Examining information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in SMEs

Abstract

Purpose Since the 1980s, a substantial number of theories have contributed extensively to information and communication technology (ICT) adoption. Much of such theories regarded ICT adoption as a one-off action as they specifically focus on factors affecting decision making at one decision point. They tend to play down on the fact that as adoption decision progresses through stages, they are supposedly influenced by the same or different factors. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamic process of ICT adoption using the concepts of dynamic capabilities. Design/methodology/approach This study used qualitative approach to gain in-depth insight into the dynamic and evolutionary process of emerging information and communication technology (EICT) adoption in UK small service SMEs. Unstructured and semi-structured interviews were conducted in two separate rounds with 26 participants drawn from Crunch Online Data Base and Luton Business Directory. The participants were selected from a sample of 65 drawn from extended classification of professional service businesses proposed by Ramsey et al. (2008). They include managers, government agencies, SMEs consultants and IT vendors; and then purposeful random sampling and snowball sampling were used. Findings The study developed a framework from the concept of dynamic capabilities and found that using the concept of dynamic capabilities to examine the process of EICT adoption helps to unveil the recursive nature of the process and how the factors vary at both single and multiple stages of adoption. Research limitations/implications This study is limited by its focus and other factors. Studying the opinions of small service UK SMEs limits the power of generalizing the identified causal relationships; therefore, extended measures are required on accounts of environmental, cultural, geographical and sectoral differences. While some errors seemed unavoidable when measures appear subjective and prone to common error biases, the study advised on recognizing the over-riding influence of the factor(s) at each stage of the adoption process in order to be proactive in committing resources. Originality/value This work focuses on emerging ICT adoption in SMEs from the dynamic and evolutionary process perspective using the concept of dynamic capability. It advances ICT adoption research by developing a framework to depict that ICT is not a one-off event, rather it is dynamic and interactive in nature and factors influencing adoption vary from one stage or the other.

The Adoption and Usages of Technology in SMEs: The Case of Making Tax Digital

“…With further understanding of the area it became apparent that most reasons were due to self-interest rather than the interest of the business. Examples of which being long term time and cost reduction as suggested in the literature review [6]- [9].…”

“…Researchers [6]- [9] argue that after the initial implementation costs, IT is proven to help in both long-term cost reduction and operations' effectiveness. Similarly, Li et al [10] found that introducing new technologies could enable businesses to improve their team building and organisational capability.…”

“…The existing literature suggests that there are many reasons why SMEs adopt and use new technologies [8], [9], [11], [19]. Parthasarathy and Kumar [19] found that IT adoption within SMEs plays a vital role in helping the standardisation process, therefore they believe that without being able to adapt and adopt to changes in IT developments, this could potentially hinder SMEs performance.…”

Modelo de Capacidad en Tecnologías de Información en Mipymes Colombianas

“…Múltiples son los beneficios del uso de tecnologías de información (ti) en las organizaciones (Díaz-Pinzón, Gómez-Medina, García-González, Melo-Román, & Sanabria-Villamizar, 2017), así como los factores que afectan el aprovechamiento de estas (Salahshour Rad, Nilashi, & Mohamed-Dahlan, 2017). Particularmente, las mipymes presentan muchos retos en relación con la apropiación de las ti (Afolayan, Plant, White, Jones, & Beynon-Davies, 2015;Eze, 2018). En Colombia, el Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (Mintic) ha desarrollado diferentes programas para fomentar el acceso y el uso de tecnologías de la información por parte de las mipymes (Mintic, 2019).…”

A Critical Review of Empirical Research Examining SMEs Adoption from Selected Journals

“…They typically employ less than 500 workers. They are known for their major advantages including employment creation at low capital cost, flexibility, and innovation [1,59,67]. Economies of most OCED nations comprise nearly 96% to 99% of small and medium enterprises that account for 80% economic growth for those nations.…”