Abstract
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are important in the economic development. This is true in developed countries as well as in underdeveloped ones. With an estimated rate of 50% of SMBs which may die within their first 5 years, there is a great need to help small businesses to survive. To solve the problem, one orientation is related to the lifecycle approach. It analyzes how changes occur in SMBs and how owners and entrepreneurs adapt to these throughout the development of the business. On the other hand, ICT features may help in building the image of a company, enhance productivity and innovation. This paper presents an ongoing research on how ICT capabilities can be progressively integrated into the lifecycle stages of SMBs to help them survive throughout their development. It shows the first results from interviews conducted with ten SMBs in Cameroon. The aim was to analyze how organizations at various stages of the lifecycle deal with technology. The main finding is that, depending on the stage of the lifecycle, the same technology will be used differently. Another key finding is that, from one stage to another, the cost of ICT investment will be perceived as an important barrier or as an integrated cost.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
D.R. Álvaro Cuervo, Entrepreneurship: Concepts, Theory (Springer, New York, 2007)
G. Erick, H. Martin, M.M. Laura, MSME Country Indicators 2014: Towards a Better Understanding of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (IFC World Bank group, Washington, DC, 2014)
A. Tarutė, R. Gatautis, ICT impact on SMEs performance. Procedia. Soc. Behav. Sci. 110, 1218–1225 (2014)
A. Morgan, D. Colebourne, B. Thomas, The development of ICT advisors for SME businesses: an innovative approach. Technovation 26(8), 980–987 (2006)
J.M. Müller, O. Buliga, K.I. Voigt, Fortune favors the prepared: how SMEs approach business model innovations in industry 4.0. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 132, 2–17 (2018)
M. Matejun, Z. Mikoláš, Small business life cycle: statics and dynamics (S&D) model. Eng. Manag. Prod. Serv. 9(7), 48–58 (2017)
L.E. Greiner, Evolution and revolution as organizations grow, in Developing Managerial Skills in Organizational Behavior: Exercises, Cases, and Readings, ed. by L. Mainiero, C. Tromley, (Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, 1994), pp. 322–329
S. Mel, B. Richard, Five stages of growth in small business. Long Range Plan. 20(3), 42–52 (1987)
M. Matejun, Instruments supporting development in the life cycle of small and medium-sized enterprises. Int. J. Econ. Sci. 2(1), 40–60 (2013)
M.Z. Muhamed Shaukat, Impact of information technology on organizational performance: An analysis of qualitative performance indicator of Pakistan’s banking and manufacturing companies. Eur. J. Econ. Finance Adm. Sci. 6(6), 36–49 (2009)
S.J. Winter, C.M. Gaglio, H.K. Rajagopalan, The value of information systems to small and medium-sized enterprises: information and communications technologies as signal and symbol of legitimacy and competitiveness. IJEBR 5(1), 55–91 (2009)
S.A. Wymer, E.A. Regan, Factors influencing e-commerce adoption and use by small and medium businesses. Electron. Mark. 15(4), 438–453 (2005)
C. Akomea-Bonsu, S. Frank, The impact of information and communication technologies on small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana, West Africa. Eur. J. Bus. Manag. 4(20), 152–158 (2012)
M. Lyver, T.-J. Lu, Sustaining innovation performance in SMEs: exploring the roles of strategic entrepreneurship and IT capabilities. Sustainability 10(2), 442 (2018)
R. Dyerson, G. Harindranath, D. Barnes, National survey of SMEs’ use of IT in four sectors. Electron. J. Inform. Syst. Eval. 12(1), 39–50 (2009)
I.v. Weerd, I. Mangula, S. Brinkkemper, Adoption of software as a service in Indonesia: examining the influence of organizational factors. Inf. Manag. 53(7), 915–928 (2016)
C.P. Soh, C.S. Yap, K.S. Raman, Impact of consultants on computerization success in small businesses. Inf. Manag. 22(5), 309–319 (1992)
G. Gable, Consultant engagement for computer system selection: a pro-active client role in small businesses. Inf. Manag. 20(2), 83–93 (1991)
R.O. Statistics, General Enterprise Census (National Institute of Statistics, Yaounde, 2009)
S. Fosso Wamba, T. Carter, Social media tools adoption and use by SMES: an empirical study. J. End User Organ. Comput. 26(2), 1–17 (2014)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cécile Angéla, M.N., Jean Robert, K.K., Samuel, F.W. (2020). The Role of ICT in SMBs Growth: An Analysis of ICT Intervention at Different Levels of Small Businesses Lifecycle. In: Zheng, P., Callaghan, V., Crawford, D., Kymäläinen, T., Reyes-Munoz, A. (eds) EAI International Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education. TIE 2017. EAI/Springer Innovations in Communication and Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16130-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16130-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16129-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16130-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)