Aranda-Mena, G; Blismas, N and Wakefield, R (2005) Factors affecting the uptake of e-business by small building enterprises. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 21st Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-9 September 2005, London, UK.
Abstract
The adoption of e-business by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in construction lags other service and product businesses within the building sector. Twenty SMEs were studied to establish the drivers and barriers to e-business adoption within construction. Empirical techniques included interviews and repertory grids for business web site assessment. Data was transcribed and analysed using cluster analyses. Preliminary results reveal that current models for e-business adoption are not effective for the small businesses as they tend to target large enterprises or from other sectors such as retail and tourism. These generic models have largely ignored the nature of the construction industry, and some modifications appear to be required. This paper proposes adoption guidelines sensitive to the nature of the industry - particularly for e-business uptake in building SME's.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | e-business adoption; ICT maturity levels; technology uptake; innovation diffusion; small and medium enterprise |
| Index terms: | maturity level, innovation diffusion, interview, e-business, construction industry, cluster analysis, small business, tourism |
| Subjects: | evaluation, industry analysis, sociology, data collection methods, organization, data analysis and analytics, digital commerce |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here