STRATEGIZING SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ICT-RELATED INNOVATIONS ADOPTION: MODERATING INFLUENCE OF GENDER, AGE AND EXPERIENCE

Authors

Adamkolo Mohammed Ibrahim, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

Keywords

Gender, Age and Experience, Enterprise Development, ICT Adoption, Innovations, SME Employees

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The rapid advancement in information and communication technology (ICT) has brought huge entrepreneur benefits and challenges. A key challenge that has been less researched is the demand for skilled manpower in relation to the issue of the role employees' age and gender play in driving SMEs' ICT-related innovations adoption. This paper attempted to determine the moderating role of three important workers' demographic characteristics (age, gender and experience) on the use of innovations related to ICT by SMEs. Adopting the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) perspective, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 400 employees selected from 43 SMEs in the Malaysian state of Selangor. The results of multiple regression analysis indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions all have significant impacts on ICT-related technology innovations adoption (ICTRIA) while the moderator analysis confirmed that the two gender categories, different age groups and different experience levels have specific moderating influence on the relationship paths between the four predictors and technology innovations use. Novel findings show that performance expectancy and social influence are more salient for older female and younger female workers to run jobs related to ICT innovations use in the firm respectively.

First Page

15

Last Page

32

Page Range

15-32

Issue

1

Volume

48

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.21831/informasi.v48i1.18417

Source

18417

Recommended Citation

Ibrahim, A. M. (2018). STRATEGIZING SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT THROUGH ICT-RELATED INNOVATIONS ADOPTION: MODERATING INFLUENCE OF GENDER, AGE AND EXPERIENCE. Informasi, 48(1), 15-32. https://doi.org/10.21831/informasi.v48i1.18417

References

Abd Rahman, A., Kamarulzaman, N.H., & Sambasivan, M. (2013). A study on organisational culture, performance, and technological adoption behaviours of Malaysian food-processing SMEs. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 21(Spec. ed. June), 231-256.

Abdullah, N.H., Shamsuddin, A., Wahab, E., & Hamid, N.A. (2012). Preliminary qualitative findings on technology adoption of Malaysian SMEs. In Humanities, Science and Engineering (CHUSER), 2012 IEEE Colloquium on (pp. 15-20), December 3-4, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Agarwal, R., & Prasad, J. (1999). Are individual differences germane to the acceptance of new information technologies? Decision sciences, 30(2): 361-391.

Al-Gahtani, S.S., Hubona, G.S., & Wang, J. (2007). Information technology (IT) in Saudi Arabia: Culture and the acceptance and use of IT. Information & Management, 44(8): 681-691.

AlRahbi, H.S.A. (2017). ‘Factors influencing social media adoption in small and medium enterprises (SMEs).’ Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London, UK. Retrieved from http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/14514/1/FulltextThesis.pdf%20 on 2 June 2017.

Aoun, C., Vatanasakdakul, S., & Li, Y. (2010, December). AIS in Australia: UTAUT application & cultural implication. In 21st Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2010), (paper 17, pp. 1-12), Brisbane, Australia. AIS.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. Media Psychology, 3(3): 265-299.

Cheng, D., Liu, G., Qian, C. & Song, Y-F. (2008). Adoption of Internet banking: An integrated model. Proceeds of the 4th International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing (WiCOM'08), (pp. 1-4), EEE.

Chiu, C.Y., Chen, S., & Chen, C.L. (2017). An integrated perspective of TOE framework and innovation diffusion in broadband mobile applications adoption by enterprises. International Journal of Management, Economics and Social Sciences (IJMESS), 6(1): 14-39.

Comrey, A.L., & Lee, H.B. (2013). A first course in factor analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Psychology Press.

Dholakia, R.R., & Kshetri, N. (2004). Factors impacting the adoption of the Internet among SMEs. Small Business Economics, 23(4): 311-322.

DOSM (2014). SMEs Census 2011. Retrieved from www.statistics.my.gov/ on 25 May 2014.

Duan, Y., Mullins, R., Hamblin, D., Stanek, S., Sroka, H., Machado, V., & Joao Araujo, A. (2002). Addressing ICTs skill challenges in SMEs: Insights from three country investigations. Journal of European Industrial Training, 26(9): 430-441.

