The purpose of this study is to understand the development of e-commerce utilization among women-owned Taiwanese businesses and their needs for government assistance. At the same time, the result and the related policies are also compared to the other APEC countries. Questionnaires were used to survey the condition of e-commerce utilization. Using stratified sampling, we randomly selected 200 firms as respondents for the questionnaire. The ratio of men-owned to women-owned firms was adjusted to 1:1. The results showed that male and female owners differ significantly in age and education; men-owned firms have more employees than their women counterpart; the number of employees in charge of e-commerce is also higher in men-owned firms. 56% of men-owned firms engage in e-commerce, while 45% of women-owned firms do. The application of e-commerce does not differ significantly between sexes.
Both men-owned and women-owned firms mainly use e-commerce to sell products to domestic consumers. With regard to government policies, not much e-commerce programs are specifically directed to women-owned firms. In order to put forward policy recommendations, we compare and summarize the development and promoting policies of e-commerce utilization among women-owned businesses in selected APEC countries. It is hoped that the recommendations would be helpful in future policy formation.