Mobile internet and SMEs: a focus on the adoption
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910930127 |
| Published date | 13 March 2009 |
| Date | 13 March 2009 |
| Pages | 245-261 |
| Author | Raffaello Balocco,Riccardo Mogre,Giovanni Toletti |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Mobile internet and SMEs: a focus
on the adoption
Raffaello Balocco, Riccardo Mogre and Giovanni Toletti
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering,
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the adoption of business to employee (B2e) mobile
internet (MI) applications in Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The purpose is twofold: to
analyze the diffusion of these applications underlining the main adoption barriers and to describe the
impact on the corporate environment and the decision-making process leading to the introduction of
B2e MI applications.
Design/methodology/approach – The diffusion of mobile solutions is gauged through a survey of
646 Italian SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Multiple case studies of 28 Italian SMEs that have
adopted 33 B2e MI applications have given insight into the impact and the adoption process of such
technologies.
Findings – The adoption of MI technologies is still limited in Italian SMEs. Two different kinds of
solutions (classified into connectivity-based and application-based) lead to different processes of
adoption.
Research limitations/implications – The study has been conducted only in an Italian scenario.
As for the survey, only firms belonging to the manufacturing industry have been interviewed.
Practical implications – The main adoption drivers/constraints have been identified. The paper
also provides information and communication technologies vendors with guidelines on how to
increase the use of the applications in Italian SMEs.
Originality/value – The paper is based on a double methodology in order toprovide afull analysis
of the adoption of mobile technologies in a business environment: the survey is used to quantify the
adoption of the technologies and the case studies are used to investigate the adoption process.
Keywords Italy, Small to medium-sizedenterprises, Mobile communication systems, Internet,
Employee communications
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Mobile internet (MI), which includes applications based on cellular (e.g. GSM, GPRS,
UMTS) and wireless (Wi-Fi, RFId, WiMAX, etc.) networks, represents the convergence
between two of the most relevant technological trends of the last few years: the internet
and mobile technologies. MI can provide a tremendous impetus to development of
strategic applications for business (Barnes, 2003a, b) in many different industries such
as transportation and logistics, financial services, health services, and others (Shim
et al., 2006). MI solutions can be classified into business to business applications
(targeted to other companies, e.g. PDA-based solutions to manage the sourcing
and procurement), business to consumer applications (targeted to final customers,
e.g. advertisements based on SMS/MMS), and business to employee (B2e) applications
(targeted to company employees, e.g. rugged terminal-based solutions for maintenanc e
activities). The interest in the topic is not limited to users; academics refer to these
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Mobile internet
and SMEs
245
Received 14 June 2008
Revised 11 July 2008
Accepted 21 August 2008
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 2, 2009
pp. 245-261
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910930127
applications with the terms mobile commerce and m-commerce (Varshney and Vetter,
2002; Mennecke and Strader, 2003; Ngai and Gunasekaran, 2005) or mobile business
(Paavilainen, 2002; Chen and Nath, 2004; Leem et al., 2004, IMDS).
This paper deals with B2e MI applications, which, from a world market of $1.2
billion in 2005, is expected to grow significantly with a compound annual growth rate
of 23 percent to $3.5 billion in 2010 (IDC, 2006).
B2e MI applications can significantly benefit company processes without requiring
significant modifications to these processes or major investments (Gebauer and Shaw,
2004; McIntosh and Baron, 2005). For these reasons, these applications seem to be
particularly suitable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which generally have
shown little awareness of information and communication technology (ICT)
applications (Chuang et al., 2007). Nevertheless, studies on how and to what extent
SMEs adopt mobile technologies are still scarce. For this reason, the present paper
combines survey and case study methodologies in order to fully understand the
adoption of B2e MI solutions by Italian SMEs.
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 provides background on B2e MI
applications. Section 3 defines the overall goals and methodology of the study. Section
4 presents the use of a survey to assess the rate of adoption and Section 5 presents the
use of case studies to discuss the adoption process. Section 6 illustrates the discussion
of the results. Finally, Section 7 offers concluding remarks and points out future
research paths.
2. Background
In this paper, the term MI is used, since it precisely indicates the use of portable devices
(i.e. laptops, PDAs, smartphones, etc.) and data transmission based on TCP/IP through
a cellular network (i.e. GPRS, Edge, or UMTS) (Rangone and Renga, 2006).
Nevertheless, this term is often used to identify solutions based not only on cellular
networks but also on wireless systems (i.e. Wi-Fi or WiMAX networks) (Barnes, 2002;
Kuhmar and Zahn, 2003).
In this section, the body of literature on B2e MI is analyzed with reference to three
relevant issues regarding the topic:
(1) the classification of the solutions;
(2) the value and impact on processes of the applications; and
(3) the adoption.
2.1 Classification of B2e MI applications
According to Evans (2002), B2e MI applications can be classified based on the
processes supported, drawing a main distinction between applications sustaining sales
force activities (sales force automation (SFA) applications) and those supporting
activities of other employees who usually work outside the company, e.g. technicians,
customer care employees, etc. (field force automation (FFA) applications). B2e MI
applications for more general activities (i.e. e-mail or intranet/internet access through
mobile devices) not targeted to specific types of employees can be defined as mobile
office applications (Varshney, 2003). Barnes (2003a, b) and Funk (2006) use Porter’s
value chain (Porter and Millar, 1985) to classify these solutions in mobile office, SFA,
FFA for delivery confirmation automation and for maintenance or on site-activities.
IMDS
109,2
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