SMEs’ E-Commerce Adoption and Customer Responsiveness: A Test of Miles and Snow’s Typology

This study deepens understanding of the operations strategy of SMEs by examining the extent to which the strategic behavior (using Miles and Snow’s typology) of SMEs influences their e-commerce adoption and customer responsiveness. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design with data collected from 320 SMEs using questionnaires. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed in the data analysis. The study finds that SMEs are indifferent towards strategic behavioral options relative to Miles and Snow’s typology. Among the four strategic behavior options (Analysers, Prospectors, Defenders, and Reactors), the Analyser and Defender strategies were found to influence e-commerce adoption but not customer responsiveness. The prospector strategy was determined to influence both e-commerce adoption and customer responsiveness, whereas the reactor strategy was found not to impact either e-commerce adoption or customer responsiveness. The data gathered was from three selected service sub-sectors; hence, this affects the generalisability of the study for all service sector firms. This study suggests that service SMEs who intend to prioritize e-commerce and customer responsiveness must gravitate towards certain strategic behaviors more than others. The study contributes to the operations strategy literature on SMEs through the establishment of the strategic behavioral attributes of SMEs and how these behaviors influence their e-commerce adoption and customer responsiveness.