Ghobakhloo, N.B. Zulkifli, F.A., & Aziz (2010). The interactive model of user information technology acceptance and satisfaction in small and medium-sized enterprises. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, 19(1): 7–27.

Escobar-Rodríguez, T., & Carvajal-Trujillo, E. (2014). Online purchasing tickets for low cost carriers: An application of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model,” Tourism Management, 43: 70-88.

Goswami, A., & Dutta, S. (2017). E-Commerce adoption by women entrepreneurs in India: An application of the UTAUT model, Business and Economic Research, 6(2): 440-454.

Goy, S.C., Wong, Y.L., Low, W.Y., Noor, S.N.M., Fazli-Khalaf, Z., Onyeneho, N., Daniel, E., Azizan, S., Hasbullah, M., & GinikaUzoigwe, A. (2017). Swimming against the tide in STEM education and gender equality: A problem of recruitment or retention in Malaysia. Studies in Higher Education, 1-17, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2016.1277383

Hashim, J. (2015). Information communication technology (ICT) adoption among SME owners in Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Information, 2(2): 221-240.

Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Babin, B.J., & Black, W.C. (2010). Multivariate data analysis: A global perspective (vol. 7), New Jersey, Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

He, D., & Lu, Y. (2007). Consumers’ perceptions and acceptances towards mobile advertising: An empirical study in China. In Proceedings of International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing (WiCom2007) (pp. 3775-3778), IEEE.

Higón, D.A. (2012). The impact of ICT on innovation activities: Evidence for UK SMEs. International Small Business Journal, 30(6): 684-699.

Kenny, D.A. (2014), Measuring model fit. Retrieved from http://davidakenny.net/cm/fit.htm#RMSEA on 28 August 2015.

Kogilah, N., Santhapparaj, A. S., & Eze, U. C. (2008). An empirical study of website adoption among small and medium enterprises in Malaysia. Proceedings of the 10th International Business Information Management Association (IBIMA) Conference on Innovation and Knowledge Management in Business Globalisation, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp. 339-51.

Li, J.P., & Kishore, R. (2006). How robust is the UTAUT instrument? A multigroup invariance analysis in the context of acceptance and use of online community weblog systems. In Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference on Computer Personnel Research: Forty-four years of Computer Personnel Research: Achievements, Challenges and the Future (pp. 183-189), ACM.

Maldonado, U.P.T., Khan, G.F., Moon, J. & Rho, J.J. (2011). E-learning motivation, students’ acceptance/use of educational portal in developing countries. Online Information Review, 35(1): 66-85.

Maruping, L.M., Bala, H., Venkatesh, V., & Brown, S.A. (2017). Going beyond intention: Integrating behavioural expectation into the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(3): 623-637.

MCMC (2014). Communications and multimedia pocket book of statistics, 2013, (Q4). Malaysian Multimedia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), retrieved from http://www.skmm.gov.my/skmmgovmy/media/General/pdf/SKMM_Q3_ENG.pdf on 29 January 2014.

Mehta, A. (2016). The relationship between rural retailing, women agropreneurs innovativeness and firm performance: a conceptual review and avenues for future research. International Journal of Green Economics, 10(2): 151-190.

Morris, M.G., & Venkatesh, V. (2000). Age differences in technology adoption decisions: Implications for a changing work force. Personnel Psychology, 53(2): 375-403.

Morris, M.G., Venkatesh, V., & Ackerman, P.L. (2005). Gender and age differences in employee decisions about new technology: An extension to the theory of planned behaviour. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 52(1): 69-84.

Odoom, R., Anning-Dorson, T., & Acheampong, G. (2017). Antecedents of social media usage and performance benefits in small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 30(3): 383-399.

Rusdi, S.D., Hassan, R., Munir, Z.A., & Mohamad, S.S. (2017). Information and communication technology (ICT) adoption factors and its influence on employees’ performance in SMEs. Advanced Science Letters, 23(8): 7841-7844(4).

