The e-progression in SEs

Abstract

The development of Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed the action of business. The view to considered SEs sector as homogeneous, within which SEs take an ordered, sequential e-progression on the route to ICT adoption, and postulate that businesses move in stages from basic use of the Internet to the full integration of business systems and redesign of business processes. The aim of this paper is to conduct an analysis of the stage model in the context of the progression of ICT adoption by SEs. Empirical cases are given that show weaknesses of stage models to explain e-progression in SEs, the stage model are too general and do not take into account the diversity of SEs and focused upon factors such as firm size, age, owner/manager characteristics and geographical position This variety of different perspectives on the adoption of ICT by SEs suggests the need for a multidimensional framework to more adequate explained e-progression in SEs. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.