Factors affecting emerging ICT adoption in SMEs: an Actor Network Theory analysis

The majority of ICT adoption studies regards ICT adoption as a one-off practice and focuses on factors influencing adoption at one particular decision point. Most studies appear to have ignored the fact that ICT adoption is a dynamic and ongoing process and that factors influencing its adoption should be accounted for, as the decision to adopt proceeds from one stage to another. This paper reports our research attempt to examine the dynamic process of ICT adoption in SMEs using Actor Network Theory (ANT). This study employs a qualitative approach to investigate how UK services SMEs are constantly engaging in ICT adoption, by focusing on the dynamic adoption process and critical factors. A framework was derived based on ANT with the empirical evidence collected. The findings suggest that using ANT to examine the process of emerging ICT adoption helps to unveil the recursive and dynamic nature of the process and the key factors at each stage. This paper presents and discusses the key findings on critical factors affecting the dynamic process of emerging ICTs adoption.