Adoption and use of extranet systems have been widespread in developed countries, but these trends are similar in developing countries as well. The approach for this research was a quantitative and descriptive study to serve the purpose of measuring and understanding the underlying reasons for the adoption and use of the Engen extranet.
Motivation for the Study .1 Business Need
Academic Need
The previous studies on the adoption and use of extranets mainly reflect the developed countries in terms of economy and information technology (Laurence & Tar 2010). The research will focus on the adoption and use of the extranet in South Africa, as a country that is still developing in the areas of information technology and the general economy.
Background to Engen Petroleum Limited
Is the market leader in South Africa and several other countries in fuel and convenience; An extensive logistics infrastructure of 66 depots; 7 connections; and aviation facilities at 22 airports in South Africa.
Focus of the Study
Pembani Group (Pty) Ltd is a black-owned and operated South African company focused on the wider energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Engen Petroleum Limited is focused on both the production and marketing of petroleum products.
Problem Statement of the Study
The Engen Chemicals business unit of Engen Petroleum Limited rolled out the extranet to its key customers in 2008, however, adoption and use of the extranet has been weak and below expectations. What are the reasons for Engen Petroleum's customers' poorer-than-expected adoption of the extranet?
Objectives
Limitations of the Study
The special focus of Chapter 2 will be on models used to measure user acceptance of technologies.
Summary
CHAPTER TWO
Introduction
- Internet Brief History
- World Wide Web
The Internet has evolved over the last 50 years (Baltzan 2009) according to the stages of evolution shown in Figure 2.2. According to Internet World Stats, as of June 2012, fourteen percent of the South African population used the Internet.
Electronic Commerce
- Benefits of Electronic Commerce
- Models of Electronic Commerce
Service perspective: electronic commerce is the means by which companies, customers and management reduce service costs while improving the quality of customer service. Baltzan (2009) defined an electronic commerce model as planned activities in organizations to create, deliver and generate revenue over the Internet.
Business to Business Electronic Commerce
C2B C2C Business
Consumer
Consumer Business
- Business to Business Electronic Commerce Trends
- Business to Business Electronic Commerce in Developing Countries
- Business to Business Electronic Commerce in South Africa
- Extranet
- What is an Extranet?
- Business applications of the extranet
There is relatively slow adoption of B2B electronic commerce among many buyers in the two sectors examined. According to Paes (2002), there is a low penetration and acceptance of electronic commerce in South African-based companies.
Business Applications Of Extranet
- Benefits of using extranet
- Models of extranet adoption
- Previous Studies on Reasons for Rejection of the Extranet
- Extranet at Engen Petroleum Limited
Previous studies have shown that the most common use of the extranet is based on the sharing of large amounts of data between the company and its partners (electronic data exchange), e.g. Kippenberger (2000), Rahman (2007), Kippenberger (2000) and other authors have researched the benefits of the extranet; their results have many common features. Anandarajan et al., (1998) stated that the benefits of using the extranet can be classified into operational, tactical and strategic categories.
From a strategic perspective, Rahman (2007) stated that implementing the extranet has the potential to contribute to organizational differentiation and cost management strategies. From a tactical perspective, Anandarajan et al., (1998), the extranet offers important yet intangible marketing benefits such as stakeholder collaboration and business partnerships. When users perceive the extranet as easy to use, they may have a positive attitude towards the usability of the extranet system; and.
As with most other companies, Engen Petroleum Limited's CRM strategy was revamped to take advantage of the extranet (Paes 2002). Various models are available that can assess the adoption and success of an extranet; however, the most popular models are TAM and TTF.
CHAPTER THREE
Research Purpose
The choice of an approach to a research study is made based on the knowledge level of the research subject, or subject in general (Bougie & Sekaran 2009). This means that the basic concepts of the extranet, B2B electronic commerce are well known (Wing, 2004). Many of the previous studies, of the hypothesis type, attempt to explain the models of the extranet and B2B electronic commerce adoption (Ahmad, Madarsha, Zainuddin, Ismail & Nordin 2010).
The choice of a descriptive study depends on finding the reasons for the displayed behavior so that future interventions can be implemented that could change this behavior. The deductive method begins with a general theory, which is then used to focus the qualitative research approach. The motivation for this research was the observation of underutilization of the extranet by Engen customers.
This observation was confirmed by a preliminary survey conducted in 2012, showing non-use of the extranet tool among Engen customers. Therefore, the approach for this study is inductive in nature, based on real observation and a preliminary study on the issue of extranet adoption and use by Engen customers.
