ICT Adoption Policy of Australian and Croatian SMEs

Many SMEs are currently adopting information and communication technology (ICT) and services based on it. However, there is little systematic research into how they are doing this and what are the organisational and environmental factors associated with this adoption. In this article, the authors build the model of ICT adoption in Australian and Croatian SMEs, founded on premises that SMEs are the main economic developing factor in all modern economies and that the adoption and the use of ICT represents the fundamental source of competitiveness and the basis for their survival on the world market. By applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Boolean algebra, the authors developed a model of necessary and sufficient factors for ICT adoption by SMEs in Australia and Croatia.SMEs, ICT, adoption models, case studies, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Boolean algebra

ICT adoption model of chinese SMEs

Chinese SMEs have played an important role in stimulating economic growth, increasing employment, expanding exports and promoting science and technology innovations. In 2005 there were more than 10 million SMEs registered in the Industry and Commerce Department, accounting for 99 per cent of all registered corporations (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific; China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, 2006). Further development of the Chinese as well as of all modern economies is dependent on the speed and effectiveness of the implementation of ICT based solutions in businesses. While large companies have been quick to adopt ICT solutions and technologies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had more serious problems with the requirements and challenges of e-business. A number of ICT, e-commerce adoption methodologies have been suggested through literature most of this research, has however, focused on developed countries where the structure of the economy is common. There are only few studies that shed some light on prescribing strategies of ICT adoption for SMEs in developing countries, especially Chine. Furthermore, despite the enormous attention given to encourage SMEs to adopt ICT there has been little systematic research into the factors influencing, enabling and inhibiting the adoption of ICT within SMEs. In this article, author developed a model of ICT adoption of Chinese SMEs, founded on premises that the adoption and the use of ICT represent the fundamental source of competitiveness and the basis for firms’ survival in the world market. By applying the Qualitative-Comparative Analysis (QCA) method and Boolean algebra, author proposed a model of necessary and sufficient factors for ICT adoption by SMEs in Chine.Keywords: adoption models; Boolean Algebra; SMEs; case studies; ICT; qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)

Empirical Evaluation of ICT Adoption in Australian SMEs: Systemic Approach

Many SMEs are adopting information and communication technology (ICT) and services based on them. However, there is little systematic research into how they are doing this and what the organisational and environmental factors associated with the adoption are. That is, hardly there is any study in the literature which is looking at the overall firm’s performance and if, once adopted, ICT fulfil expectations of their adopters. The growing importance of SMEs and ICT in contemporary economics and IS and management theory have been a subject of large static research. In this paper we have adopted a dynamic approach to evaluate adopted ICT in a firm as a complex adapting system (CAS). Thus, here an organisation is studied as complex social system, because complexity provides an explanatory framework of how organisations behave; as well as how individuals and organisations interact, relate and evolve within a larger social and environmental system. Complexity also explains why ICT adoption may have un-anticipated consequences on firm’s performance and inter-relationships of elements within a complex system which give rise to multiple chains of dependencies. In this article authors evaluate factors for ICT adoption in Australian SMEs in the post-adoption period. The methodology in this article was based on interpretative action research based on “soft systems thinking”, because the setting up an information technology system is itself a social act, requiring some kind of concentrated action by many people. However, the formal method is the case study method which answers the question how these factors are interacting in the particular firm. After the introduction, a general framework, based on recent literature review, was used to identify necessary factors for the ICT adoption. Those factors are then evaluated in an Australian company (case study) using systemic (five stage) approach and its tools. Preliminary results of this study confirmed that entrepreneurial ICT adoption initiative is not only subjected to selection as a result of environmental pressures but also is strongly subjected to the sub-systems influences and interdependencies. Thus from the complex and adaptive systems perspective we may infer that necessary factors are not all (and always) sufficient factors for the full utilisation of ICT and achievement of firm’s goals

DYNAMICS OF “INVISIBLE HAND” AND INFORMATION ECONOMICS

The purpose of this article is to explore the invisible hand in the modern economies. In other words this article is to test the applicability of Smith’s famous metaphor and its relevance to the new area of information economics. In the first section the authors discuss the historical context, followed by a dynamic approach to invisible hand., i.e. its shaking, and conclude with the malfunctioning of the invisible hand in the information economics. Later they discuss information economics as a definite market failure, finding irrelevance of invisible hand in modern economies

Impact of school management on legally adequate content of a budget plan: The evidence from Slovenia

Management of a primary school in Slovenia is binded to preparing content of budget plan by law and by legal requirements of a local community. Budget plan is a result of financial planning. By Slovenian law management of a primary school is responsible for preparing for budget plan. Management of a primary school in Slovenia is actually a headmaster, usually elected by teachers and thus having no preliminary financial education. The only employee in school, assisting management in budget plan preparation, is an accountant. In our study, we tested if attitude of management to planning together with communication between management and accountant, impacts legally adequate content of schools’ budget plans. This was tested on a sample of public primary schools in Slovenia with the t-test for independent samples and the principal components analysis. We found that only communication between the management and accountant impacts legally adequate content of these plans. These findings suggest more financial trainings for schools’ management and increased role of local communities, as well as state’s institutions, in controlling if plans are law-compliant. Since schools are major consumers of public money, inadequate schools’ plans impact negatively local community’s and state’s budgets

