The Role of the Internet in Overcoming Information Barriers: Implications for Exporting SMEs of the East African Community

Small and medium-sized enterprises play a signifcant role in the East African Community, contributng highly to the natonal income and employing a signifcant number of people. Exportaton provides a great opportunity for these enterprises to expand their businesses and improve their performance. However, they encounter a number of informatonrelated barriers before and during exportaton. Based on literature, this paper identfes these barriers and discusses how the internet could be used to reduce them. Based on the internet, internatonal business and small business literature, the paper provides propositons and develops a model that will be useful for future studies in this area.