Business Owners'/Managers' Perceptions Of The Internet: An Australian Perspective

This paper details an Australian study, conducted by the Small Business Research Unit at Victoria University of Technology, of Internet usage by small business. The objectives of this study were to: explore the expectations of small businesses setting up webpages on the Internet; analyse the commercial impact of the Internet; determine any benefits from using the Internet; and to ascertain any problems associated with using the Internet. The methodology involved a questionnaire distributed either via electronic mail or the World Wide Web.The main findings indicated that the average number of Internet sales inquiries per month appeared low compared to other countries such as the UK and USA. The majority of businesses received less than 20 sales inquiries per month via the Internet and only half of the respondent businesses indicated that sales had increased as a direct result of being on the Internet. Despite this, there existed optimism regarding business use of the Internet with the majority of business owners/managers claiming that the benefits of being on the Internet outweighed the costs, and that their expectations were met in using the Internet. Businesses involved in the computing industry had the highest level of optimism.