APPROACHES TO COMPUTERIZATION IN SMALL BUSINESSES IN GREECE

It is widely recognized that IT has made considerable inroads into large organizations, such that the majority now rely on IT for their day-to-day operations. The position regarding small businesses is less clear as they face somewhat different opportunities and constraints. In particular, the approach to computerization in small firms in less developed national IT environments has received little attention in the literature. This paper reports on the results of a survey of the approaches adopted by small firms in Greece. The findings are analyzed in terms of previous experience with computers, factors influencing the decision to adopt IT, advice received, staff involvement in IS development, training, and problems encountered and the solutions adopted. The results are compared with an earlier study performed five years ago in order to identify recent trends

Electronic administration in Spain: from its beginnings to the present

This study presents the basic lines of electronic administration in Spain. The complexity of the Spanish political-administrative system makes such a study challenging, in view of the considerable degree of autonomy and competences of the regional administrative bodies and local agencies with respect to the central government, the former being more visible in the 17 regions of Spain. Nonetheless, the central government maintains a series of legal instruments that allow a certain common framework of action to be imposed, aside from what is put into effect through diverse programs aimed precisely to develop common tools for the regions and municipalities of Spain. After an introduction that provides some necessary background, this study describes the legislative framework in which Spain's electronic administrative system has developed. The data included in the study refer to investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the services offered by the different Administrations on the internet; internet access by citizens, homes, businesses, and employees, as well as the interactivity existing with administrations by means of the internet; the origins and rise of various political initiatives of the Central Government involving electronic administration; and finally, the situation of civil service personnel, as catalysts of the success of Information Society in the Public Administration within Spain

Marketing as support tool for public administration

The reality of public administration system in Romania shows that, in addition to normal and fair activities, negative aspects are to be noticed. Whatever the degree of truth in these assessments, the process of public administration in our country should be continuously adjusted and improved. As the debates on the role of marketing in society have increased in recent years, the tendency to extend its application areas seems to be evident; one of these is the public administration, where the reform requires mechanisms and modern methods of approach, the marketing field being included. The idea of introducing marketing in public administration represents the major theme of our paper, from theoretical and methodological aspects to practical approaches.citizens, public administration, SWOT analysis, urban marketing.

Exploring The Efforts Of The Greek State To Implement ICT Programmes: An Alternative Interpretation

Drawing from literature on the national responses to the information society, the paper builds on existing research on government intervention in response to ICT, in particular with reference to the continuing, if not always successful, efforts of the Greek state to implement ICT innovations. Appropriating Foucault’s notions of rationalities of government, regimes of truth and knowledge, the paper critically investigates the discourses invested in the Programme at the point of origin, in the negotiating table between the European Commission and the Greek central government policy-makers. The paper goes on to argue that the problems encountered during implementation can be analytically understood as the external manifestation of the clash between the dominant discourses and visions about the role of technology in European integration inscribed in the Programme, and a range of alternative forms of thinking and acting by a wide range of local actors in various implementation sites. These alternative interpretations, which show themselves in a range of subversive practices, uphold the supremacy of national contextual differences, and indirectly, but very effectively, challenge the rationale by which the plans for ICT innovation at the national and supranational level were constituted

The Development Impact of Information Technology in Trade Facilitation

The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview and context of the country studies on Information Technology (IT) for Trade Facilitation (TF) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).Impact of Information Techonology, Trade Facilitation, SMEs

Electronic Commerce Strategy for Small and Medium Enterprises: Case Studies of Korean Firms

Business firms are increasingly taking part in online business activities through internet as the size of the e-commerce market is rapidly growing in the recent years. Electronic commerce (EC) activities now become an essential part of the business strategy for survival as well as growth for both large enterprises and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Previous studies on e-commerce mostly focused on the adoption of EC by business firms, and also have been carried out with the data from big enterprises. More often than not, the results obtained from the large business firms are used to provide the guidelines for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are, however, different from large business firms in many aspects, and need to be studied on their own. This paper extends the previous research on EC in two aspects. Firstly, we study the e-commerce issues in the area of implementation in relation to the business firm\u27s performance, beyond the adoption and diffusion of IT technology which has been the research issues in many previous research. Secondly, we focus on small and medium enterprises which comprise a large portion of national economy with significant influenc

Productive and cognitive innovation strategy:African framework design

Since the mid 1900’s, economist have come to recognize the role of innovative activity in firms productivity growth, particularly in the competitive market economies. However, the most conducive market environment for innovative activity has also become a subject of interest. Thus, a major constraint on industrial dynamism in African countries is said to be the dearth of indigenous entrepreneurs. This paper therefore argued for the provision of comprehensive innovation policy, in which the government supports the innovators by providing appropriate financial measures; removing regulatory, institutional (competitive) obstacles to innovation; and strengthening the knowledge base through investment in education, research and industrial sites in Africa.innovation policy; Africa; Nigeria; investment; productivity; science parks; business clusters; economic zones; inventions; free trade zones; cognitive revolution, industrial revolution; infrastructures; technology; research and development; venture capital