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The adoption of information systems (IS) by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) leads to the acquisition of new competencies and relative advantages. In some cases, the decision to adopt IS results from legal obligations that companies must comply with. This paper aims to assess the effect of the mandatory digital transmission of documents to the tax and customs authority on the decision to adopt IS by SMEs.

The authors propose a research model to analyze the antecedents of IS adoption and the relationship between that adoption and the development of new competencies and the consequent relative advantages. Based on the data from 94 European SMEs, this paper tests the research model with a partial least squares approach.

The findings show that companies decide to adopt IS due to their obligations for tax compliance. However, while some companies decide to adopt basic IS just to comply with the transmission of documents, others decided to implement more complex systems to satisfy wider company needs.

Due to time constraints, the characteristics of the respondents such as their sector of activity, the sensitivity of companies and entrepreneurs to IS, their geographic distribution or years of activity were not studied. As mentioned above it is important to investigate further the characteristics of the companies and their differentiation factors between those who only invest to reduce costs and those that see IS as a differentiating factor. This factor could be a source of information to study the company and its environment that is very useful in increasingly competitive markets.

This study is important because it shows managers the possible ways of thinking that can guide their investment decisions and whether these will lead them to face future challenges.

For researchers, this paper shows how a change in the law may have an effect on decisions to adopt technology and how existing theories can be applied to study the effects of changes in the law.