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E-commerce is considered to provide substantial benefits to business, including SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), largely via improved efficiencies and raised revenue, as well as the creation of opportunities for new businesses. It enables new ways of working to emerge as organisations face the future and embrace the notion of the 'new economy'. A range of factors both internal and external to SMEs have been cited as the main reasons for their reluctance to adopt e-commerce. These will be briefly detailed in this paper. These barriers need to be addressed before SMEs become active participants in ecommerce. A number of initiatives have been introduced in an attempt to bring this about, largely sponsored by government as it actively strives to increase awareness and facilitate the adoption of e-commerce. A clear example of this is seen in investments in the promotion of e-commerce in Australia, for example, via the Networking the Nation project, and the extensive provision of infrastructure by Telstra Country Wide throughout regional Australia. This paper serves to examine the position of SMEs in relation to e-commerce in an exploratory manner by way of three case studies involving SMEs located in a regional area in Queensland, Hervey Bay. The paper will identify the factors leading to their adoption of e-commerce and its impact on each business. It is acknowledged that external factors with respect to the macro-environment, especially in terms of the Hervey Bay region, as well as availability of information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure need to be addressed, and these will be dealt with in this paper.
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