Intention to use uTradeHub in Korean Small and Medium Enterprises

Intention to use uTradeHub in Korean Small and Medium Enterprises

The Korean government and agencies concerned with trade have taken the lead in constructing an e-trade infrastructure and system since 1989. The uTradeHub, established as a platform of national e-trade in 2008, can help conduct all trade services-marketing, commercial affairs, foreign exchange, customs clearance, logistics, and settlement without any severance of business process--and can give greater help to small and medium enterprises(SMEs), which are in a relatively unfavorable state in making inroads into the world market. This study will 1) determine and introduce some factors influencing the use of uTradeHub through a survey of the literature on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Task Technology Fit (TIF), 2) develop a synthetic model considering special properties of the e-trade and conduct empirical analysis with it, and 3) provide trade firms with fundamental sources for the adoption and diffusion of new information technology, or uTradeHub. Political implications are suggested as follows. First, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use which were used as the variables of perceived characteristic factors showed different results from existing preceding studies because they didn t affect the intention to use of uTradeHub. These results show that these perceived characteristics factors are interpreted as the most fundamental prerequisite not as the decisive influencing factor which affects the intention to use uTradeHub because small and medium sized companies in Korea which are the subjects in this study have been sufficiently informed the usefulness and convenience well. Second, task adaptedness, support of CEO and intra-industry competition level among 5 variables of task characteristic factors significantly affect the intention to use uTradeHub, and therefore, intention to use uTradeHub could be identified to increase with higher intra-industry competition level and more supports from CEO who is the top management in the company. Third, the maturity of IT infrastructure and degree of education/training which are used as the variables of technology characteristic factors showed significant effects in the intention to use of uTradeHub respectively.