Title: Information technology evaluation practices in the SMEs: an empirical study in Andalucia

Authors: Miguel A. Rios Martin, Paula Luna Huertas, Alfonso Infante Moro

Addresses: Faculty of Business Administration, Department of Financial Economics and Operations Management, University of Seville, Avd. Ramon y Cajal 1, 41018, Seville, Spain. ' Faculty of Business Administration, Department of Financial Economics and Operations Management, University of Seville, Avd. Ramon y Cajal 1, 41018, Seville, Spain. ' Faculty of Business Administration, Department of Financial Economics, Accounting and Operations Management, University of Huelva, Plaza La Merced, No. 11, 21002 Huelva, Spain

Abstract: Evaluation is an aspect of the IT implementation process which permits us to justify the investment to be carried out, to choose between different alternatives, to serve as an instrument of control over the implementation process, over its costs and benefits and, in short, over the success of the project. Moreover, the evaluation constitutes an aspect that, in economic crisis situations and in the context of SMEs, acquires, if one might say so, more importance. Therefore, in this work we intend to find out how Andalusian SMEs carry out their IT investment process, which will permit us to contribute empirical evidence of the evaluation practices of IT projects in this type of enterprise.

Keywords: evaluation; IT; information technology investment; information technology evaluation; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; decision making mechanisms; information systems management; electronic business; e-business; Spain; Andalucia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2007.012968

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2007 Vol.5 No.2, pp.110 - 123

Published online: 02 Apr 2007 *

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