THE ACCEPTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE E-COMMERCE BY SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES: A CASE OF VIETNAM

. E-commerce has been adopted by businesses and consumers in Vietnam for consumption activities, profit-seeking, buying and selling goods, conducting business, competing, and expanding markets. Businesses have chosen e-commerce due to its benefits, the trend of applying digital technology, and the ongoing modern business environment. Many studies have identified factors influencing the acceptance of e-commerce, but only some studies have approached sustainable e-commerce. Developing sustainable e-commerce requires businesses to invest more money and technology in business processes, which consumers may only sometimes accept. This article applies the TOE framework to identify factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce by measuring the importance coefficient of these factors. The research results reflect changes in the factors affecting the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce. The study also provides recommendations for stakeholders involved in developing sustainable e-commerce.


Introduction
Implementing new technologies in practice always faces two extremes: acceptance-opposition, readiness to embrace hesitation and concern, and agreement-denial.Like the story that unfolded centuries ago when machinery was introduced into production, many workers feared losing their jobs, threatening their livelihoods and incomes.E-commerce has also been seen as a business sector utilizing new technology, accepted by businesses and consumers for nearly three decades.Alongside the benefits of e-commerce, its harms and obstacles also coexist.However, addressing the harms and obstacles of e-commerce has gradually been resolved, such as the issue of online fraud, information risks, disclosure of personal financial secrets, and sale of counterfeit/fake goods online.While e-commerce still faces certain obstacles, humanity has witnessed the rapid development of this commercial form.E-commerce has changed how people do business, shop, trade, distribute goods and services, and distribute benefits among stakeholders in commodity value chains, supply chains, and national and global consumption chains.
From a scientific perspective, e-commerce also attracts many researchers in economics, business, commerce, and consumer behaviour to clarify the existing issues in the e-commerce business, seeking optimal solutions in implementing electronic business (Ramdansyah & Taufik, 2017;Ziaran et al., 2021;Fedorko et al., 2021;Сherednichenko et al., 2023).Research on the acceptance of e-commerce by businesses has answered many questions, elucidating the motivations and reasons why businesses accept e-commerce with widely used models such as TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) and TOE (Technology-Organization-Environment framework) over the past thirty years.
The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a model that conceptualizes how users accept and use technology.Behavioural intention (BI) is a factor that drives people to use technology, and BI is influenced by attitude (A), which is the general impression of the technology.The model suggests that when users are introduced to a new technology, several factors influence their decision about how and when they will use it, namely perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU).Davis (1989) defines: "PU is the degree to which a person believes that using a specific system will enhance their job performance" and "PEOU is the degree to which a person believes that using a specific system will not require much effort."In other words, users will choose technology only when perceived as valuable and easy to use.In addition to PU and PEOU, the influence of external social factors on attitude and intention to use technology is also essential.In the context of e-commerce, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) developed by Venkatesh et al. (2003) is constructed to explain users' intention to use information systems and subsequent usage behaviour.UTAUT posits that there are four main factors, of which three factors: 1) expected performance, 2) effort expectancy, 3) social influence directly determines intention and usage behaviour, and the fourth factor, facilitating conditions, directly influences user behaviour.
The TOE model, i.e.Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, is a theoretical framework that explains the adoption of technology within organizations and describes how the process of technology innovation adoption and implementation is influenced by the technological context, organizational context, and environmental context as proposed by Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990).The TOE focuses on broader macrolevel factors (meaning the technological infrastructure of the organization adopting the new technology, internal aspects of the organization, and external environmental factors) rather than the detailed behaviours of individuals within each organization.
Therefore, when researching the acceptance of new technology, such as accepting electronic payments, accepting the use of social networks, accepting ERP usage, accepting mobile commerce, e-commerce, etc., at the individual or consumer level, models such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) should be applied.Conversely, TOE is more appropriate for organizational technology acceptance studies and is less or rarely used in individual consumer technology acceptance research.The advantage of TOE is that it divides the factors influencing the acceptance of technology applications by organizations into three groups, including a group of technology measures -T, and two other groups: internal factors related to the organization -O, and external factors related to the environment -E.TOE only consists of three groups of framing factors.In contrast, the component factors group can vary freely.The disadvantage is that the division of factors is too general; sometimes, a specific factor can belong to either the T or O group, for example, the technological infrastructure of the organization, or the factor of IT human resources could fall into all three groups T, O, E. However, due to the clear division of the three groups of factors in each study, researchers have overcome this by establishing component factors and assigning them to a specific factor group.Therefore, when researching the acceptance of new technology, such as accepting electronic payments, accepting the use of social networks, accepting ERP usage, accepting mobile commerce, e-commerce, etc., at the individual or consumer level, models such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) should be applied.Conversely, TOE is more appropriate for organizational technology acceptance studies and is less or rarely used in individual consumer technology acceptance research.The advantage of TOE is that it divides the factors influencing the acceptance of technology applications by organizations into three groups, including a group of technology measures -T, and two other groups: internal factors related to the organization -O, and external factors related to the environment -E.TOE only consists of three groups of framing factors.In contrast, the component factors group can vary freely.The disadvantage is that the division of factors is too general; sometimes, a specific factor can belong to either the T or O group, for example, the technological infrastructure of the organization, or the factor of IT human resources could fall into all three groups T, O, E. However, due to the clear division of the three groups of factors in each study, researchers have overcome this by establishing component factors and assigning them to a specific factor group.

