Abstract:
This study was undertaken to determine the extent of utilization of e-commerce by Soft Drink Manufacturing Companies in Anambra and Enugu States of Nigeria. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a survey research design .Six components of e-commerce namely: transaction server, Internet communication line, database and database server, web server, router and Client or workstation were studied. The population for the study was comprised of 296 employees of the Soft Drink Manufacturing Companies from the two States. No sample was taken due to the manageable size of the population. A structured 82- item questionnaire with five response categories on the degree of utilization was used as instrument for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability method which yielded .50, .82, .76, .59, .78 and .82 for the six clusters respectively while the overall reliability coefficient of the instrument was .71. Copies of the questionnaires returned were 280 constituting 95 percent of the targeted population. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The six null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistic as they involved more than two groups in each case at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed that while router component of e-commerce was moderately utilized, all the other components of e-commerce were found to be utilized at low extent and very low extent leaving a far reaching implications for marketing education and Soft Drink Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria. The result of the null hypotheses showed that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of the opinions of Marketing Managers, Sales Managers, IT Managers, Accounts Managers and Sales Representatives on the extent of utilization of Web Server and Client or Workstation with respect to their years of experience in marketing of the organization’s products and their educational qualifications. There was however, significant differences in the mean ratings of the opinions of Marketing Managers, Sales Managers, IT Managers, Accounts Managers and Sales Representatives on the extent of utilization of Transaction Server, Internet Communication Line, Database and Database Server and Router components of e-commerce. It was recommended among others that educational institutions offering marketing education should urgently review their curriculum contents to fall in line with current global practices. This will help Lecturers to teach properly and the graduates to acquire the right knowledge and skills.
