Enhancing Small and Medium Enterprises E-readiness for Digital Tunisia

Aymen Fterich is a graduate of the Higher Institute of Management, Tunis in Business Informatics. He has taught in different Tunisian universities and is right now teaching as an IT technologist in Institute of Higher Technological Studies of Gabes, Tunisia. His specific areas of expertise include computer systems and business intelligence.

This research is an enquiry to identify the level of e-business adoption and use among the small and medium sized companies (SMEs) in Tunisia and to provide valuable insights into the main barriers to the adoption and usage of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The research also aims to detect the available support to promote the e-readiness of the SMEs sector for the emerging digital economy in Tunisia. The study of these different dimensions related to e-business resulted in offering a holistic approach of the e-transformation process among the Tunisian firms. An e-adoption model was put forward to serve as analytical tool in the data analysis. The micro analysis conducted in this research showed that the current level of e-business adoption is still considered limited in comparison with the advantages offered by the ICTs, despite that a majority of the surveyed enterprises have reported positive perceptions about their extent of ICTs usage and the benefits obtained from the adoption of these digital technologies in their businesses.