging cybercrime in Nigeria and the desire
to get rich quick without working for it. Cyber-crime is complex and committed mostly from
remote locations making it difficult to police. The absence of enabling law makes policing even
more difficult.[9]
As earlier stated, the internet has a capacity for more good than bad. This is better explained by
Mrs. R. Moses-Oke in [14] when she said “The oxymoronic nature of the Internet is one of its
unforeseen attributes; at its inception, no one, perhaps, could have clearly foreseen that, and how,
the Internet would someday become a veritable platform for globalized criminal activities. As
has been copiously remarked, the benefits of the Internet have so often been tainted by its
versatility for virtual criminal activities that have vastly devastating physical and social impacts”.
Many will agree that concerns are increasing as Nigeria is increasing its digitalization not only in
the area of commerce and communications, but gradually into the area of electronic banking. In
the past year, electronic banking and the cashless initiative have been in focus a lot. Amaka Eze
in her article [12] for THISDAY live writes, “As the country integrates electronic payment
system into its financial institution; a step that is expected to accelerate the nation’s e-commerce
growth, the negative impact of cybercrime on businesses, and the absence of appropriate laws to
guarantee the legality of online transactions, continue to create fear in the mind of users and
potential online users”. Even as we talk about the rise and dangers of cyber-crime and breach in
cyber security, there is need to focus on a way to reduce or completely eradicate its incidence in
Nigeria. To restore the full glory of cyber security, those involved have to spend time to learn

37.
how cybercrime ring operates and then devise strategies to fight the menace. We cannot fight
today’s crime with yesterday’s technology. It will always be a losing battle if security
professionals are way behind the cyber criminals in terms of technological knowledge. It’s not
just about computing skills, but IT Security expertise (Saunders et al, 2009).
As the general population becomes increasingly refined in their understanding and use of computers and
as the technologies associated with computing become more powerful, there is a strong possibility that
cyber-crimes will become more common. Nigeria is rated as one of the countries with the highest levels
of e-crime activities. Cyber security must be addressed seriously as it is affecting the image of the country
in the outside world. A combination of sound technical measures tailored to the origin of Spam (the
sending ends) in conjunction with legal deterrents will be a good start in the war against cyber criminals.
Information attacks can be launched by anyone, from anywhere. The attackers can operate without
detection for years and can remain hidden from any counter measures”. This indeed emphasizes the need
for the government security agencies to note that there is need to keep up with technological and security
advancements. It will always be a losing battle if security professionals are miles behind the cyber
criminals. Fighting cybercrime requires a holistic approach to combat this menace in all ramifications.
There is need to create a security-aware culture involving the public, the ISPs, cybercafés, government,
security agencies and internet users. Also in terms of strategy, it is crucial to thoroughly address issues
relating to enforcement. Mishandling of enforcement can backfire. The use of internet in
communicating will be considered to be supposed as less invasive than offering online expense
options (Thakur and Srivastava, 2014; Chang et al., 2013).. For instance, SMEs in less-
developed countries may have to deal with a poor telecommunications infrastructure, slow
access speed, high cost and incomplete government regulations (Obiri-Yeboah et al. 2013; Tan et
al., 2010). These factors will be undertaking for further research to help in developing their
markets.
The findings of this research and the research limitations have resulted in the identification of
potential future research directions for investigation. The recommendations for further research
as a result of this study are indicated below. More research is needed to further validate the
findings, in order to increase the generalisation of the results in different areas within Nigeria and
over different regions in Africa. Re-testing the research findings and the recommendations in
different regions within Nigeria especially, will help to determine whether the findings have the
same impact or are less significant in other areas. The framework should be validated in different
contexts to extend the generalisability and contribution of the framework. Also, there could be

38.
further investigations that can extend the framework as new factors could emerge after some
time. Comparative studies can be conducted in other SSA countries, for example Ghana, to
determine differences in the context of developing countries. For example, in the developed
countries, researchers have compared ICT adoption strategies between countries such as the UK
and the USA. In spite of the fact that much research has been conducted in the area of ICT
adoption, the area related to ICT use or utilisation is still relatively new. Thus, more research still
needs to be conducted in other areas within Nigeria as well as other developing countries. Future
research should expand the understanding of ICT adoption and effective utilisation beyond the
scope of the current research. From the review of the literature, it appears that no existing
research had examined the level of utilisation of traditional-based or sophisticated ICT solutions
in SMEs. It will be useful to conduct further research in this area.
It is expected that future research will extend knowledge of ICT adoption and effective
utilisation by considering other regions beyond the area covered by this research. Insights from
the investigation suggest that, as organisations adopt and utilise more sophisticated ICT
applications, issues relating to electricity supply, amongst others, stand as major barriers to ICT
adoption in Nigerian SMEs. However, due to the benefits associated with ICT, some SMEs are
still motivated to utilise more sophisticated ICT applications/systems. The benefits range from
enhanced competitive advantage to improved customer service, increased market reach and so
on. This research found that SMEs’ owners/managers attitudes towards ICT play a key role in
promoting the effective utilisation of ICT amongst employees. Research conducted by
Harindranath et al. (2008b) on adoption issues concluded that “progress in the deployment of
ICT typically depends on a single individual with vision who takes full responsibility for ICT
initiatives, as well as continuing with their regular activities”. It is expected that the findings
obtained in this study would be beneficial in providing some necessary guidance for SMEs
wishing to adopt and effectively use ICT in other developing countries. This research has
fulfilled its goals and expectations and has answered all research questions set out at the
beginning of the study. The research has provided significant contributions towards explaining
the factors influencing/affecting the adoption and effective utilisation of ICT in Nigerian SMEs.
Although many researchers have tried to investigate the factors that affect ICT adoption in
SMEs, no approach had yet been put forward which could serve as a guide in resolving the
problems facing Nigerian SMEs. This chapter has presented the contributions of this research to