Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

ADOPTION PROCESSES FOR ADVANCED ICT IN SMEs

- Cases from the detached house production sector

Mats EngsboPh.D. student

Information Systems ScienceDepartment of Management and Organization

HANKEN / Vaasa(Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration)

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Research area

The area of research is ICT adoption in SMEs, with

focus on a part of the building construction industry,

firms that provide (detached) house packages in

differing stages of service completion.

Advanced ICT includes Internet-based technologies

as well as 3D and product-modelling.

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Background to research

The multitude of technologies available today are

enormous, and the sector should be aware of benefits

from using Internet-enabled business and collaboration

technology (solutions).

Why and how is the detached house package industry

adopting Internet-enabled solutions? When resistance,

are there few perceivable benefits? Are there barriers

and non-existent prerequisites?

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Why detached house building industry?

These are mainly SMEs (small and medium-sized firms)

(about 98%), many of them family-owned firms.

Often focused on regional markets and (historically…)

associated with low levels of ICT sophistication.

Competition is hard, national market at 13.000+ units

per year, good deal of exports (especially log homes).

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

The aim of the thesis

The aim of the thesis is to identify what

factors affect the adoption and actual use of

advanced ICT in the sector, and how do the

adoption process interact with other processes

in the firms.

This considered from a three-level view-point

(individual, firm, and network)

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How do these SMEs adopt (and use) Internet-enabled

collaboration/business? is there an “adoption

model” that applies to how the firms choose to or not

to adopt?

• How are the three levels interacting when adoption is

being considered?

• How does IT adoption affect processes

(information/material/business) internally and

externally?

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

The context of the study

•Advanced (e.g. product modeling) and Internet-based (e.g. Intranets) ICTs

•Micro and meso perspectives

•Adoption and use

•Building construction industry DHPP

•Service offer vs level of integration

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Contribution of thesis

• The adoption process of construction SMEs

connection between adoption processes

and firm processes adoption ”model”

• The motives vs. outcomes of adoption for

specific field

• Strategic implications of technological,

social, organizational and managerial factors

• (State-of-the-art-review)

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Operationalization of aim

• Positivistic sector-wide survey (Finland, about 270 firms)

– Driving forces, barriers, effects of implementation, expectations,

facilitators etcetera

• Interpretive case-studies of (state-of-the-art firms or

”purposive maximum variation sampling”) in adopting

firms what decisions in adoption process

– Instrumental vs intrinsic case studies generalization through

developing concepts and generating theory

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Observations from pre-study

Interviews with four providers in Ostrobothnia region

• Internet as a marketing tool:

– Providing 3-4 times more inquiries, main channel of first contact ( but after that referred to sales person for personal negotiations)

• Internet as a procurement channel:

– Some use, more in the form of e-mailing fax communication.

• Intranet use

– Projects under-way for scheduling and keeping track of projects

• Project modelling and visualization

– Still focused on CAD, no connection to whole house project life-cycle.

Nordic Construction ICT Seminar, 29-30.03.2006

Mats Engsbo (2006)

Thank you!