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The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that re‐examines the impact of the internet on small to medium‐sized enterprise marketing activities, following a similar study four years earlier (2000) in order to see what, if any, changes have occurred.

A qualitative research approach was adopted using one‐to‐one, in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with the marketing managers or IT professionals of ten small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who were directly involved in introducing the internet and e‐marketing activities within their respective company.

The all‐encompassing role of the internet in today's business world and the findings of this study raise some serious issues for the future of SMEs operating in a peripheral location and their e‐marketing provisions. It is still very much in its infancy for some SMEs although its use has generally continued since 2000. SMEs still do not use it to its full scope and potential.

The outcomes of the study illustrate the specific barriers and implementation issues encountered by SMEs, identify the consequences of implementing e‐marketing on the SME businesses, and identify how SMEs within regional economies could better use e‐marketing and facilitate better implementation in the future.

The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the predictors of e-marketing use continuance intention in the pharmaceutical business to business (B2B) supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study adopted survey research strategy, and data were collected from managers dealing with marketing in 127 pharmaceutical firms in Harare Zimbabwe using a self-reported questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses.

Leadership support and perceived usefulness are significant predictors of e-marketing continuance intentions. The effect of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity on e-marketing use continuance intention was not significant. Perceived usefulness is a positive moderator in the relationship among leadership support, perceived susceptibility and e-marketing use continuance intention. However, the moderating effect of perceived usefulness created a significant but negative relationship between perceived severity and e-marketing use continuance intention.

This study provides empirical evidence of the moderating role of perceived usefulness in the relationships between e-marketing continuance intention and its predictors.

This chapter presents the e-marketing practices followed by the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India. It explored the owner-managers perceptions of MSMEs regarding their average expenditures, budget allocations, management, policy, sources of information, return on investment and their desire for formal training on e-marketing activities in future. Data were collected from 253 MSME owner-managers through an e-questionnaire. The researchers found that the majority of the MSME owner-managers allocate a monthly budget for e-marketing initiatives, and they have increased it over the past few years. However, the total expenditure on e-marketing activities is between 1% and 10% of their total marketing budget. These businesses are partly or fully outsourcing search engine optimization (SEO), display advertising and referral marketing, whereas other e-marketing activities are managed in-house. Generally, these MSMEs are not measuring the success of their digital marketing efforts. If they do it, they are not doing it in a professional manner. MSMEs were found to be slow in posting content and engaging their followers on social media. Surprisingly, two-third of the MSMEs that participated in this study did not show any desire to pursue courses in digital marketing. In conclusion, this study puts forward key implications to practitioners as well as to the government agencies that are involved in the promotion of information technology among MSMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear understanding of the performance of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐marketplace in conducting e‐marketing in the global business environment. The proposed framework is intended to be used as a guide for B2B firms especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who wish to adopt a proactive approach in the use of information and communication technology for business efficiency and competitive advantage, and those who wish to explore the internet technologies for marketing activities.

Literature from the B2B e‐marketplaces and operations of e‐marketing fields were analysed, and the findings were synthesised to develop a preliminary conceptual model of e‐marketing. The conceptual model was tested empirically through an online survey from various industries in China, Malaysia, and Singapore.

With significant online and offline publications from both academia and industry, there is a growing awareness of the contribution of the e‐marketing in the global environment. This new marketing paradigm is reported to reshape the business relationships between both consumer marketers and consumers, improving business processes and enhancing the business exposure in the new markets.

The major limitation of this paper is associated with the sample selection. Although the literature findings were international, the empirical study was restricted to China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Therefore, the generalizability of the results may not be applicable for other countries. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents participated were SMEs. Hence, the applicability of findings to large‐scale organisations may be limited.

The framework allows B2B firms to capitalise and understand the e‐marketing opportunities provided by B2B e‐marketplace. The framework also offers guidance to marketing managers a most appropriate approach to adopt B2B e‐marketplace to perform their e‐marketing activities.

Based on the need for a framework for e‐marketing, this study is significance to: SMEs, marketers, information technology practitioners, and all other stakeholders that adopted the internet and other electronic means for marketing purposes.

The present paper aims to understand the influence of consumer's functional, psychological and emotional barriers to the use of digital banking services.

The authors carried out a quantitative study in which data were collected through a self-administered online questionnaire. A final sample of 202 Brazilian adults, with and without experience in using digital banking services, enabled the test of research hypotheses by means of a structural equation modeling approach.

The authors found statistical evidence that supports the hypothesis that psychological barriers, emotional barriers and user experience positively influence the resistance to the use of digital banking services. However, there is no empirical evidence supporting that the influence of functional barriers affects the resistance to the use of digital banking services.

Efforts to understand the mechanisms that lead consumers to adopt or reject innovative products or services are important to prevent investments in these innovations, avoiding revenue failures. The results provide managerial implications by favoring the creation of communication programs capable of reducing the possibilities of innovation failure.