Viewpoints on Sustainable E-commerce
How does the concept of sustainable e-commerce differ from that of regular e-commerce?Sustainable ecommerce is a new topic that has attracted many researchers because the understanding, perspectives, and conditions for sustainable e-commerce development vary significantly among international organizations, countries, and e-commerce businesses.In Vietnam, the perspective on sustainable e-commerce is addressed in the Sustainable E-commerce Development Report: Driving Forces for the Digital Economy in 2023, jointly published by VCCI, Lazada, and a group of industry experts.The report does not define sustainable e-commerce but establishes the contents of sustainable e-commerce development across six key aspects: sustainability in long-term investment in infrastructure, technology, logistics, and human resources; sustainability in business to create more value for all parties by building a community with values shared by partners, businesses, and consumers; sustainability in technology, reflecting businesses' priority investment in technologies that support platform openness; sustainability in customer experience, aiming to expand connections with diverse payment partners and methods; and social sustainability: implementing the strategy of universalizing e-commerce across all sectors and regions nationwide.Thus, the perspective on sustainable e-commerce development in this report is seen from the standpoint of e-commerce businesses, specifically, those continuing to invest in e-commerce to generate profits for the business, benefits for customers and society, and long-term development in the future.From the sustainable development perspective of the United Nations, which is to "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," sustainable e-commerce development has been approached consistently with the viewpoint of the United Nations by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) of the European Parliament, as well as numerous authors.Table 1 summarizes the viewpoints on sustainable e-commerce from current studies.The three aspects of sustainable e-commerce are economic sustainability, reflecting the quality of electronic business activities; environmental sustainability, reflecting a company's impact on the environment; and social sustainability, reflecting the level of interaction with employees, customers, etc. 10 Laudon & Traver, 2014 The development of sustainable e-commerce is associated with the responsibility of all stakeholders to protect the environment.

Source: Author
As shown in Table 1, the viewpoint on sustainable e-commerce is that e-commerce development is tied to environmental protection, benefits all parties and generations, and is the responsibility of stakeholders in the present.Thus, sustainable e-commerce is the application of e-commerce to meet the needs of individuals and organizations but requires balancing the interests of all parties and future generations, with environmental protection at its core.This viewpoint aligns with the United Nations perspective on sustainable development since 1987, contextualized within e-commerce.It demands responsibility from all relevant parties, from manufacturers, distributors, carriers, and consumers, for sustainable e-commerce development.In Rash's (2021) study, the author drew upon the research of Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) and the research models of Rogers (1983) on the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory when utilizing variables RA and C as two components of the T factor.In the O factor, the author built upon Abed's (2020) study on the acceptance of social commerce using the TOE framework with the variable MS and drew from Alraja et al. (2020) with the variable TR.In the E factor, the variables GS were derived from Al Zoubi and Al Zoubi (2018) and the variable CP from Rahayu and Day's (2015) research.

