INHIBITING FACTORS FOR COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES USAGE - Five Colombian SMEs Study

Olga L. Giraldo V., Eduardo Arévalo S.

2007

Abstract

Small-to-Medium sized enterprises, SMEs, are the main development engine of economy, particularly in countries in development, as is the case in Colombia. SMEs must use information and communication technologies, ICT, as strategic tools to find their place in the global market; nevertheless, this is not a common situation for Colombian SME. In this work we present the results of a project that attempts to find factors inhibiting five Colombian SMEs toward strategic usage of ICT. Through this study we have looked at the structure and strategy of those enterprises, their value chains, ICT support to value chain activities - how and where they exploit ICT-, managerial attitude toward technology, and appropriation of ICT into business, looking for inhibiting factors. Results show that the most common inhibiting factors are: poor organizational planning; inability to identify strategic use of ICT or no ICT leadership; no funding for ICT projects; lack of ICT expertise and lack of proper ICT usage by final users; and lack of technical support. Even though findings are not conclusive they show an existing trend, and highlight the main ICT inhibitor factors-IF- to be surpassed to attain local sustainable industries.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

L. Giraldo V. O. and Arévalo S. E. (2007). INHIBITING FACTORS FOR COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES USAGE - Five Colombian SMEs Study . In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS, ISBN 978-972-8865-92-4, pages 111-116. DOI: 10.5220/0002360201110116

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis07,
author={Olga L. Giraldo V. and Eduardo Arévalo S.},
title={INHIBITING FACTORS FOR COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES USAGE - Five Colombian SMEs Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS,},
year={2007},
pages={111-116},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002360201110116},
isbn={978-972-8865-92-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS,
TI - INHIBITING FACTORS FOR COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES USAGE - Five Colombian SMEs Study
SN - 978-972-8865-92-4
AU - L. Giraldo V. O.
AU - Arévalo S. E.
PY - 2007
SP - 111
EP - 116
DO - 10.5220/0002360201110116