Information Technology Adoption and Assimilation : Towards a Research Framework for Service Sector SMEs

Information technologies (IT) have become one of the most important infrastructural elements for SMEs in service in-dustries. Now, these firms show specific characteristics and behaviours with regard to adopting and assimilating IT. These specificities have not been taken into account however in formulating a research framework or programme on the adoption and assimilation of IT in service SMEs. The present study thus seeks to fill this void. After reviewing the literature on IT in the services sector, the antecedents of IT adoption and assimilation in the context of service SMEs are identified and integrated within a research framework. This framework is then applied to generate a set of twenty-two salient propositions for future research on IT adoption and assimilation in service sector SMEs.

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