Foreign direct investments’ openness in local communities – the case of Slovenia and Serbia

Inward foreign direct investments are usually cited as an essential tool for economic growth and are often listed as one of the priorities by national governments, especially in transition countries strive. When local communities are concerned, the economic effects of international capital flows in principle should not differ from the national economy. Despite the threats they can also pose, they should mostly represent the opportunity for technological improvements and raising the competitiveness of the economy. When inward foreign direct investments are more or less limited to a local community, its leadership is in a position to follow them carefully. In this case, they are usually also well informed on sentiments of the population regarding these investments. These processes may add to the governments’ responsibility when planning the investments but often also add to the transparency of other stakeholders, which could help the governments to manage foreign direct investments in the local community. To offer a novelty with research in the field, the authors added this perspective to existing studies, predominantly analysing foreign direct investment effects in the national economy. The paper brings a comparative analysis of sentiments in local communities in Slovenia and Serbia. Statistical analysis based on opinion polls, although not free of statistical risks, enabled expected conclusions but also opened new insights

Business environment and foreign direct investments: the case of selected European emerging economies

The globalisation process of the world economy has led to increase of international capital mobility. In the last two decades, the level of foreign direct investments (F.D.I.) was significantly raised and in 2017 was US$1.8 trillion. The question occupying attention in economic literature is what the main motives and determinants of F.D.I. in certain countries are. This article aims to explore what are the linkages between business environment and inward F.D.I. The research was performed on the sample of five European emerging economies, located in Central and Eastern Europe (C.E.E.) – Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. The research compared the main tendencies of F.D.I.s in selected economies, institutional framework and reforms during transition process, competitiveness and ease of doing business (E.D.B.). With the quantitative analysis and ordinary least squares (O.L.S.) regression authors tried to identify statistical significant linkages between inward F.D.I. and ease of doing business indicators, where control variables were G.C.I. pillars (relevant for business regulation and institutional framework), macroeconomic performances, market capitalisation and taxation. The results are identified factors of business environment relevant for attraction of F.D.I. and provided empirical model for each country respectivel

ICT adoption model of chinese SMEs

Chinese SMEs have played an important role in stimulating economic growth, increasing employment, expanding exports and promoting science and technology innovations. In 2005 there were more than 10 million SMEs registered in the Industry and Commerce Department, accounting for 99 per cent of all registered corporations (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific; China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, 2006). Further development of the Chinese as well as of all modern economies is dependent on the speed and effectiveness of the implementation of ICT based solutions in businesses. While large companies have been quick to adopt ICT solutions and technologies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had more serious problems with the requirements and challenges of e-business. A number of ICT, e-commerce adoption methodologies have been suggested through literature most of this research, has however, focused on developed countries where the structure of the economy is common. There are only few studies that shed some light on prescribing strategies of ICT adoption for SMEs in developing countries, especially Chine. Furthermore, despite the enormous attention given to encourage SMEs to adopt ICT there has been little systematic research into the factors influencing, enabling and inhibiting the adoption of ICT within SMEs. In this article, author developed a model of ICT adoption of Chinese SMEs, founded on premises that the adoption and the use of ICT represent the fundamental source of competitiveness and the basis for firms’ survival in the world market. By applying the Qualitative-Comparative Analysis (QCA) method and Boolean algebra, author proposed a model of necessary and sufficient factors for ICT adoption by SMEs in Chine

A content analysis of educational advertising in Canterbury

There is growing interest and evidence in the New Zealand education sector of the application of marketing principles and techniques. This has been brought about, in part, by a declining birth rate and a more market-driven economy. Faced by such changes educational institutions have increased their efforts to attract external funding and students. Advertising is one obvious way they have been doing this. This phenomenon, also reported in the UK, USA and Australia (Hayes, 1991; Pelletier, 1985; Stewart, 1991) in the past decade, is the focus of this paper. An initial investigation of New Zealand educational advertising research revealed little evidence of prior work in this field although overseas, institutional advertising appears to have attracted more research interest (McNamara,1985; Abernathy and Butler, 1992; Chamblee and Sandler, 1992). Given the limited budgets of many local educators, and their lack of marketing expertise, how are these managers promoting their services and how well are they doing this? The researchers examined these questions using educational advertisements collected over a five month period. Copy was then analysed using content analysis. Results indicated a heavy use of informative advertising, and a now ‘buy’ format. A high percent also list course components or subjects being offered, and provide contact names and numbers. These advertisements are, therefore, primarily akin to sales promotions