FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

FAKULTEIT INGENIEURSWESE, BOU-OMGEWING EN INLIGTINGTEGNOLOGIE

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT / INDIVIDUELE WERKSOPDRAG

Surname / Van

MAKIWA

Initials / Voorletters

P. J

Student Number /
Studentenommer

Module Code /
Modulekode
Assignment number /
Opdrag nommer

Name of Lecturer /
Naam van Dosent

DR NAIDOO

Date of Submission /
Datum ingehandig

11 MARCH

INF :

Declaration / Verklaring: I declare that this assignment, submitted by me, is my own work and that I have
referenced all the sources that I have used. / Ek verklaar dat hierdie opdrag wat deur my ingehandig word,
my eie werk is en dat ek na al die bronne wat ek gebruik het, verwys het.

Signature of Student /
Handtekening van
student

MARK / PUNT

1. a)
Quaddus, M. & Hofmeyer, G. 2007. An investigation into the factors
influencing the adoption of B2B trading exchanges in small businesses.
European. Journal of Information Systems, 16:202215.
Lamb, R. & Kling, R. 2006. Reconceptualising users as social actors in
information systems research. MIS Quarterly, 27(2):197-235.
Kapurubandara, M. (2009) A Framework to E-Transformation SMES in
Developing Countries. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in
Developing Countries, 39(3):1-24.
Dyerson, R., Harindranath, G. & Barnes, D. 2009. National survey of SMEs
use of IT in four sectors. The Electronic Journal Information Systems
Evaluation, 12(1):3950
Davidson, E. & Heslinga, D. 2007. Bridging the IT adoption gap for small
physician practices: an action research study on electronic health records.
Information Systems Management, 24(1):15-29.

b) The articles above are highlighting important issues that address the
adoption and utilisation of ICT in SMEs. Dyerson,Harindranath, and Barnes
(2009:41) propose

that Small business are the most influential in any

economy today and have risen to be a dominant force particularly in areas of

economic growth and employment creation. In developing countries one of
the main challenges to the utilisation of ICT in SMEs is internal expertise
(Davidson & Heslinga 2007). Quaddus and Hofmeyer (2007) also point out
that ICT utilisation by any SME has many benefits to its business processes
which include an improved collaboration between internal and external
business units through the use of extranets and intranets, huge savings in
costs especially when moving from hard copies to electronic copies, the ease
with which collaboration with partners and clients can be done, improved
customer satisfaction, growth in market, improved accountability and enhance
strategic planning. The articles also agree that SMEs not only help to improve
the living standards of people but bring about substantial local capital

formation

and

achieve

high

levels

of

productivity

and

capacity

(Kapurubandara, 2009).

5. Research Questions
a) What are the key motivators of ICT adoption and application in SMEs in
developing countries?
b) What are the critical barriers and constraints that are faced by stakeholders
in the implementation and adoption of ICT in SMEs?