ICT Adoption Implications for SME Innovation and Augmentation

ICT Adoption Implications for SME Innovation and Augmentation

Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/ijide.292488
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Abstract

The adoption of information communication technology (ICT) by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) plays a critical role in their development, growth, and expansion. To achieve a competitive advantage, an enterprise needs to have the resources and capabilities to operate efficiently. The fast improvement of ICT is rapidly shifting the conventional way of performance in all facets of SMEs. Today, all kinds of establishments are accepting the implementation and usage of ICT to advance administrative efficiency, outputs, and improved communication for strengthening their competitiveness. SMEs need to opt speedily for the adoption of ICT to support their strategy, performance, and development. Adopting a mixed research approach, with an exploratory sequential mixed design, the study focus is on the factors influencing ICT acceptance and adoption implications for SME augmentation. Findings reveal that SMEs face challenges in ICT adoption due to a lack of resources. Hence, there is a need for investing in advanced technology to augment SME innovation and growth through ICT adoption.
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Introduction

Information communication and technology (ICT) has received recognition and is admired because of its ability to transformation processes within the business community globally, thus becoming a contemporary tool for current business operations. ICT has changed and created connections between businesses and individuals globally. Of late, business activities globally are heavily predisposed by the application of ICT. Due to ICT, the manner in which assembly works, industry approaches, and trade and consumption patterns have changed and this affects consumer decisions. Despite the advantages of ICT within business setups, studies have shown the existence of the digital divide phenomena between SMEs and large corporations with regard to the use and implementation of ICT (Arendt, 2008).

The digital divide phenomenon that exists between SMEs compared to already existing, established large corporations regarding the use of ICT prompted the need to measure, and evaluate the impact of ICT adoption and usage by SMEs. Though a number of related studies exist globally including Western Europe, some countries in Africa (Chiware & Dick, 2008) and (Nyandoro 2014), regarding ICT and SMEs, the implications of ICT adoption remains uncovered especially in the context of Namibia. About SME growth, there are numerous factors, which link to SMEs growth, and these include managerial skills, marketing skills, communication skills, leadership skills, financial skills and technical skills (Iguna & Sazita, 2018). The creation, absorption and integration of SMEs within the mainstream of the economy is critical for a developing nation such as Namibia where there is a known inequality challenge in the distribution of wealth among the well-offs and the less privileged, together with the challenge of joblessness among the citizens (The Villager, 2018). For this reason, governments around the globe invest more of their time and financial budgets in improving the SMEs segment to foster the country’s developmental agendas (Travica, 2002). SMEs contribute on average 12 percent annually to the national growth and the development of the economy. In a study conducted by the Bank of Namibia (2004), the official figures indicated that a projected 33 700 SMEs in Namibia have created opportunities for locals to secure jobs and to pay salaries to an average 160 000 citizens, and this threshold is an estimated one third of the national labour force. Thus, SME sector is one of important constituent of the economy as they help to reduce the inequalities. Moreover, SMEs add directly and often significantly to aggregate savings and investment, and they are involved in the development of appropriate technology. It is an undisputed fact that the presence of ICTs within an enterprise moves telecommunications and the Internet forward thereby driving the rate of ICT adoption. ICT may also aid to bring a platform for discussions and solution-oriented approaches that advocate for feedback on a win-win outcome.

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