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

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.