Knowledge management and enterprise systems adoption by SMEs

Citation

Dwivedi, Y.K. and Papazafeiropoulou, A. (2009), "Knowledge management and enterprise systems adoption by SMEs", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 22 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim.2009.08822aaa.001

Knowledge management and enterprise systems adoption by SMEs

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Volume 22, Issue 1/2

About the Guest Editors

Dr Yogesh K. DwivediLecturer in Information Systems at the School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Wales, UK. He obtained his PhD (“Investigating consumer adoption, usage and impact of broadband: UK households”) and an MSc in Information Systems from the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, UK. His doctoral research was awarded the “Highly Commended Award” by the European Foundation for Management and Development (EFMD) and Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. His research focuses on the adoption and diffusion of information and communication technology (ICT) in organisations and society. As well as having presented at leading IS conferences such as ECIS and AMCIS, he has co-authored several papers which have appeared (or will be appearing) in international refereed journals such as Communications of the ACM, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Industrial Management & Data Systems and Electronic Government: An International Journal. He has authored a book on Consumer Adoption and Use of Broadband and also co-edited a Handbook of Research on Global Diffusion of Broadband Data Transmission. He is a member of the editorial board/review board of several journals, including Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy and Journal of Computer Information Systems, as well as being a Guest/Issue Editor of the Database for Advances in Information Systems, Government Information Quarterly, Information Systems Frontiers, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research and Electronic Government: An International Journal. He is a member of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) and a Life Member of the Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, New Delhi.

Dr Natasha PapazafeiropoulouLecturer in the Information Systems and Computing department at Brunel University, UK. She obtained her PhD (“A stakeholder approach to electronic commerce diffusion”) from Brunel University and holds a first degree in Informatics and an MSc in Information Systems, both from the Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. She has been involved in a number of European- and UK-funded research projects with an emphasis on electronic commerce and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). She teaches Information Systems Management and Business Integration at postgraduate level. She also supervises researchers in the field of technology adoption by organisations, with a special interest in developing countries. She has ten years of research experience on the study of diffusion and adoption of electronic commerce, broadband internet, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

This special issue includes two sets of papers. The first looking at knowledge management and the ERP adoption by SMEs. As a large amount of research has been conducted within the last ten to 15 years in this area, this special issue is aggregating this accumulated knowledge in order to present the latest developments. There are seven papers looking at the subject from different perspectives. These papers are:

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  Boumediene Ramdani, Peter Kawalek and Oswaldo Lorenzo in “Predicting SMEs adoption of enterprise systems” develop a model that can be used to predict which SMEs are more likely to become adopters of enterprise systems. The results reveal SMEs were found to be more influenced by technological and organisational factors than environmental factors. Moreover, results indicate that firms with a greater perceived relative advantage, a greater ability to experiment with these systems before adoption, a greater top management support, a greater organisational readiness and a larger size are predicted to become adopters of enterprise systems.

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  José Esteves in “A benefits realisation roadmap framework for ERP usage in small and medium-sized enterprises” define a benefits realisation roadmap for ERP usage in the context of small and medium enterprises (SME). The ERP benefits roadmap suggests that a long-term vision is required in order to obtain a successful realisation of the potential benefits that ERP could bring. Thus, this analysis suggests that ERP benefits realisation dimensions are interconnected and managers should perceive ERP benefits realisation as a continuum cycle along the ERP post implementation.

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  Kerstin Fink and Mag. Christian Ploder in “Balanced systems for knowledge process management in SMEs” propose a theoretical framework as a layer concept to describe the special situation of Knowledge Management in SMEs. Based on this framework empirical studies were conducted in German-speaking countries to find out the relevant methods/tools supporting knowledge management in SMEs. The outcome of the empirical study describes methods of knowledge management supporting the four key knowledge processes in SMEs, i.e. knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge distribution, and knowledge preservation. The results are explained in the developed “TechnicalSocialSocialTechnical” (TSST-Model)” which is a balanced system for technical and social knowledge applications.

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  Kostas Metaxiotis in “Exploring the rationales for ERP and knowledge management integration in SMEs” explores the rationales for the integration of knowledge management (KM) and ERP in SMEs and presents a conceptual model for their integration. The proposed model is regarded as an adaptable solution, where an SME with a traditional business structure uses existing IT applications and builds upon them. Before applying the proposed model, SMEs should ensure that their KM initiatives fit into their organisational culture, or else they should be prepared to change it.

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  Varintorn Supyuenyong, Nazrul Islam and Uday Kulkarni in “The influence of SME characteristics on knowledge management processes: the cases of enterprise resource planning service providers” looking to understand how the special characteristics of SMEs influence KM processes in such businesses. For that reason, an in-depth exploratory research study using a multi-case design was conducted in four SMEs in Thailand. The observations highlight current KM-related practices of the SMEs and the analysis demonstrates that SME characteristics affect KM sub-processes in interesting ways.

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  Tommaso Federici in “Factors influencing ERP outcomes in SMEs: a post-introduction assessment” analyse the peculiarities of ERP outcomes in SMEs and specifically cross-assess the benefits obtained with context/project factors which could influence them. This research was explicitly focused on an ex-post evaluation of a panel of Italian SMEs that completed the introduction of an ERP system. The findings show that the ERP introduction is considered successful. The most frequently observed benefits are: internal procedure simplification, much easier information retrieval, improved performance management, some production efficiency increase. The factors that seem to mostly affect them are depth of organisational change and type of chosen ERP producer.

