Factors affecting the adoption of information and communication technology in small and medium enterprises: a perspective from rural Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can play an important role in the national economy of developing countries. The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) has enabled local SMEs to participate in the international market. However, little research has addressed issues related to SMEs adopting ICTs, especially in rural areas of Middle Eastern developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. Using the extended technology-organization-environment framework with personal innovativeness, this study examined the factors that influence the adoption of ICTs among SMEs in rural areas of Saudi Arabia. The study found that relative advantages, top management support, culture, regulatory environment, owner/manager innovativeness and ICT knowledge had a significant relationship with ICT adoption among SMEs in Saudi Arabia, whereas compatibility, complexity and a competitive environment had no significant relationship with ICT adoption. The findings of this study will potentially help SME managers/owners and the Saudi government in the successful adoption and diffusion of ICT in SMEs located in rural areas in Saudi Arabia.

KEYWORDS:

• ICT
• SMEs
• rural areas
• developing countries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Adnan Mustafa AlBar is an Associate Professor at the Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. He was appointed as the first IS chairman where he lead team who prepared the IS undergraduate curriculum. He was then appointed as the vice dean for students affairs deanship for development for two years. Dr. Adnan had supervised the team who implemented the University SAP ERP project for three years. He has attended training programs inside the University and overseas. He teaches enterprise architecture course at the undergraduate level and enterprise modelling course at master program. He is the founder and managing director of IT Expert House where he lead a team of consultants to provide consultation for the private sectors. Dr. AlBar is a senior member of IEEE and member of the executive committee of the IEEE Western Saudi Arabia Section, a member of ACM and ISACA. His main research is in enterprise information systems, Mobility in the enterprise, enterprise architecture, business process management and technology adoption at the organizational level. You can find more about him at http://ambar.kau.edu.sa/

Md. Rakibul Hoque is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include technology adoption, e-Health, mHealth and ICT4D. Dr. Hoque has published number of research articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, and has presented papers in international conferences. He had the opportunity to work in a number of research projects in Bangladesh, Australia, China and Saudi Arabia. His research has been funded through governments of Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and China. Dr. Rakibul is the member of Association for Information Systems (AIS), UNESCO Open Educational Resources Community, Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), IEEE and Internet Society.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah [Grant No. 611-830-D1435]. The authors, therefore, gratefully acknowledge the DSR technical and financial support.