mats engsbo (2007) foundit-salford seminarium, university of salford, uk, 8-9.10.20071 mats engsbo,...

Mats Engsbo (2007) FoundIT-Salford Seminarium, University of Salford, UK, 8-9.10.2007 1

Mats Engsbo, Ph.D. studentInformation Systems Science, HANKEN

THESIS PROJECT:

”The Adoption of Advanced Information Technologies

Among Providers of (Wooden) House Packages – A

Four-level Management Perspective”

RESEARCH AREA: ICT adoption in SMEs, with focus on

firms that provide house packages in differing stages of

service completion. Strategic considerations of adoption.



AIM OF THESIS: to identify what strategic factors affect the

adoption (decision) and actual use of advanced ICTs in the

sector, and how do the adoption change other processes of

the firms (and the industry).

Reactive-proactive strategic behaviour,

competitive implications, bounded rationality.

what decisions in the adoption process in its real context

with human interpretation. Content-context-process

(Walsham)



RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

How are the IT adoption decisions related to conflicts in the

four-level adoption framework? (Benefits, resources, barriers

on individual-organizational-network-industry levels)

a strategic adoption process

BENEFITS(Expected / Realized)

RESOURCES

BARRIERS

WHAT / WHY

HOW / WHAT

ICT ADOPTION

Individual level

Firm level Network level

Industry level

WHERE

Mats Engsbo (2007)

Typical Finnish detached house

FoundIT-Salford Seminarium, University of Salford, UK, 8-9.10.2007 4

Source: Heikius House (www.heikius.fi)

Mats Engsbo (2007)

Providers of house packages – Finland (2006)

Facts and features of the industry for house packages

• 15,700 detached houses built in 2006, of which 70 per cent are delivered by house package firms. Average price of house packages: c. EUR 90,000. Also prefabrication of elements to contractor / developer projects.

• More than 200 firms that produce or market detached house packages. Consists of SMEs (>98%). Some groups with multiple brands: FinnDomo, PRT Forest, Harjavalta.

• Material of shell for detached houses in general: wooden (87%) and stone/concrete (13%). Material of shell for detached houses packages: (wooden) elements 57%, precut 21%, log 9%, stone 13%. Customer’s market, customization.


Mats Engsbo (2007)

My Research ApproachElements of research My choice

1. Ontology (what is knowledge?)

Realist Relativist ~critical realist (?)

2. Epistemology (the validity of knowledge)

Objectivism(independence of opinions)

Subjectivism(consciousness affected by others)

Leaning towards the subjective (the four-level approach)

3. Theoretical perspective

A. Post-positivsm (deterministic)C. Advocacy(margins)

B. Interpretivism(meaning/context)D. Pragmatism(the facts/experience)

Pragmatic-Interpretivist approach (abductive-inductive, contextual)

4. Methodology (How is knowledge acquired?)

A. QuantitativeC. Mixed methods

B. Qualitative Going for mixed methods and some sort of ‘triangulation’.

5. Methods ExperimentsSurveyCase study

EtnographyAction researchObservations etcetera

Total population surveys + case studies + interviews




DATA GATHERING

1. Pilot study (three local firms, 2 CEO + 1 CMO + 1 sales), Spring

2005

2. Sector-wide survey, personnel > 4, SNI-20301. 50 questions.

Finland, about 114 firms 27 responses (~24%). October-November 2006

Sweden, about 81 firms 24 responses (~30%). February-March 2007.

3. Interpretive case-studies of adoption of advanced ICT.

Two Finnish firms + one Swedish firm. 4-5 interviews / firm. May-September

2007.


Observations from pre-study

Interviews with three 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.



SURVEY – Questionnaire focus

•Four focus areas of IT implementation (communication) – e-marketing,

e-procurement, internal communication and planning/design.

•IT use or adoption stage, then benefits, resources and barriers. Four

levels, interconnectedness and conflicts.

•The requirements of resources, barriers for specific ICT, the expectations

and implications (pragmatic) of adopting



Stages in the adoption process

Implemented (impl), decision to adopt (dec+),

decision reject (dec-), recognized need (need),

unaware (unaw)

I. Knowledge II. Persuasion III. Decision V. ConfirmationIV. Implement-ation

2. Rejection

1. Adoption



SURVEY – Key findings

•“High-tech” correlation between production and planning high, customer contacts, supplier contacts and internal communications high.

•The use of e-procurement beyond e-mails was extremely low, proprietary system more used in Finland. Main reasons for implementing would be automatization and control of procurements

•The implementation of 2D high, 3D considered need-worthy by 22% of the firms, and BIM virtually unknown…

•Intranets in 50% of firms, somewhat size-relevant, 16% rejecting, many of personnel less than 20. Real-time scheduling used in 25% of firms.



INTERVIEW – Composition and focus

•Each firm several interviews: CEO, CIO (IT), head of marketing, procurement officer, head of design, 1-2 sales persons.

•Overall picture, IT-specifics, focus areas, intranet/specific software adoption/use.

•Strategic overview, decisions, connections to changes in industry and network, key persons, the levels.

•IT adoption management perspective – not only a economic-rationalistic perspective. Looking for critique of the dominant IT paradigm (pro-innovation bias, innovator profile, quantity focus, rationalistic behaviour).

Mats Engsbo (2007)

Model…


TECH 1 BENEFITS RESOURCES BARRIERS

INDIVIDUAL

FIRM

NETWORK

INDUSTRY

Mats Engsbo (2007)

Thank you!

Contact information

Mats Engsbo

Swedish School of Economics (HANKEN)PB 287, FI-65101 Vaasa, Finland

[email protected]


mats engsbo (2007) foundit-salford seminarium, university of salford, uk, 8-9.10.20071 mats engsbo,...

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