Factors Hindering the Adoption of E-Marketing among Cable Manufacturers in Zambia, Based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

The study was looking at establishing factors that are hindering the adoption of electronic marketing among cable manufacturers in Zambia based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study first looked at the major challenges faced by cable manufacturing companies in developing countries in the adoption of e-commerce in marketing their products. The study then proposed a model through a web-based e-commerce web portal that could be adopted in order to address the challenges identified in the study. The study was based on three cable manufacturing companies. The three companies had a total population of 115 respondents which was used in our study. These were from the various departments (Marketing, IT and Management) within their respective organizations. Both qualitative and quantitative data was col-lected from respondents using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was generated based on the TAM conceptual model. The response rate was 47% giving 51 questionnaire responses from the three companies. The Chi-Square test of independence was used to analyze the data using SPSS software. The results showed that age has an influence on the perceived usefulness of technology. The test had an observed P-Value of 0.024 against the significance level of 0.05.The results further showed that frequent use of the internet has an influence on perceived ease of use of technology. An observed P-Value of 0.014 was recorded against the significant level of 0.05. The Chi Square test again recorded an observed P-Value of 0.03 against the significance level of 0.05, revealing that Internet knowledge has an influence on perceived security of E-marketing. It was therefore, concluded that level of education companies in the study.


Introduction
stated that the Internet had given marketers a whole new way to create value for customers and built customer relationships. E-marketing by definition is the Electronic Marketing of products and services over the internet (Khan, n.d.). E-Marketing is sometimes called Digital Marketing. E-Marketing presents itself with benefits to business houses which include a low-cost way to reach billions of people worldwide as well as creating a better relationship with clients. Made popular in the 1990s, twenty years after its invention, E-marketing is spreading all over the world, with a volume estimated at USD 1500 billion in 2014, according to E-Marketer 1 (Ducass & Kwadjane, 2015). Despite such developments in Information Communication Technology (ICT), the Middle East and Africa still find themselves in a marginal position.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Africa remains the region with the lowest e-commerce penetration, with about 2.2% of global Business 2 Consumer e-commerce in 2013. Despite notable benefits technology presents, it has also come with its own challenges in adopting it. Switching to technological applications means that users have to abandon their conventional methods of doing things. This sometimes leads to resistance to adopting technology.

Literature Review
The revolution in information technology (IT) and communications has changed the way people conduct business today. This has been catalysed by the unprecedented progress in web technologies that lead to the development of many electronic applications (AvciYucel & Gulhahar, 2013). In recent years, an increased number of businesses have been using the Internet and other electronic media in conducting their marketing efforts, giving the chance for Electronic Marketing (as a new marketing phenomenon and philosophy) to grow in a very dramatic and dynamic way (El-Gohary, 2014). E-marketing has been defined in many ways by different scholars worldwide. EL-Gohary (2014) defined Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing) as a new philosophy and a modern business practice involved with the marketing of goods, services, information and ideas via the Internet and other electronic means. Onyeocha and Chinonso (2015)

Electronic Marketing Adoption Factors
Technology adoption is one of the mature areas of research in information systems (Sharma & Mishra, 2014 (Bandura, 1986). Here Bandura argues that human beings learn by observing others. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) is another one worth discussing. According to Ajzen (1991) the TPB is a theory designed to foresee and explain the human behaviour in specific contexts, for example, in information systems. The perceived behavioural control reflects the belief about the access to the resources and to the necessary opportunities to perform determined behaviour (Oliveira, 2006). As general rule, the stronger the intention to get involved in an behaviour, the more probable should be its performance.
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh, et al., 2003) is yet another theory of technology acceptance. The theory was es- Sharma & Mishra asserted that Technology Acceptance model was subjected to a test in Canada and findings revealed that that perceived usefulness is a stronger factor than perceived ease of use that drives technology adoption. This made TAM to become well-established as a robust, powerful, and parsimonious model for predicting user acceptance.

Conceptual Framework Development and Hypothesis
This research paper adopted Technology Acceptance Model in order to identify factors leading to the acceptance or rejection of E-Marketing. The conceptual model developed is summarized by Figure 2 below.