Awareness
In Abed's (2020) study on the acceptance of mobile commerce using the TOE framework by small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia, six factors were also proposed, including two variables belonging to the T factor, namely RA similar to Rash's (2021) study, and information security; two variables belonging to the O factor, MS similar to Rash's (2021) study, and organizational readiness; and two variables belonging to the E factor, CP which has been adopted by Rash (2021), and customer benefits.
In Oláh et al. ( 2019) study on sustainable e-commerce, the group of authors constructed a model with three independent variables: environmental dimension, economic dimension, and social dimension, and the dependent variable was sustainable e-commerce development.The study's main purpose was to investigate how integrating the three dimensions/aspects of e-commerce could make e-commerce more sustainable by accepting trade-offs that could bring maximum benefits to retailers, consumers, and the environment.
The research on the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce by Vietnamese businesses employing the TOE framework and drawing on insights from the studies of Abed (2020), Rash (2021), and Oláh et al. ( 2019) with adjustments to the constituent variables of the 3 TOE factors T, O, E, specifically: The T factor group: The research inherits from the studies of Abed (2020) and Rash (2021), using the variable RA, that when businesses perceive the benefits of sustainable e-commerce, they will accept it.The organisational technological capability variable is used with the variable compatibility -C in Rash's (2021) study and the information security variable in Abed's (2020) study.The proposed hypotheses are: H1: Relative advantage (RA) positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.H2: The organisation's technological capability (TR) positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable ecommerce.
Note that the flexibility of TOE allows the research group to adjust the TR variable from the O group to the T group, as it is appropriate because the organisation's technological capability also belongs to the technology factor.
The O factor group draws from the research of Abed (2020) and Rash (2021), using the variables MS and organizational readiness replaced by the variable financial capability of the organization -a variable measuring the economic dimension in Oláh et al. ( 2019

Research Methodology
To test the statistical significance of the seven hypotheses, data were collected from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam.The number of enterprises collected after excluding those with no application of e-commerce totalled 285, of which 80% had opened online stores electronic trading platforms for online sales, 48% had e-commerce websites, and 95% used social media pages to showcase goods or sell online.Surveys were sent to these enterprises to collect information on the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.Questions regarding the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce development options were measured using a 5point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, to 5 = strongly agree).Table 3 summarizes the data obtained from the survey on SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce in Vietnam (SeCom).With a survey sample of 285 questionnaires comprising general information about the businesses, including 23 questions elucidating the factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce and 3 questions measuring the dimensions of sustainable e-commerce, reliability and representativeness in elucidating the sustainable e-commerce (S-ecom) application decision have been achieved.All questions used scales in factor analysis using EFA, and the sample size was determined to be at least n = 5*m, where m is the number of questions (Roger, 2006).

Data Analysis
The study utilized SPSS 22 software to analyze and process the data.

Results of Testing the Reliability of Factor Scales
To evaluate the reliability of the scales in the research model, the authors used the composite reliability coefficient with a threshold greater than 0.6 for confirmatory studies and the composite correlation coefficient of observed variables greater than 0.3.All observed variables met the requirements (see Table 4).

