Effects of industry type on ICT adoption among malaysian SMEs

Abstract

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has been widely regarded as an enabler to boost the competitive level of SMEs in the business arena. Notwithstanding the many efforts undertaken by governments to promote ICT adoption among SMEs across different types of industries, many of them failed to reap this benefit evenly. This problem is prevalent among the SMEs in the Asia Pacific region and Malaysia is no exception. This paper therefore investigates industry types as a moderating factor that may exert significant effects on the adoption of ICT among SMEs in Malaysia. Based on the extended Diffusion of Technology Innovation model, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted on 406 managers/owners of SMEs in the southern region of Malaysia. The findings suggest that different type of SMEs do affect the strength relationship between some predictor variables and ICT adoption intention. The findings are discussed and interpreted to provide key implications to the policy makers in general and the SMEs in particular.