The main theoretical contribution of this work is the identification of the predominant influence of emotional barriers, in comparison to functional barriers, on the resistance to innovation in digital banking services. Currently, the models that illustrate resistance to innovation tend to focus solely on functional aspects; however, these models can be improved by incorporating emotional aspects.

To understand the differences in perceived barriers to e‐auctions both in US buying organizations that have adopted e‐auctions and in both those that have not.

Four propositions were developed based on the literature and case studies in eight companies that used e‐auctions for sourcing. Measures were developed for lack of e‐auction knowledge, lack of supplier participation, information security concerns and importance of supplier relationships. Survey data were gathered from 163 US National Association of Purchasing Management members. GLM‐MANOVA was used to test the propositions.

E‐auction adopters perceive information security to be less of a concern than non‐adopters. No significant differences were found between adopters and non‐adopters on the buyer's e‐auction knowledge, lack of supplier participation, and the importance of supplier relationships.

The small sample size limits statistical power, so small differences may not have been detected. The results may not generalize beyond the sample.

Supply managers should focus on reducing information security concerns within their organizations to facilitate adoption.

No published studies have explored the differences between adopters and non‐adopters of e‐auctions to identify barriers.

AI-based chatbots are revamping employee communication in organizations. This paper examines the adoption of AI-based employee experience chatbots by employees.

The proposed model is developed using behavioral reasoning theory and empirically validated by surveying 1,130 employees and data was analyzed with PLS-SEM.

This research presents the “reasons for” and “reasons against” for the acceptance of AI-based employee experience chatbots. The “reasons for” are – personalization, interactivity, perceived intelligence and perceived anthropomorphism and the “reasons against” are perceived risk, language barrier and technological anxiety. It is found that “reasons for” have a positive association with attitude and adoption intention and “reasons against” have a negative association. Employees' values for openness to change are positively associated with “reasons for” and do not affect attitude and “reasons against”.

This is the first study exploring employees' attitude and adoption intention toward AI-based EEX chatbots using behavioral reasoning theory.

This study aims to investigate citizens' adoption intention towards meta-government (metaverse-based government) by proposing a dual-perspective technology acceptance model.

The validity of the proposed model was established by gathering and analysing 533 responses using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The study findings underscore the importance of perceptions of ease of use and usefulness in fostering the intention to adopt meta-government. However, perceived cyber risk and switching costs negatively impact these perceptions. On the contrary, herd behaviour and perceived immersion positively influence perceptions of ease of use and usefulness.

This study significantly contributes to the existing literature by offering valuable insights into the factors that influence citizens' adoption of meta-government. It introduces a novel perspective on the primary factors (both enablers and barriers) shaping citizens' adoption intention of meta-government. These insights serve as a foundation for scholars, governments and policymakers to develop effective strategies for promoting meta-government adoption.

This article reports a study of e‐business adoption among SMEs in the knowledge‐intensive service sector in three countries, the results of which contain a number of practical lessons and some much needed encouragement to laggards. The new spatial possibilities of internet‐based technologies provide a powerful route to innovative marketing strategies. Consequently, organisations of all sizes are finding it necessary to establish a web presence to increase their ability to survive in an increasingly dynamic and competitive business environment. Strategically, firms need to be creative and innovative in order to deal effectively with the e‐marketing opportunities the internet can deliver. The findings of a comparative study conducted in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand provide evidence of primitive and localised exploitation of the technology, a general lack of enthusiasm about its possibilities, and a perception that there are many barriers to successfully adding value at the customer interface. It is hoped that the somewhat pessimistic tone of the analysis will be taken as an opportunity to win competitive advantage in the knowledge‐intensive service sector, rather than a reason to postpone adoption of internet‐enabled technology.

This paper aims to conceptualize two dimensions of active innovation resistance (AIR): cognitive active resistance and emotional active resistance. A scale to measure this construct is proposed and tested.

Three studies were conducted, with sample sizes of 195, 190 and 186, to test the discriminant, convergent, nomological and criterion validity of the proposed AIRc+e scale and to analyze its explanatory and predictive power. Data were gathered using the online platform of a US-based research company.

The authors provide evidence that AIR is a two-dimension construct comprising a cognitive and an emotional dimension. AIR was modeled as a third-order construct, comprising two second-order constructs, cognitive active resistance and emotional active resistance. The impact of adding an emotion dimension to active resistance was therefore assessed, and the results indicated that the explanatory and predictive power of the AIR measure improved as expected.

Consumers are most likely to resist innovations launched onto the marketplace, either prior to or after evaluating them. A better understanding of the reasons behind their resistance to innovation, as well as of its mechanisms, is of great importance in decreasing an innovation’s chances of failure.

This study proposes that incorporating emotion into the assessment of AIR will result in a deeper understanding of adoption and rejection behavior, expanding the current knowledge of consumer behavior in innovation-related, new product adoption and decisions.