Hypothesis
In line with above, the following hypotheses were developed in this study; H1: Age has an influence on Perceived Usefulness.   (Davis, 1989).
H2: Frequency of internet use has an influence on Perceived Ease of Use. H3: Internet Knowledge has an influence on Perceived Security. H4: Level of Education has an influence on Perceived Security.

Research Design, Target Population, Sample Size Determination and Data Processing Procedure
The adopted research design was quantitative research. Precedence was also set by similar studies which include: Olotewo (2017) represented 44% response rate. The questionnaire was designed based on the conceptual model in Figure 2. The collection of data was done through primary sources. Primary data was obtained from respondents through self-administered questionnaires. The validity and reliability of the questionnaires were achieved by having well laid and clear questions and also by performing a pilot test before initial administering. Both descriptive and inference statistics were used to analyze the data. The Chi-Square test of independence was used to determine the significant relationship between two nominal (categorical) data in the hypothesis generated from Figure 2.

System Automation, Use Case Diagram and System Functionality
An E-Commerce system called ZAMEFA E-Commerce was developed. Open-source tools or programs were used to develop this system. The Zamefa E-Commerce system was developed using Wamp Server, Maria database, PHP scripting language and Apache Web Server which was used to host the E-commerce web application system. Figure

Research Results
Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents The figure ( Figure 6) shows that majority of the respondents were aged be- and (51 -60), respectively accounted for 2%, 33.3%, 23.5% and 5.9% of our sample.
This is also depicted in the bar chart ( Figure 10).

Results Based on the Perspective and Technology Acceptance Model
The Chi-Square test of independence is used to determine if there is a significant relationship between two nominal (categorical) variables. The frequency of each category for one nominal variable is compared across the categories of the second nominal variable. This research adopted Chi-Square as the base of analysis. Hypothesis testing was also carried out using P-Value approach. Dahiru (2008) defined P-Value as the probability under the assumption of no effect or no difference, of obtaining a result equal to or more extreme than what was actually observed. The P stands for probability and measures how likely it is that any observed difference between groups is due to chance. Since P is a probability, it can take any value between 0 and 1. The rule of thumb states that if the P-Value is less than the level of significance i.e. the standard 0.05, then it has strong evidence against the null hypothesis. In this research, the level of significance used was the tradition 0.05.

Age VS Perceived Usefulness • E-marketing and company productivity
As shown in the graph below, across the age groups the frequencies are higher for the "agree" and "strongly agree" categories. These results seem to suggest that age seems to have an influence on perceived usefulness of E-marketing with respect to perceived increase in company productivity.
Hypothesis 1: H0: Age has no influence on perceived usefulness of E-marketing (company productivity) H1: Age has an influence on perceived usefulness of E-marketing (company productivity) Pearson Chi-Square test statistic 23.452.718 (p-value = 0.024) Figure 9 depicts the relationship between Age and Perceived Usefulness. According to the Chi-Square test results in Table 1 below, the observed P-value (0.024) is less than the significance level of 0.05, hence the test is significant and we conclude there is evidence to suggest, Age has an influence on perceived usefulness of E-marketing. Figure 10 below is another depiction of age and perceived usefulness factor

Frequency of Internet Use VS Perceived Ease of Use
As indicated in Figure 11 below, the majority of respondents who spent at least three hours a day on the internet agreed that E-marketing would be User friendly. The interest at hand was to test if perception (of user friendliness) was influenced by how much time one spends on the internet daily. Statement of hypothesis 2: H0: Frequency of internet use has no influence on perceived ease of use of E-marketing H1: Frequency of internet use has influence on perceived ease of use of E-marketing.
Conclusion: According to the Chi-Square test result shown in Table 3 below, the observed P-value (0.014) is less than the significance level of 0.05, hence the test is significant and we reject the null hypothesis and conclude there is evidence to suggest, Frequency of internet use has influence on perceived ease of use of E-marketing.