Sampling Process
- Population and Sample Frame
- Data Collection Method
- Data-Collection Steps
- Questionnaire Design
In probability sampling, elements of the population have a known non-zero chance of being selected as study subjects (Fraser 2007). This reduced the total number of accounts that could be considered the active population to 56. It is effective in reaching participants located in all provinces of the country (Fraser 2007).
Questionpro was used to create online surveys, collect responses and perform preliminary data analysis. For this study, these possible reasons were adapted and form the basis of a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. An important part of the analysis was to examine the way in which it is possible to ensure that the measures developed are relatively good or the “goodness of the measures” (Bougie & Sekaran 2009).
The analysis includes a representation of the demographics of the population through relevant distribution frequencies and percentages. The Pearson coefficient was used to assess the strength of the association between several variables of interest in the data.
Summary
Mcgrane and Smailes, (2000) defined correlation as a mathematical method used to determine the strength of an association between two variables. The commonly used correlation technique for interval and ratio scale variables was originated by Karl Pearson, therefore it is called the Pearson coefficient, on the other hand when the variables are measured on an ordinal scale, the Spearman rank correlation (also known as Spearman's Rho) ) is used (Kruger et al., 2009). For ordinal scales, the test of difference between distributions if the samples are independent, the Mann-Whitney u-test is used and for three or more independent samples, the Kruskal-Wallis test is used (Kruger et al., 2009).
Chapter Four
- Reliability and Validity
- Reliability
- Validity
- Descriptive Statistics
- Perceived Ease Of Use
- Perceived Usefulness of Engen Extranet tool
- Task Technology Fit
- Reasons For Rejection of Engen Extranet
- Inferential Statistics
- Summary
The results of the Mann-Whitney test reflected that only 'Intention to use the Engen Extranet tool' was answered significantly differently by male and female participants. 56% of participants reported that they could access the Engen extranet whenever they needed to use it, compared to 6% of participants who disagreed on that point. A total of 39% of participants agreed, but 38% were neutral, compared to 13% who disagreed.
About TTF 1 ('Engen extranet provides and maintains sufficiently detailed product information'), 41% of participants agreed, compared to 2% who disagreed. On TTF 2 ('Engen extranet is structured and presented in a readable and understandable way'), 43% of participants agreed, compared to 6% who disagreed. Regarding TTF 3 ('the functionality of the Engen extranet is what I need to perform my tasks'), 37% of participants agreed, compared to 11% who disagreed.
Regarding TTF 4 ('the features on the Engen extranet site are suitable for my business needs'), 43% of participants agreed compared to 4% who disagreed. Although the results showed a positive correlation, the weak TTF explains the observation of low usage of the Engen extranet.
CHAPTER FIVE
- Actual Utilisation
- Perceived Ease of Use
- Perceived Usefulness
- Task Technology Fit
- Possible reasons for extranet non-/low utilisation
- Summary
- Conclusion
- Recommendations
- Limitations of the Study
- Summary
The overall survey results showed a negatively perceived task-technology fit of the Engen extranet and the participants' tasks. The results of the survey confirmed low utilization of the Engen extranet, as was the case with the survey conducted in 2012. The main findings from the survey were that the age and gender of the participants had an impact on the adoption of the Engen extranet.
With the positive intention to use and positive perceived usefulness, it was concluded that the users of the Engen extranet have a positive attitude towards the technology. Since the survey showed that the Engen extranet is perceived positively, together with the fact that participants also use the Engen extranet for various purposes (besides product ordering). To ensure stricter security measures of the Engen extranet tool, the user password expires every other month.
In order to obtain better results, it is recommended that future studies focus only on non-extranet users. This means that the results of the study cannot be generalized to the entire population of Engen customers.
Appendix A : Informed Consent Letter
I Mduduzi Khanyile am an MBA student, at the University of KwaZulu Natal Graduate School of Business. You are invited to participate in a research project entitled: A Study of Business-to-Business Extranet Use at Engen Petroleum Ltd. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the adoption and use of the Engen extranet by Engen customers.
Your participation will help us understand adoption trends, reasons for adoption or non-adoption of the Engen extranet. You can refuse to participate or withdraw from the project at any time without negative consequences. Start your survey now by clicking the Continue button below.
Appendix B: Research Instrument sent to participants
Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree 12.It is easy to learn how to use extranet. In my opinion it would be a good idea to use the Engen extranet to replace the . 22.The functionality of the Engen extranet is what I need to perform my tasks.
Appendix C: Letter from the Statistician
Appendix D: Letter from the Language Editor
Appendix E: Ethical Clearance Approval
