Factors Disrupting a Successful Implementation of E-Commerce in Iraq

Abstract

In the emerging global economy, e-commerce has increasingly become a necessary component of business strategy and a strong impulse for economic development.One of the most significant developments in business in recent years has been the increasing use of e-commerce. It has revolutionized many marketplaces and started opportunities never imagined before.Businesses that are not investigating the use of e- commerce are in a great danger of finding themselves being overtaken by others who are utilizing this technology.Iraq is characterized as one of the very few countries in the world that are still so far from the real use of inevitable services of e-commerce.Primarily, Iraq suffers from a number of features that work as barriers to an effective use of e-commerce in life such as the lack of awareness and understanding of the benefit of e-commerce, the lack of information and communication technologies (ICT) knowledge and skills, the unstable physical network infrastructure, security and other privacy-related problems in addition to problems related to costs for the adoption of a new technology.Senior leaders of the country must be aware of these emerging, and increasingly complex environments of e - commerce in order to compete on a global (or even on a regional) level.The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it seeks to investigate the hindrances to e-commerce adoption in Iraq. Second, it seeks to suggest some recommendations for successful applying of e-commerce. The work begins by examining e-commerce, its advantages, its challenges and market models of e-commerce. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: In the next section, a typical implementation of e-commerce is given, followed by the barriers to e-commerce adoption in developing countries and then barriers to its adoption in Iraq. Later, the conclusions and recommendations are presented and the paper is finalized with limitation of study and future work.