Impact of computerized accounting information system on small and medium enterprises In Mogadishu, Somalia: the balance scorecard perspectives

Information, communication and technology (ICT) adoption has increased dramatically over time irrespective of organizations, be public or private, profit or not for profit organizations around the world. No doubt that ICT investment will spur economic growth as studied done by many countries. The African Union Agenda 2063 has acknowledged the importance of digital inclusivity for African countries to be on par with the rest of the world as an information society. African nation and Somalia particularly have still some challenges to deploy ICT on the concern of availability, accessibility and affordability. Nevertheless, in a business environment where businesses compete in the highly fragile market, ICT modernization in all business processes including accounting is a crucial tool for continuous improvement towards competitive services offered to customers. The implementation and adaption computerized accounting systems (CAIS) for any organization such as SMEs will enable the management and owners to improve decision making, internal controls and financial information, as well as enable financial reporting to be designed and processed on a standardized format and timely. It was reported that the use of inefficient information to support financial decision making and poor quality and reliability of financial information were part of the major SMEs challenges. Therefore, this study attempts to understand the usage of CAIS and its impact on the performance of SMEs in Somalia. The survey questionnaire is designed and distributed to selected SMEs in the capital city of Mogadishu, Somalia. The results of CAIS’s impact are discussed from four components of balanced scorecard namely financial, customer, internal processes and learning & growth perspectives. The results of this study may provide knowledge about the impact of usage CAIS for SMEs performance in Somali

Factors affecting the adoption of intranets and extranets by SMEs: a UK study

The adoption of intranets and extranets involve major organisational innovation. Intranets alter the flows and content of internal communications, while extranets alter communications between the firm and its clients and suppliers. The paper identifies a number of potential factors that may affect adoption. These include internal and external business drivers, the role of the CEO/owner, firms’ absorptive capacity, firm size amongst SMEs, and business activity. Neither the relative size nor the business activities of SMEs have been considered in previous studies. Logit regressions are run on factors influencing the adoption of intranets and client extranet for a sample of 164 UK SMEs. The findings challenge two oft-stated views. First, that ICT adoption in SMEs depends on the CEO/owner being the ICT decision-maker. The findings clearly indicate that adoption is positively related to firm size. Larger sized SMEs firms have more complex organisational structures in which a specialist manager – typically holding the title ‘IT Manager’ – is the key decision-maker on ICT investments. Adoption depends on the quality and drive of these managers, not the CEO/owner. Second, the myth that services are technological laggards is clearly exposed. Knowledge intensive service firms, not manufacturing firms, are the champions of extranet technologies in this sample. In addition, both knowledge intensive service and manufacturing SMEs are key champions of intranet adoption. Expansion of national, not global, market share is the most important strategic objective identified in the study. The ability to integrate previously separate ICT systems is another important factor for intranet adopters. The results differ with respect to external customer and competitor pressure. These are found to be important in intranet adoption but not in extranet adoption. Only very weak support can be identified for the importance of absorptive capacity. A clear problem remains with regards to identifying a clear set of instruments with which to test for absorptive capacity.economics of technology ;

A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Journal of Information Systems. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Macredie, RD and Mijinyawa, K (2011), "A theory-grounded framework of Open Source Software adoption in SMEs", European Journal of Informations Systems, 20(2), 237-250 is available online at: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis/journal/v20/n2/abs/ejis201060a.html.The increasing popularity and use of Open Source Software (OSS) has led to significant interest from research communities and enterprise practitioners, notably in the small business sector where this type of software offers particular benefits given the financial and human capital constraints faced. However, there has been little focus on developing valid frameworks that enable critical evaluation and common understanding of factors influencing OSS adoption. This paper seeks to address this shortcoming by presenting a theory-grounded framework for exploring these factors and explaining their influence on OSS adoption, with the context of study being small- to medium-sized Information Technology (IT) businesses in the U.K. The framework has implications for this type of business – and, we will suggest, more widely – as a frame of reference for understanding, and as tool for evaluating benefits and challenges in, OSS adoption. It also offers researchers a structured way of investigating adoption issues and a base from which to develop models of OSS adoption. The study reported in this paper used the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB) as a basis for the research propositions, with the aim of: (i) developing a framework of empirical factors that influence OSS adoption; and (ii) appraising it through case study evaluation with 10 U.K. Small- to medium-sized enterprises in the IT sector. The demonstration of the capabilities of the framework suggests that it is able to provide a reliable explanation of the complex and subjective factors that influence attitudes, subjective norms and control over the use of OSS. The paper further argues that the DTPB proved useful in this research area and that it can provide a variety of situation-specific insights related to factors that influence the adoption of OSS

A framework on information behaviour of SME managers for decision-making on emerging ICTs

The aim of this study is to explore the perceived information needs and information behaviours of manager of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As technology advancement and innovation are changing rapidly affecting organisations in different ways, organization executives are introducing new technologies for their operations and business environment becomes more complex and dynamic, government introducing different policies to guide the use of these emerging ICTs. As a result, information becomes significant during adoption decision-making process for SME managers to make an inform decision. To achieve this aim, a framework is developed based on existing literature, using the technology organization environmental (TOE) model as the theoretical underpinning for empirical investigation on information behaviour of SME managers in this study. This study is qualitative in nature, and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with twenty SME managers in the UK service sector. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Following Myers and Newman’s (2007) guidelines for qualitative interview and triangulation method were used to validate the conceptual framework and established the research rigour and quality. The research findings explained information behaviours of SME managers in the contexts of technology organisation environment as information behaviour triggered and perceived information needs during the adoption decision in SMEs. These findings provide further insight into ICT adoption in SMEs through information behaviours and highlighted the significant of sources of information and pre-information needed during the decision-making process. The research also contributes to theory in the information systems field by using relevant literature from information science field to explore information behaviours of SME managers. Future research can be done in other sectors of the economy to show more holistic behaviours of SME managers

Making sense of the New Economy

Dit rapport presenteert een overzicht van de mogelijke definiërende, stuwende factoren achter de zogenaamde 'nieuwe economie'. Op basis van bedrijfskundige en economische literatuur worden vijf causale redenaties ('logica's') herleid. De causale redenaties beschrijven een aantal verbanden tussen informatie- en communicatietechnologieën en economische groei. Daarnaast wordt ingegaan op de effecten van ICT en een aantal prioriteiten voor toegepast onderzoek over ondernemerschap en ondernemingsgedrag.

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Recognising the challenge: how to realise the potential benefits of ICT use in SME’s

There is evidence to suggest that small businesses often start with innovative business ideas but fail within the first 3 years because the proprietors lack the expertise to make them thrive. In this context, it has been suggested that SMEs would benefit from support to select suitable ICTs that can help them to make the most of their business potential. Such suggestions tend to overlook a need to design a system for use of these ICTs within the context of a particular business. Technology alone solves no problems. Managers need to develop relevant expertise to exploit all the assembled resources available to them, and design of an Information System that will be experienced as useful is a prerequisite for successful development of business opportunities. While the technical aspects of e.g. data processing and storage can be consigned to a contractor, responsibility for a customer’s experience in interacting with the business cannot. It is necessary to design business processes and technologies in synergy, paying as much attention to design of effective use of ICTs as to the technologies themselves. The authors believe it is vital for the proprietors of small to medium-sized enterprises to consider what may be the unintended consequences of investment in ICTs and to devote due time and effort to development of effective systems for use