Abstract

This study examined the effect of using electronic commerce on development of Iran`s hand-woven carpet exports, compared to using the traditional methods. The study is a field study and the population consists of all of the Iranian hand woven carpet exporters. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents surveyed for this study, a total of 65 questionnaires were administered to respondents chosen from all 400 exporters of the country`s hand-woven carpet; statistical tools were used to test the hypothesis such as: T student (to determine whether there was a significant difference between the average of the population and that of the sample) and Chi square (to review the lack of significant differences between the observed frequency and expected frequency of tests) as well as Pierson correlation and multiple regression analysis. To gather information, library resources, questionnaires and interviews were used. To test research questions, six hypotheses with a conceptual model were designed to examine the relationship between the e-commerce, especially Internet, and the exports of the hand-woven carpet. Assumptions in the study, all with 95% confidence were accepted. The findings indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between using the electronic commerce and development of hand-woven exports compared to using the traditional methods from the sample viewpoints both economically and strategically. The study also showed that the use of e-commerce in activities related to distribution channels and buyer`s ordering of carpets through electronic methods, was more effective than using the traditional methods, except for exhibitions and traditional in person forms of carpet orderings. Also, the use of electronic methods in activities associated with hand-woven carpet marketing research, both in terms of growth and profitability of the exports and strategically, was more effective than traditional systems.

Key words: Internet, electronic commerce, electronic business, export, hand-woven carpet.