Adoption of ICT among small business: vision vs. reality

It is widely recognised that small businesses with less than 100 employees make a major contribution to local and national economies. The potential for economic growth is further enhanced when businesses collaborate with each other. The aim of this paper is to present a case study of the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) among small businesses within a locality of Greater Manchester, England. The paper is set within the literature of ICTs adoption. It presents a description of the 6000 small businesses situated within the locality together with the vision for economic growth that could result from greater collaboration. Simple, easy to use tools were designed specifically for the purpose and a joint local government university project put in place to encourage adoption. Adoption was facilitated by business facilitators from the local government offices and technical facilitators from the university. The reality after 18 months is that 400 firms have used and adopted the technology. The paper draws on the theory to present an initial analysis of the factors affecting adoption in this case and discusses the wider implications for adoption of ICTs among small business. The paper concludes with a description of future research.