Qureshi, S., & Xiong, J. (2017). Understanding the role of technology in the development of micro-enterprises: Concepts to study in making a better world. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2017) (pp. 2627-2636), 4-7 January, Hilton Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA.

Rahman, H., & Ramos, I. (2014). Information systems for small and medium-sized enterprises. In Devos, J., van Landeghem, H., & Deschoolmeester, D. (Eds.), Progress in IS (pp. 313-335), Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

Razak, N.A., Aziz, J., Hashim, F., Amir, Z., & Zulkifli, S.H. (2010). The acculturation of ICT among rural women e-entrepreneurs. In 9th WSEAS International Conference on Education and Educational Technology, EDU'10 (pp. 278-283), 4-6 October, Iwate, Japan.

Salancik, G.R. & Pfeffer, J. (1978). A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23(2): 224-253.

Selamat, N.H., Endut, N., Karupaiah, P., Isa, S.M., Fernando, Y., & Zahari, M.M. (2016). Why patriarchal matters: Entrepreneurship performance among women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The NIEW Journal, 8, 42-49.

SMECORP (2017a). SME Statistics: Economic census 2016 - Profile of SMEs (Contribution of SMEs in 2016). Small and medium enterprises corporation of Malaysia (SMECORP), retrieved from http://www.smecorp.gov.my/index.php/en/policies/2015-12-21-19-09-49/sme-statistics on 4 February 2018.

SMECORP (2017b). Appendix 4: SME definition. In SME annual report, 2016/2017, p 157. Small and medium enterprises corporation of Malaysia (SMECORP), retrieved from http://www.smecorp.gov.my/index.php/en/sme-annual-report-2015-16?id=2150 on 4 February 2018.

Srinivas, K., & Yasmeen, M.S. (2017). A study on employee engagement in small and medium enterprises in digital economy. In Aluvala, R. (Ed.), Millennial Workforce–A Contemplation (pp.57-64), Hyderabad: Zenon Academic Publishing.

Taiwo, A.D., & Downe, A. G. (2013). The theory of user acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT): A meta-analytic review of empirical findings. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 49(1): 48-58.

Tan, K.S., Chong, S.C., Lin, B., & Eze, U.C. (2010). Internet-based ICT adoption among SMEs: Demographics versus benefits, barriers and adoption intention. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 23(1): 27-55.

Tatoglu, E., Bayraktar, E., Golgeci, I., Koh, S.L., Demirbag, M., & Zaim, S. (2016). How do supply chain management and information systems practices influence operational performance? Evidence from emerging country SMEs. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 19(3): 181-199.

Taylor, S., & Todd, P.A. (1995). Understanding information technology usage: A test of competing models,” Information Systems Research, 6(2): 144-176.

UNDP (2016). UNDP Human development report 2016: Human development for everyone. UNDP, UN, New York, USA. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/MYS.pdf on 18 June 2017.

Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., Maruping, L.M., & Bala, H. (2008). Predicting different conceptualisations of system use: The competing roles of behavioural intention, facilitating conditions, and behavioural expectation. MIS quarterly, 32(3): 483-502.

Venkatesh, V., & Davis, F.D. (2000). A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: Four longitudinal field studies. Management Science, 46(2): 186-204.

Venkatesh, V., & Morris, M.G. (2000). Why don't men ever stop to ask for directions? Gender, social influence, and their role in technology acceptance and usage behaviour. MIS Quarterly, 24(1): 115-139.

Venkatesh, V. Morris, M.G., Davis, G.B., & Davis, F.D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology acceptance: Toward a unified view,” MIS Quarterly, 27(3): 425-478.

Verheul, I., Thurik, R., & Grilo, I. (2010). Explaining preferences and actual involvement in self-employment: New insights into the role of gender. ERIM Report Series Research in Management, No. ERS-2008-003-ORG. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/10979 on 15 June 2017.

Zarehmohzzabieh, Z., Samah, B.A., Omar, S.Z., Bolong, J., & Shaffril, H.A.M. (2014). Fishermen’s acceptance and use of information and communication technology integration in Malaysia. Exploring the moderating effect of age and experience. Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(9): 1-10.