If the App Fits – Business Mobile Application Assimilation and Value Creation in SMEs

David Egbert, RWTH Aachen University
Stefanie Paluch, Service and Technology Marketing

Description

Mobile applications have the potential to significantly change the way businesses interact with external stakeholders. Our review of previous literature, however, reveals a paucity of academic research on factors that facilitate or impede adoption and implementation from providers’ perspective. Grounded in the taxonomy of the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, this paper addresses this gap by deriving a SME-focused IT assimilation model. Framed by qualitative data obtained from ten semi-structured interviews, the proposed model incorporates six contextual factors that determine two distinct IT assimilation stages: (1) initial adoption decisions and (2) degree of integration into value chain activities (i.e., extent of adoption). Our paper thereby provides a balanced view between initial adoption and subsequent implementation. We are thereby able to contribute to a profound understanding of the link between post-adoption variations in IT usage and business value creation. The proposed model is tested against data collected from 214 SMEs using logistic regression and structural equation modeling.

 

If the App Fits – Business Mobile Application Assimilation and Value Creation in SMEs

Mobile applications have the potential to significantly change the way businesses interact with external stakeholders. Our review of previous literature, however, reveals a paucity of academic research on factors that facilitate or impede adoption and implementation from providers’ perspective. Grounded in the taxonomy of the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, this paper addresses this gap by deriving a SME-focused IT assimilation model. Framed by qualitative data obtained from ten semi-structured interviews, the proposed model incorporates six contextual factors that determine two distinct IT assimilation stages: (1) initial adoption decisions and (2) degree of integration into value chain activities (i.e., extent of adoption). Our paper thereby provides a balanced view between initial adoption and subsequent implementation. We are thereby able to contribute to a profound understanding of the link between post-adoption variations in IT usage and business value creation. The proposed model is tested against data collected from 214 SMEs using logistic regression and structural equation modeling.