Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the driving forces, challenges benefits, barriers and strategies to decrease barriers to information and communication technologies (ICTs) adoption and assimilation by small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this era of globalization. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based on a review of literature, both online and print. Findings -The paper concludes that, ICTs adoption and assimilation in SMEs is critical to enhance their competitiveness. In addition, ICTs usage in SMEs will enhance accessibility into the international markets.Research limitations/implications -The major limitation of this paper is that it only reviews relevant literature and that empirical findings are not obtained to give an insight and holistic view of ICTs adoption and assimilation by SMEs. Practical implications -Effective use of ICTs in SMEs has great impact on its competitiveness and sustainability. In addition, owners/owner managers, policy makers and other stakeholders would be in a position to understand the challenges faced by SMEs in ICTs adoption and come up with various interventions to assist SMEs. Originality/value -Despite the challenges faced by SMEs on ICTs adoption, SMEs stand to benefit from adopting ICTs in their business processes especially in accessing international markets. SMEs play a great role in the economy and thus need special attention.

The objectives of this paper are to identify factors influencing the adoption of innovations, specifically e-commerce readiness and to identify specific barriers or obstacles to the use of ICT by small and medium tourism enterprises in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Enterprises studied included guesthouses, lodges and self-catering, bed and breakfast, and tour operators. A survey research design was adopted and data collected through interviews, observation and administration of a structured questionnaire. The results reveal that high cost, limited funds and not knowing what to adopt are perceived as barriers to the diffusion of ICTs among the tourism service providers in the study.

The Internet's World Wide Web has become the prime driver of modern E-commerce. The World Wide Web and the Internet together with other ICT enabling technologies offer a platform in the way organizations arrange their business processes, address their marketplaces, and partner with other enterprises. The objectives of this paper are to map ICT diffusion and adoption of e-commerce by manufacturing SMEs in Kenya and identify specific barriers to the exploitation of these drivers. The investigation adopts a descriptive survey research design in which random sampling techniques are used. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results reveal that high cost, limited funds and lack of technical know-how are barriers in the diffusion of ICTs among the manufacturing SMEs.

Due to the threat of recorded business failures arising from weak corporate governance and low financial reporting quality on the Nigerian economy, this study investigates the effects of corporate governance variables on earnings management among selected listed firms from the manufacturing and banking sectors. A sample of 24 listed companies from the 2 sectors’ population of 63 was examined to gather empirical data from 2008 to 2013 using multiple regression tools. Employing the panel data analysis approach, board independence, audit committee independence and audit committee size are insignificantly positively correlated with earnings management. Board size is insignificantly negatively correlated with earnings management while ownership structure is insignificantly negatively correlated with earnings management. Audit quality is positively correlated with earnings management, though not statistically significant. Based on these findings, the study concludes that corporate governance structures, as it were, have not helped to address earnings management. The study recommends, among other things considering the first 4 hypotheses that investors should invest in companies with moderate-to-high debt-to-equity ratios as lenders are able to externally monitor companies. It also recommended that regulatory bodies should frequently discharge their supervisory roles by monitoring the companies’ activities to ensure compliance

(2016). Data envelopment analysis in performance measurement: a critical analysis of the literature. Problems and Perspectives in Management,. doi:10.21511/ppm.14(3-3) This study examines the benefits of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in evaluating the performance of decision making units (DMUs). DEA is a mathematical programming tool applied in performance measurement. The problem identified is establishing business support units as value adding business units. A case is made for applying DEA when evaluating the performance of such business support units. To this end, a literature review of the results of applications of DEA to the evaluation of information technology and purchasing supply chain management functions was conducted. The findings indicate the benefits of DEA are that the method identifies efficient performers in a given population and, therefore, allows for benchmarking against the 'best in class' performer. This as opposed to more commonly used parametric methods, such as regression analysis, which result in a comparator that represents the average performance for a given population, therefore, allowing only for measurement against the average. In addition, the findings indicate that in respect of business support units, the DEA methodology allows for the incorporation of intermediate outcomes, which facilitates the measurement of the contribution of these units to overall company performance. Although the DEA methodology has been widely applied, it is still not as well known or generally applied as the more common approaches. The recommendations made in this paper will be beneficial in bringing DEA to the attention of decision-makers. The recommendations will also raise awareness of the potential benefits to be realised when applying the method in developing performance measurement frameworks for business support units.