An empirical investigation of factors affecting e-collaboration diffusion in SMEs

ICT-based solution approach for collaborative delivery of customised products

“…It is very important to have an efficient collaborative environment, where the multiple design and engineering tasks of a product and sharing product information can be mediated among individual partner organizations (Alarcon et al, 2009;Lee et al, 2009). This environment should have an automated and real-time information flow strategy among the collaborative business partners (Chituc et al, 2009;Loss et al, 2010;Chan et al, 2012). The Internet and ICT/Web-based technologies can be adopted by the manufacturing firms, especially in collaborative product development environments to create information availability that is accessible, cost-effective and useful for broad range of applications (Huang and Mak, 1999;Shen, 2000;Shen and Wang, 2002;Renner, 2002).…”

“…Business collaboration in the form of e-collaboration with active support from ICT or web-enabled technology allows the integration of business processes and the sharing of information among collaborative organizations that ultimately contributes organizations to gain competitive advantages Chan et al, 2012;Choudhary et al, 2013). To improve product creation at the present level of market competition, manufacturers have to continually utilize computer and network technology to develop enterprise information systems and adopt business network with the view to reduce development cost (Levy and Powell, 2000).…”

Demand chain management: Relationships between external antecedents, web-based integration and service innovation performance

“…technical and financial resources) and environmental (e.g. competitive pressure) perspectives (also known as the TOE model) (Chan et al, 2012). Although the TOE model and other adoption models, such as the diffusion of innovation model (Rogers, 1995), have been applied to examine technology adoptions, they have not been used to examine web-based DCM integration adoption.…”

Effect of evaluation on SMMEs’ new technology decision-making processes

“…A competitive advantage gives businesses a leading edge over competitors, and it is used as a strategic tool to positively bring about organisational change in the business process (Nguyen et al 2013). Abulrub et al (2012) and Cowan and Daim (2011) (Abulrub et al 2012;Chan et al 2012). However, Lee et al (2010) and Love et al (2005) state that decisions of owners and/or managers also depend on how much the decision-makers are willing to accept as an equitable risk to balance the level of uncertainty and probability of the outcome, which is relatively unknown.…”

“…The impact of new technology on the organisational performance is visible in aspects of profitability, efficiency, market value and shares, productivity, quality and competitive advantages. The concept of the adoption of new technological innovation as a powerful competitive weapon is illustrated and emphasised by past and present literature (Boateng et al 2010;Chan, Chong & Zhou 2012;Mata, Fuerst & William 1995). Although SMMEs' importance to economic development of South Africa is recognised, emphasis should be directed on SMMEs' knowledge and acquisition of available technologies that can be utilised to improve business processes (Govender & Pretorius 2015).…”