Internet Knowledge VS Perceived Security
The relationship between respondents' knowledge of the internet and the perceived security of E-marketing is Cleary indicated in Figure 12 below. The figure shows that, the responses were varied with a vast majority having a "neutral" view. Thus we subjected this information to a Chi square test of independence in order to establish if perception (of security) is influenced by how much knowledge one has of the internet. Statement of hypothesis 3: H0: internet knowledge has no influence on perceived security of E-marketing H1: internet knowledge has an influence on perceived security of E-marketing Conclusion: According to the Chi-Square test indicated in Table 4 below, the observed P-value (0.032) is less than the significance level of 0.05, hence the test is significant and we reject the null hypothesis and conclude there is evidence to suggest, internet knowledge has an influence on perceived security of E-marketing. Figure 13 below shows education background versus perceived security of E-marketing. As in the previous case, the results are varied across the different education categories with a vast majority having a "neutral" view. This relationship is subjected to the test below. Statement of hypothesis 4: H0: education has no influence on perceived security of E-marketing. H1: education has an influence on perceived security of E-marketing.     Conclusion: According to the Chi-Square test highlighted in Table 5 above, the observed P-value (0.974) is greater than the significance level of 0.05, hence the test is insignificant and we fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude, education has no influence on perceived security of E-marketing.

Conclusion
The research questions to be answered were: (i) What are the factors hindering the adoption of an E-Marketing among cable manufacturing companies in Zambia?
(ii) How can an E-Marketing Model Framework and prototype be developed in order to address these challenges in (i)?
In order to answer the "What" question, Chi-Square test of independence was used to determine if there was a significant relationship between two nominal (categorical) variables. Hypothesis testing was also carried out using P-Value In order to address the "How" question raised in the preamble, an E-Marketing system called Zamefa E-Commerce was developed in this research which Cable manufacturing companies could adopt to enhance their competitive advantage.
This could help them reach their target markets irrespective of the regional and international boundaries. The Zamefa E-Commerce system was developed using open source tools or programs. An Open source tool or program is one which can be easily accessed on the internet by anyone and at no cost. The system was developed with Wamp Server, a software which allows the creation of a data base where key data and information could be kept. PHP software was also used to create a website and other web applications. Apache Web Server was utilized to allow hosting of one or more websites on the system.
The developed system works in such a way that it allows the manufacturing companies to interact with the prospective client by providing an interface where they can create their own accounts, have access to the product catalogue and select the preferred products to buy. Payments can also be made except it requires to have a link with agents that handle such i.e. pay pal. Unfortunately, the system developed does not go that far, but it can be improved further by another researcher. Furthermore, other unlimited facilities can be accessed on the Zamefa E-Commerce system such as real time conversation with clients, provisions where clients can send in enquiries, concerns, suggestions and other issues which could be directed straight to that company's help desk for immediate attention. Lastly, the Zamefa E-Commerce system developed can also allow a company to advertise its products to the target customers. The researcher therefore, argues that Zamefa E-Commerce is the most feasible system which can help cable manufacturing companies achieve their sales targets as they adopt E-Marketing. It is user friendly and leaves room for further development.

Recommendations
In order to encourage acceptance of technology, the research recommended that the users be adequately trained to gain more knowledge and exposure. Training could involve arranging seminars on the benefits and use of Technology, i.e. various application packages. It was observed that respondents who spent more time on their computers were more receptive to technology. Therefore, training could help them become familiar with technology and foster familiarization, which may ultimately lead to acceptance. Additionally, cable manufacturing companies should consider adopting an E-Marketing system like the one devel-

Limitations and Future Research
Just like many others, this research had limitations too. In this study, only three cable manufacturers were considered yet there are other cables manufacturers that own manufacturing facilities outside Zambia but sell them to the Zambian market. Future researchers should consider taking account of these companies and compare results.
Lastly, future researchers should consider undertaking a study that explains how the identified factors in this study that hinder the adoption of E-Marketing really hinder it. This research only identified the factors but did not go a step further to explain "HOW" they hinder technology acceptance.