Exploratory Factor Analysis Results
The research team employed the exploratory factor analysis technique to reduce the 24 independent variables in the research model.Appropriate criteria for exploratory factor analysis include a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient > 0.5, variance explained greater than 50%, and factor loading coefficients > 0.5.The principal component analysis method with varimax rotation was used.
The results of the exploratory factor analysis of independent variables: the KMO coefficient of the factors is 0.748 > 0.5, Bartlett's test is statistically significant (Sig < 0.05), Eigenvalue > 1, the total variance explained from 7 out of 24 variables is 81.29% > 50%, indicating that the EFA model is appropriate (see table 5 and table  6).Similarly, for the EFA analysis of dependent variables, there are Tables 7 and 8. .000 Source: SPSS Data Analysis Results KMO = 0.650 > 0.5, indicating that the factor analysis is appropriate.Sig < 0.05 demonstrates that the observed variables are correlated with each other.The results of the rotated factor matrix analysis reveal 1 factor extracted from the observed variables, with an explained variance of 63.559% and an Eigenvalue of 1.907 > 1. (see Table 7, 8)

Pearson Correlation Test
The Pearson correlation test is used to examine the linear correlation between independent and dependent variables and identify multicollinearity issues early when independent variables are strongly correlated.The Pearson correlation coefficient closer to 1 indicates a stronger correlation, closer to 0 indicates a weaker correlation, and if sig < 0.05, then there is a correlation; if sig > 0.05, then there is no correlation (refer to Table 9).The results from Table 9 indicate that the Sig value for the variable "Technological Readiness of the Organization" (tr = 0.103) is greater than 0.05.Therefore, there are only 6 independent variables that have a linear correlation with the dependent variable 'Acceptance of Sustainable e-Commerce (Secom)'.

Multiple Linear Regression Analysis
The independent variables were entered into the model using the Enter method.The model's appropriateness was evaluated through R-square, hypothesis testing of the overall model significance using F-test, and the significance of the regression coefficients using the t-value (refer to Tables 10 and 11).R-squared = 0.681 = 68.1%,which means that 6 independent variables account for 68.1% of the variance in the dependent variable, while the remaining 31.9% is attributed to factors outside the model and random error.The Durbin-Watson value is 1.672, falling within the range of 1.5 to 2.5, indicating no violation of the first-order autocorrelation assumption (Qiao, 2011).

Coefficients Table and Test for Multicollinearity
The multiple linear regression analysis with 6 independent variables using the Enter method yielded results in Table 12.If the Sig value is greater than 0.05, the independent variable is not significant.In Table 12, the variable "cp" has Sig > 0.05 and needs to be removed to continue the analysis for Table 13.The regression equation is standardized as follows: Secom = 0.159ra + 0.350fc + 0.064ms + 0.081cb + 0.372eg Thus, there are five component variables composing three factor groups, with one variable in group T (nêu tên? -ND), two variables (ms and fc) in group O, and two variables (cb and eg) in group E. Two out of seven hypotheses were rejected through data analysis, namely the Technological Readiness of the Organization (tr) and Competitive Pressure (cp).The equation above reflects that five hypotheses are accepted across all three factor groups T, O, and E, influencing the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.Notably, the financial capability within factor O and Government Support for Sustainable e-Commerce Development within factor E have the highest impact coefficients on SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.Management support and customer benefits have relatively low impact coefficients on SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.

Discussion and Recommendations
The TOE framework can be applied to study the factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.Previous studies by Abed (2020)  sustainability requirements in economics, environment, and society, requiring businesses to have good financial resources and be proactive in the highly competitive e-commerce market.Government regulations on sustainable e-commerce businesses have the most substantial impact on SMEs' acceptance of sustainable ecommerce because only governments with mandatory rules and supportive policies can create an effect on thousands of companies participating in various stages of e-commerce, building sustainable e-commerce value chains.
Overall, the findings suggest that businesses should align with government policies and regulations while ensuring financial stability to adopt sustainable e-commerce practices effectively.
Based on the research findings, it is evident that governments need to swiftly develop management policies and support mechanisms for businesses to implement sustainable e-commerce.Vietnam's government and relevant authorities should establish policies and guidelines to guide enterprises in conducting sustainable e-commerce shortly.
Businesses wishing to implement sustainable e-commerce quickly need to prepare well in terms of financial capability.Alongside assessing the business advantages of e-commerce in their industry, leaders of the enterprise need to have a roadmap for implementing sustainable e-commerce.This aligns with international companies like DHL and Amazon, which already have established brands, strong financial capabilities, and plans for implementing sustainable e-commerce (DHL, 2021).

