An examination of the IT satisfaction of small-business users

Abstract

Although there are many articles in the NIS literature which address small-business computing, in effect the organizations represented in these studies are, in many ways, similar to medium-and large-sized organizations. In this article, we focus on businesses that are truly small: they have very few employees and there is no formal NIS department. In this environment, the small business owner/manager is the principal user and has to perform most of the IT functions. For such an environment, an IT satisfaction construct and measurement instrument are presented. A survey, using the measurement instrument, of a representative sample of small businesses was conducted to identify user satisfaction patterns. Key areas of IT dissatisfactions are: training and education (the most important), software maintenance, documentation, and vendor support. These deficiency areas can be appropriately addressed by software vendors and consultants. Finally, a contingency analysis of IT satisfaction based on business-related factors and owner characteristics was performed. A general observation was that the owner attributes have a greater impact on IT satisfaction than any of the business factors. The ones that stood out the most were the gender and the age of the owner. Article: 1. IntroductionWhile the use of information technology (IT) is steadily on the rise in small businesses, it still pales in comparison with IT applications in large-and medium-sized organizations. Estimates of small business use of computers over the years have ranged from below 30% to about 80 percent, depending on the location, size, and nature of the business [1,13,24]. A contextual model of small-business user IT satisfactionRelevant small-business computing literature, as cited earlier, was reviewed in order to identify factors that might be related to IT satisfaction. Particularly, some articles provided specific factors for inclusion [6,7,9,15,18,21]. An exploratory model 2 of factors contributing to IT satisfaction is shown in Fig. 1. The dependent variable in the model is the 'IT satisfaction'. We consider two categories of variables that may be related to satisfaction: business-related factors and owner characteristics. The first category has four variables and the second five, making for a total of nine variables. 3.

The moderator effect of training in the adoption of ICT in microenterprises

“…However, age has a negative influence (probably because age is negatively correlated with the ease of use), as show several research (Warr 1993;Ford et al 1996;Palvia and Palvia 1999;Chapman et al 2000;Borghans and Weel 2002;Rouvinen 2002;Aubert et al 2006;De Koning and Gelderblom 2006;Schleife 2006;Shih-Yung and Pearson 2011) due to the loss of cognitive technological skills and the increase of the resistance to change. Control variables are not relevant in the context of this analysis.…”

“…Empirical research conducted by Palvia and Palvia (1999) and Chapman et al (2000), have found that the owner's age is a factor that can determine the successful adoption of ICT by small businesses (Ford et al 1996), as the ageing of employees or owners sometimes poses serious problems with regard to the adoption of ICT by businesses, particularly small ones. Several earlier studies have focused on the study of the moderating effect of age on technological change.…”

“…This influence plays a key role in the technology integration process of microenterprises, according to the arguments cited above. These studies show the importance of support from the ownership / management to facilitate the successful adoption of ICT (Palvia and Palvia 1999;Koellinger 2008).…”

“…In other words, this study seeks to determine whether the traditional consideration by the scientific literature of the negative influence of the age of microenterprise on the use of ICT by companies (Warr 1993;Ford et al 1996;Palvia and Palvia 1999 Several studies explain how age favors the loss of cognitive technological skills and so does not help to promote the use of ICT. There is, therefore, a negative relationship between them, which some studies consider can be significant (Tao et al 2009).…”

L’appropriation des technologies de l’Internet et ses facteurs critiques de succès

“…Selon les auteurs consultés, on peut retrouver plusieurs facteurs dans chacune des catégories présentées. La qualité des données, la sécurité des équipements, la formulation claire d'objectifs et leur promotion, la coopération entre les services, le soutien de la direction, la disponibilité des ressources, la présence d'un champion, la perception d'utilité, la participation et la satisfaction des utilisateurs, l'encouragement à l'utilisation, la tenue de réunions, la gestion des problèmes, la perception et l'historique de l'entreprise en matière de changement en sont des exemples (Igbaria, Parasuraman et Baroudi, 1996 ;Jacob, 2000 ;Korunka et Carayon, 1999 ;Palvia, 1996 ;Palvia et Palvia, 1999 ;Tang, 2000). Puisque ces facteurs contribuent à créer un environnement plus ou moins propice aux changements technologiques et que, par conséquent, ils risquent ultimement d'influencer l'appropriation technologique des individus, ils sont retenus aux fins de l'analyse qualitative à réaliser concernant le contexte organisationnel de la PME.…”