ICT and small businesses. The Cube of Corporate Technological Level

Journal title MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Author/s Francesca Maria Cesaroni, Domenico Consoli
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/1
Language Italian Pages 28 P. 73-100 File size 164 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2015-001004
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The ability to use ICT to handle, process and use business data, as well as to develop new tools to support process management and control functions, is an essential condition for small businesses’ competitiveness. Important differences in ICT adoption rates between large and small firms have been identified, but it is important to properly assess the technological position of small businesses (SB), in order to reflect different ICT development paths. For this reason this paper presents a three-dimensional assessment framework - named Cube of the Corporate Technological Level (CCTL) - which allows evaluating businesses’ technological position using three different dimensions. Some case studies are briefly described in order to illustrate the ability of the model to reflect differences between enterprises with different technological positions. This tool enables companies to properly assess their technological position as well as their potential and existing weaknesses. It also allows choosing future ICT investments, as it can help to outline the path to follow for reaching a position of optimum technological development.

Keywords: Information Communication Technologies, Web 2.0, ICT readiness, Small businesses, Innovation.

Jel codes: M10, M11, M15, M40

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Francesca Maria Cesaroni, Domenico Consoli, ICT e piccole imprese. Il Cubo della Predisposizione Tecnologica Aziendale in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 1/2015, pp 73-100, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2015-001004