Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to understand a small e-support firm’s response to the
local e-readiness and the global e-business environment in a developing context.
E-Support firms provide Web development and consultancy services to user organizations,
assisting them in their uptake and maintenance of their Internet applications.
Within the e-readiness research area, little is known about e-support firms,
particularly in connection with their interaction with their local and the global
e-business environment. As yet the emphasis on e-readiness studies has been at the
national level. Nevertheless, the e-support sector is very significant in the successful
adoption and diffusion of the Internet and related applications in any economy. It is
thus important to understand how such firms relate to their e-business environments.That said, this study draws on the interpretive case study of a small e-support firm
in Ghana, a developing context, to investigate the firm’s response to the e-readiness
level of the local and the global e-business environment. Findings show that the
firm could employ resources from the global environment to address most of the
infrastructural challenges posed by a relatively poor local e-readiness context.
However, its attempt to transfer advanced e-business technologies from the global
e-business environment to the local e-business context did not succeed. This chapter
offers implications for practice and research concerning the notion of reconciling
local and global e-business environments in the small e-support sector.