The development of a framework on information behaviour of SME managers when adopting emerging ICTs

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy. ; Uncertainty and complexity related to emerging ICTs and unpredictable technology changes have put pressure on firms’ knowledge to gather, seek and scan the environment for information during their emerging ICT adoption decision-making process. Furthermore, unstable environment, changing government policy on information technology has contributed to, as well. Also, emerging ICTs have unlocked different and new opportunities and challenges for small businesses as well as open them to uncertainties and risks and their larger counterparts as well. As a result, information becomes significant during adoption decision-making process when adopting emerging ICTs, especially in SMEs because of limited resources. Even with the broad research and literature on adoption decision in SMEs, there is still limited research related to the information behaviours of SME owners when adopting emerging ICTs and factors that influence their information behaviours regarding information sources selection during this process. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the information behaviour of SME owners during the adoption decisions when adopting emerging ICTs. To advance our understanding in information behaviour when adopting emerging ICTs and show how SME managers can reduce uncertainty related to emerging ICT. This study is interpretive qualitative research, and semi-structured and unstructured face-toface interviews were conducted with twenty SME owners from UK service sector to achieve the objectives of this study. The interviews were recorded with the permission of the participants and the recordings were transcribed. Myers and Newman’s (2007) guidelines for qualitative interview research were used as a guide for the interview process and triangulation methods for the research rigour and quality. Nvivo 10 is used for data analysis. The results demonstrated the importance of information ...