Conclusion and Future Research Directions
In a study on sustainable e-commerce, Ingaldi and Ulewicz (2019) argued that companies implementing sustainable e-commerce while meeting customer expectations face a significant challenge due to increased product and service costs.In this study, five factors influencing SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce were identified, with the customer benefits factor, although not pivotal, being one of them.The research results reflect that businesses can implement sustainable e-commerce; however, this depends on internal and external factors.
Limitations of the study include a limited scale of business involvement and a lack of expert opinions on the factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.The research primarily relied on drawing from existing models published worldwide, which may only partially be suitable for the Vietnamese environment.
The following research direction should address this study's limitations and examine the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce among Vietnamese consumers.
of enterprises' sustainable e-commerce development: what benefits and challenges are there in accepting sustainable e-commerce?According to Rash's (2021) study on the acceptance of e-commerce by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan, there are six variables influencing the acceptance of e-commerce, including 2 variables belonging to the T factor: relative advantage of technology -RA and compatibility -C, 2 variables belonging to the O factor: organization's technological readiness -TR and management support -MS, and 2 variables belonging to the E factor: government support -GS and competitive pressure -CP.The model of factors influencing the acceptance of e-commerce is built from the original TOE framework, as shown in Figure 1, and Figure 2 is the modified model by Rash (2021).

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.TOE prototypeSource:Tornatzky and Fleischer (1990) ) model.The hypotheses are proposed as follows:H3: Management support within the organization -MS positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.H4: Financial capability of the organization -FC positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable ecommerce.The E factor group incorporates findings from the research ofAbed (2020), Rash (2021), and Oláh et al. (2019).The variable competitive pressure -CP, government support -GS, and customer benefits are replaced by consumer acceptance.In accepting sustainable e-commerce, the government imposes strict environmental regulations, causing SMEs to increase costs and create pressure on customers.Therefore, within the E factor group, three hypotheses are proposed: H5: Competitive pressure -CP positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.INSIGHTS INTO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ISSN 2669-0195 (online) https://jssidoi.org/ird/2024 Volume 6 Number 1 (March) http://doi.org/10.9770/IRD.2024.5.1(4) 51 H6: Government regulations and policies -GS positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable ecommerce.H7: Customer acceptance -CA positively influences SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.The proposed research model is depicted in Figure 3.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Proposed research model Source: Author

Table 1 .
A compilation of studies on sustainable e-commerceVoice the need to maintain a balance between the development of online retail businesses and the negative impacts on the environment and society.

Table 3 .
Data Encoding and Statistical Results

Table 4 .
Summary of Cronbach's Alpha Test Results

Table 6 .
Total Variance Explained Compone nt Source: SPSS Data Analysis Results

Table 11 .
Results of Multiple Linear Regression Test

Table 12 .
Coefficients and Hassan N Rash (2021) have used the TOE framework to investigate ecommerce acceptance.This study drew from and developed the research model with seven proposed factors positively correlating with the acceptance of sustainable e-commerce applications.The results of data analysis with a scale of 285 responses have shown changes in the factors influencing SMEs' acceptance of sustainable e-commerce.Some components, such as the organisation's technological readiness to accept e-commerce, are no longer critical.This can be explained by the fact that about 80% of businesses have opened online stores on electronic platforms, and 95% of businesses use social media for advertising and online sales, making technological readiness less crucial for SMEs.If competitive pressure requires businesses to enhance e-commerce applications, as in previous studies, this component maintains its importance.However, in this study, competitive pressure no longer significantly drives SMEs to accept sustainable e-commerce.Additionally, acceptance of sustainable e-commerce must meet INSIGHTS INTO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ISSN 2669-0195 (online) https://jssidoi.org/ird/2024 Volume 6 Number 1 (March) http://doi.org/10.9770/IRD.2024.5.1(4) 57