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  Wen-Lung Shiau, Ping-Yu Hsu and Jun-Zhong Wang in “Development of measures to assess the ERP adoption of small and medium enterprises” develop measures to assess the ERP adoption of small and medium enterprises. Following Churchill’s (1979) guideline for developing measures that have desirable reliability and validity they conducted a survey, based on the 126 valid responses of 328 companies, which were analysed by the structure equation model (SEM). The paper finds the dimensions affecting ERP adoption show that characteristics of CEO and perceived benefits possess positive effects on ERP adoption while cost and technology have negative effects on ERP adoption. However, only perceived benefits is a significant dimension. It is surprising that the cost of ERP system does not significantly affect the ERP adoption.

The second set of papers discusses innovation in ICT adoption by SMEs. Information systems adoption seems to be related to the size of the adopting company, as smaller business units are less likely to invest in new technologies and use the internet. The following seven papers study ICT adoption in SMEs from a number of different perspectives. These papers are:

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  Marie Griffiths and Ben Light in “An investigation into resistance practices at an SME consultancy” investigate the role played by a managing director of an SME consultancy in an ICT project associated with organisational development. The findings of the study show that Markus’ interaction theory of resistance still has relevance today and they extend it by emphasising the problem of homogenising users and downplaying their ability to appropriate resistance strategies in situ.

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  Simha R. Magal, Parag Kosalge and Nancy M. Levenburg in “Using IP analysis to understand and guide e-business decision-making in SMEs” evaluate the use of e-business applications among SMEs, test the robustness of importance-performance (IP) analysis models and present IP mapping as a resource/tool for decision-making. The findings show that most IP studies have assumed that importance and performance are independent; however, three recent studies have argued otherwise, identifying positive, negative and v-shaped relationships. This study finds a fourth, N-shaped relationship between importance and performance. This is an extension of the v-shaped relationship and appears when the full range of performance scale values is displayed.

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  Ada Scupola in “SMEs’ e-commerce adoption: perspectives from Denmark and Australia” provides an insight on factors affecting business-to-business e-commerce adoption and implementation in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), highlighting similarities and differences between Danish and Australian SMEs. The research is based on a wide literature review, focused on proposing a theoretical model of technological, environmental and organisational factors influencing e-commerce adoption and implementation. The findings both corroborate previous results about significant factors affecting SMEs’ b-to-b e-commerce adoption and implementation and provide new, interesting insights. The study also finds many similarities and differences between Denmark and Australia.

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  Craig M. Parker and Tanya Castleman in “Small firm e-business adoption: a critical analysis of theory” critique a range of theories and evaluate their ability to provide a lens for explaining the idiosyncratic nature of small firms and their eBusiness adoption decisions. This literature review firstly summarises the existing research evidence that shows that small firms are idiosyncratic when it comes to eBusiness adoption. It then critiques theories commonly used in the literature in this field to examine the extent to which they take this small firm idiosyncrasy into account when explaining eBusiness adoption decisions. The critical analysis shows that no commonly-used theory adequately explains small firm adoption of eBusiness because each omits important aspects of small firm idiosyncrasy. The analysis suggests that an integrated theoretical framework is needed. Preliminary ideas on this framework are provided.

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  Ta-Tao Chuang, Kazuo Nakatani and Duanning Zhou in “An exploratory study of the extent of information technology adoption in SMEs: an application of upper echelon theory” investigate the effect of compositions of managerial/demographic characteristics of top management team (TMT) on the extent of information technology (IT) adoption in small businesses (SMEs), where such strategic decisions made by TMT had direct and significant influence on all aspects of business operations and its competitive position in a market. Based on the upper echelon theory, the study formulated four hypotheses relating the compositions of TMT characteristics to the extent of IT adoption in different functional areas. Multiple regression analysis was employed to analyse the data. The findings show that the age average and the education average of TMT in small businesses are significant predictors of the extent of IT adoption. However, the group heterogeneity (either gender or ethnicity), contrary to the prediction, has negative impact on the extent of IT adoption.

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  Anabel Gutierrez, Jorge Orozco and Alan Serrano in “Factors affecting IT and business alignment: a comparative study in SMEs and large organisations” investigate whether the differences between small, medium and large enterprises have an impact on the way they approach strategic alignment. This paper reviews the factors that have been used to assess levels of alignment between IT (information technology) and business strategies and compares their relevance according to organisational size (SMEs and large organisations). The results suggest that, when ranking these factors, there are not significant differences among SME and large organisations. It was found, however, that the ranking of these factors has a positive correlation with the degree of IT/Business planning integration applied in the organisation.

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  David H. Brown and Laddawan Kaewkitipong in “Relative size and complexity: e-business use in small and medium sized tourism enterprises in Thailand” explore e-business uses in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises compared to their larger counterparts. Five case studies were conducted with Thai tourism SMEs to investigate their technology adoption and use experiences. The findings show that in terms of e-business use, it is not surprising that Thai SMEs remain less advanced in utilising e-business technology. However, size is found to be a significant factor in determining SME behaviour not only in comparison to larger travel agencies or hotels, but also with the SME sector itself. Associated with this is application complexity that is again significant and linked to relative size. Finally, the choices made by small hotels and travel agents are shown to be influenced by the technology providers.

Acknowledgements

The Guest Editors would like to thank the Chief Editor, Professor Zahir Irani, of the Journal of Enterprise Information Management for providing them with the opportunity and constant encouragement to organise this special issue. The Guest Editors have been overwhelmed by the response for the call for papers on this theme. All submissions were reviewed by at least three referees and papers that moved forward typically underwent three revisions. The Guest Editors gratefully acknowledge the support of more than 50 referees who reviewed the manuscripts submitted for possible publication in this special issue.

Yogesh K. DwivediSchool of Business & Economics, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

Anastasia PapazafeiropoulouSchool of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel University, UK