Prior Studies

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Many studies on EDI have been conducted that provide useful knowledge and insights. However, most of them focused on large organizations and have identified several factors that influence EDI adoption based on the large organizational environment. For instance, Teo et al. (2003) drew on the institutional theory to examine the factors affecting the adoption of financial electronic data interchange. Results indicated that the intention of adoption is predicted by a number of institution-based variables, including mimetic pressures, coercive pressures and normative pressures. Another example is the study conducted by Iskandar et al. (2001), who investigated EDI adoption from the perspective of buyer-supplier relationships in the context of the US automobile industry. Synthesizing previous studies, Chwelos et al. (2001) constructed an EDI adoption model to examine the relative importance of the determinants of adoption intention. Results showed that the intention to adopt EDI is much more significantly affected by external pressure and readiness than perceived benefits.

The applicability of the results obtained in those studies to SME is, however, not without question. For example, Attewell and Rule (1991) criticized the singular focus of studies on EDI adoption in large organizations. They argued that using studies dealing with only large organizations might introduce a potential bias in conclusions when generalizing findings to other organizations, because organizational size plays an important role in various organizational processes. Damanpour's (1992) meta-analysis examined 20 studies to investigate the relationship between organization size and innovation. The findings of the meta-analysis supported the argument that size is a crucial factor in organizational adoption of innovations. Also, many empirical studies on IT innovation found consistent results regarding the influence of organizational size. For example, Lind et al. (1989) looked at microcomputer adoption and Grover (1993) at IOS adoption. These studies showed that there was a relationship between organizational size and IT innovation, which in turn implies that research findings focused on large organizations may not necessarily be generalized to SME (DeLone, 1988; Harrison et al., 1997; Thong et al., 1996). Similarly, McDade et al. (2002) reported that size affects organizational adoption of high-technology products. Its effect is, however, moderated by the degree of product radicalness and organizational preferences. Therefore, EDI adoption issues in the context of SME require further examination.

The number of SME is significantly larger than that of large organizations. Although the influence of large organizations is so large that sometimes it may even change market trends in the business world, SME cannot be ignored due to their economic contributions. According to Iacovou et al. (1995), the 13 million SME in the USA create 90 percent of new jobs and contribute 38 percent of the total US gross national product. A similar situation is found in other countries such as Canada and Singapore. Further, IT as an exclusive privilege of large organizations is an old idea from a time when costs of hardware and software were very expensive and IT experts were rare. Then, only large organizations could afford to adopt IT. It was not until recently, when the price of hardware and software has been rapidly decreasing, that more organizations, especially SME, have had the chance to adopt IT. Cragg and King (1993) agree that there are now more opportunities for SME to adopt IT and offer evidence to support this argument from their empirical case studies. Also, they show that SME have been continuing to upgrade hardware and software. It is reasonable to propose that SME have new opportunities to obtain competitive advantages and improve their business operations by using IT.

Moreover, many researchers have queried how results of studies that look only at large organizations can fit into the SME context due to several fundamental differences between large organizations and SME. Thong (1999) suggests that there is a need to examine whether models of IT adoption developed in the large organization context can be equally applied to SME. Although many issues related to adoption may be faced by both large organizations and SME, the way they react to these issues may be very different (Blili & Raymond, 1993; DeLone, 1988; Harrison et al., 1997; Thong et al., 1996). In fact, many studies have pointed out that SME are not miniature versions of large organizations (DeLone, 1988; Harrison et al., 1997; Thong et al., 1996). The unique characteristics of SME can be identified in terms of environment, organization and decision making (Blili & Raymond, 1993), which may lead to different technology adoption patterns from those of large organizations. Even when the same factor affects large organizations and SME, its magnitude and effect may not be the same. Therefore, the generalizability of findings of studies on EDI from large organizations to SME requires investigation.



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Advanced Topics in Global Information Management (Vol. 3)
Trust in Knowledge Management and Systems in Organizations
ISBN: 1591402204
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 207

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