Title: Owner/Manager characteristics, organisational characteristics and IT adoption in Small and Medium Enterprises

Authors: Ta-Tao Chuang, Matthew W. Rutherford, Binshan Lin

Addresses: School of Business Administration, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258, USA. ' Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA. ' College of Business Administration, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Shreveport, LA 71115, USA

Abstract: This article investigates antecedents to the adoption of Information Technology (IT) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The necessity and importance of IT in supporting the smaller business has generally been recognised; however, the extent of IT adoption seems not to be proportional to this recognition. This article contributes to the body of knowledge in this area by investigating the effect of genuine owner/manager demographic characteristics and the characteristics of their organisations on the adoption of IT. The major findings of the research are that gender, education, firm age and firm size are significant predictors of IT adoption. Owner experience, however, is not related to IT adoption in this study.

Keywords: information technology; IT adoption; demographic factors; organisational factors; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; gender; education; firm age; firm size.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2007.014985

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2007 Vol.4 No.6, pp.619 - 634

Published online: 30 Aug 2007 *

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