An experimental inquiry is presented in this paper into the role of the management of small businesses in the adoption of Internet commerce solutions, and into whether an active management role in e-commerce adoption produces greater benefit to the company. Recognizing that it is impossible to get the hard financial information that would give a reasonably definitive answer to those questions, the author conducted a survey focused on seven areas that could provide surrogate answers with some degree of confidence.

High-level managers were asked for their assessment on a five-point scale of the extent to which their firms Internet commerce experience had made them more competitive, improved business performance, improved supplier/customer relationships, and provided benefits that would persist over time. The answers were sorted according to whether management had or had not been active in the following seven areas:

This was an experiment, and the responses were not statistically significant, but, among the respondents, it was clear that only for firms where management was active in pushing for Internet connectivity, setting up new business initiatives, or convincing firms in the supply chain to use Internet commerce for mutual benefit was there a differential benefit over firms where management was not active. The author also ventures tentative conclusions as to why no differential was apparent in other areas.