Levels of Business to Business E-Commerce Adoption and Competitive Advantage in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Comparison Study Between Egypt and the United States

Business-to-business e-commerce adoption has become increasingly important for small and medium-sized enterprises, allowing them to gain and sustain competitive advantage. Business-to-business adopted at different levels based on different resource endowments leads to competitive advantage being gained and sustained in proportion to that level of adoption. This study uses structural equation modeling to investigate how levels of business-to-business e-commerce adoption affects and contributes to gaining and sustaining competitive advantage in both U.S. and Egyptian manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises. The key finding is that small and medium-sized enterprises can achieve growth in market share and sales that helps them to improve their position in the global market through higher levels of business-to-business e-commerce adoption. Implications of the study, its limitations and directions for future research, are also discussed.