An Empirical Study of Drivers, Barriers, and Cost Efficiency of Information Systems in Greek Industry

Abstract

The business environment is characterized by high complexity and competitiveness. This is the reason why information is considered to be the most valuable source companies have available. From the social point of view, information technology (IT) has a positive effect on business performance, creates strong and transparent relations with enterprise’s clients, and increases competition. The purpose of this study is to assess the current state of information systems (ISs) adoption by Greek industry. The main issues that are explored through this survey in regards to IS adoption is the extent, the most important specific drivers and barriers, and the profitability due to IS adoption. The study also investigates whether motivators or inhibitors are affected by the factor of profitability due to IS adoption. The survey that was conducted is questionnaire-based and the responses were analyzed statistically using several statistical tools. The results suggest that the majority of the industries in Greece have adopted IS to conduct their business. Reducing errors that occur during their business activities seems to be their main motivation for IS adoption. On the other hand, they are hesitant to invest in an IS because of its cost.

The Impact of Information Systems Implementation in the Greek Manufacturing Enterprises

“…The former hypothesis has been actually verified in a previously published paper by the authors in [34]. It was derived by the study that 92.7% of the companies stated that IS adoption was profitable at a high or at least a satisfactory level.…”

“…85.4% InformaƟon Systems that have been implemented As it was also referenced in the research conducted by the authors in [34], there are similarities and differences in regards of IS adoption with the research that was conducted by authors in [30]. The percentage of the companies they use IS in the current study is almost 75% higher than the one in [30].…”

“…Although the great majority of the companies (90.4%) have invested in an IS in the last decade [34], 62.7% of them have declared that are eager to invest in a new IS in the prompt future. According to the authors in [20], research in Korean manufacturing firms that have already implemented a form of ERP most of the firms were in the process of implementing, planning, or considering to implement various extensions to their ERP system.…”

“…Based on the H4 hypothesis that the profitability of a company is positively affected by the use of IS, two prominent different groups of companies were initially identified regarding the level of profitability they were lead: those which consider that their companies manage to obtain high level of profitability due to IS adoption (IS1 = n 1 = 36) and those that obtained a medium level of profitability due to IS adoption (IS2 = n 2 = 40) [34]. According to authors in [27], if the management chooses to implement SCM, the performance of Indian SMEs can be improved on several issues including financial issues.…”