L’innovation en PME et son accompagnement par les TIC : quels effets sur la performance ?

Authors

François Deltour, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, FranceFollow
Virginie Lethiais, Telecom Bretagne Engineering School, FranceFollow

Abstract

Firms’ innovativeness and their ICT resources are seen as two factors of firms’ competi- tiveness. Our research tests these sources of performance in the context of small-and-medi- um enterprises (SMEs) and examines possible synergies with ICTs supporting innovation. Our research is based on a double empirical investigation: a survey is conducted among firms in the region of Brittany (France), complemented with an online investigation of their financial performance. With a final sample of 1086 firms, we perform an economet- ric assessment of SMEs performance, explained by their innovativeness, their ICT resources (skills and assets) and the combined effect of their innovativeness supported by ICTs. The interaction variable capturing the combined effect constitutes the major methodological originality of our research. Our investigation shows that ICTs contribute to performance improvement when supporting innovations: SMEs’ innovativeness positively influences per- formance when it is accompanied by specific investments in ICTs or by more intensive use of existing ICTs in the firm. However, innovativeness and the level of ICT resources have a direct negative effect on SMEs’ financial performance. We discuss these results in the spe- cific SMEs organizational context.

Recommended Citation

Deltour, François and Lethiais, Virginie (2014) "L’innovation en PME et son accompagnement par les TIC : quels effets sur la performance ?," Systèmes d'Information et Management: Vol. 19: Iss. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/sim/vol19/iss2/3