Published at : 01 Apr 2022
Volume : IJtech
Vol 13, No 2 (2022)
DOI : https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v13i2.4981
Laima Catherine Alfonso-Orjuela | Department of Marketing and advertisement, Faculty of Economics and Business Science, Universidad ECCI, Cra. 19 No. 49-20, Bogotá, Colombia, postal code 111311 |
Yezid Alfonso Cancino-Gómez | Department of Marketing and advertisement, Faculty of Economics and Business Science, Universidad ECCI, Cra. 19 No. 49-20, Bogotá, Colombia, postal code 111311 |
Julio Alberto Perea- Sandoval | Postgraduate School, Universidad ECCI, Cra. 19 No. 49-20, Bogotá, Colombia, postal code 111311 |
Small
and medium enterprises (SMEs) are firms that have a wide impact on the country’s
economy in Colombia and contribute 28% of GDP, so it is essential to achieve
the competitiveness of these organizations. The government has promoted plans
to adopt information and communications technologies (ICT) at SMEs to increase
their productivity and competitiveness. SMEs are organizations that lag behind
in technology adoption. Several investigations have been carried out to
characterize them, but no questions have been raised regarding the different
types of SMEs that can be found according to their ICT implementation. This
research aimed to determine the current usability and perception in the
implementation of ICT and subsequently classify organizations based on these
two factors. The results describe five types of SMEs: those that experience,
those that have been negligent, those that lag behind, those that hesitate, and
those that improvise. The data were collected in 2019, reflecting the state of
SMEs before the lockdown due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak.
ICT implementation; Small and medium-sized enterprises; SME competitiveness; SME innovation
Technology
has become fundamental support for SMEs (Hernández
et al., 2017) to support the business model, generating greater
efficiency and effectiveness of its management (Córdoba,
2015); the implementation of technological tools in SMEs is presented as
a necessity to facilitate processes like operations or production and others to
connect with consumers, generating impact and recognition, however, the needs
of sophisticate ICT technology continues (Suryanegara
et al., 2019). It is not enough to have skill and agility in management
processes to achieve competitiveness (Qosasi et
al., 2019); that is why it is necessary to develop new strategies to
improve focus in the business area (Fonseca, 2013)
understanding the concept of the digital economy as an innovative model, which
generates social and economic impact, the result of the implementation of ICT (Katz, 2015).
In spite of the fact that SMEs bring economic growth to the nation,
there are factors that hinder their development, such as the ignorance and fear
of entrepreneurs to make an investment in ICT, although the National
Competitiveness and Infrastructure Strategyproposed in 2014 granted 10% of royalties to the Science, Technology,
and Innovation Fund (FCTI), a reform that sought to encourage production and
research capacities (Private Council of Competitiveness,
n.d.) The policies regarding ICTs set out in the plan “Vive Digital
2010–2014” (Ministry of ICT, 2011) to
massify the use of technologies to guide the strategy are focused on the
productive sector and end-user to increase the levels of competitiveness in
each of the economic sectors and establish innovation as the main axis for the
development of business initiatives (Cristancho et
al., 2021).
Economic advances have been made in the countries that
have invested in science, technology, and innovation activities (STIAs),
reaching a high level in producing even more sophisticated goods and services (Novick et al., 2013). Despite the investment made
in STIAs, the results remain low compared to other regions’ countries, under 1%
of GDP. The country has been focused on the development of increasingly
demanding processes and activities, aiming to be competitive based on its
business, mainly SMEs, a reason to implement IT in various sectors such as
commercial, production, and logistics development, and allowing interconnection
according to the demands of globalization (Puentes,
2017), despite the backwardness in innovation, to increase productivity (Private Council of Competitiveness, 2018).
The
size should be relative to the performance sector (Montoya
et al., 2010) due to the relevance of SMEs because, in addition to
representing almost 100% of all firms, in countries of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), SMEs generate more than half of
the employment (OECD, 2002, cited by Blázquez-Santana et al., 2006). It achieves 35% of
the GDP (Ministry of Labor and Social Security of
the Government of Colombia, 2019). Nevertheless, it represents 3.86% in
2005 and 6.73% in 2019 of all enterprises (Table 1). SMEs face various
obstacles: shortage of response to their needs in aspects of knowledge, skills,
and capacity development in human capital, difficulty in accessing credit, and
reducing the purchase and investment in ICT. Also, limitations in technology
innovation advice and its applicability become barriers that hinder growth (Zevallos, 2006) and generate internal
deficiencies (Zambrano-Alcívar, 2018).
Table 1
Number of establishments according to their size at the national level
Company Size |
Number of
Businesses in 2005 |
Share |
Number of
Businesses in 2019 |
Share |
Micro business |
1,336,051 |
96.01% |
1,504,329 |
92.8% |
Small |
46,200 |
3.3% |
87,761 |
5.41% |
Medium |
7,447 |
0.53% |
21,459 |
1.32% |
Big company |
1,844 |
0.13% |
6,793 |
0.4% |
Total |
1,391,542 |
|
1,620,342 |
100% |
Note: Prepared from DANE (2005) and
Applied Economics (2019).
For SMEs, the biggest barrier is the costs that imply
ICT, as well as the financing to achieve greater technological investment and
the adaptation of technology in systems and processes that meet the needs.
Financing and adaptation represent a medium incidence and, to a lesser extent,
the availability of information and the supply of services (Rodríguez, 2003); also, the human capital gap is
a complex problem due to (1) the limited production of graduates in STEM areas
and (2) the lack of critical mass in capacities necessary to work on digital
innovation (Katz, 2015).
What digital transformation brings to businesses is
the ability to reach their customers, monitor their workforce, and reach out to
their suppliers anytime; this allows automation, standardization, and control,
management, performance, productivity per worker (Confecámaras,
2018; Shoushtary, 2013) and, enhance
the satisfaction of their customers (Berawi, et
al., 2020), but ACOPI (2017) argues
that SMEs requires greater integration into global information networks and
value chains because the impact of the digitization of production processes and
the level of productivity of the countries is not linear and depends on
variables such as quality of human capital, innovative capacity, and organizational
changes (Cimoli et al, 2009; Balboni et al, 201).
The implementation of ICTs must involve training,
given that the economy forces organizations to be changing permanently to
respond to new demands (Cardona-Mejia, 2018).
To be profitable, an organization must innovate (Freel,
2005), thereby achieving product improvement and cost reduction, profit
increase, and market share expansion (Heredia,
2010). In this way, technology generates changes both inside and outside
the organizations.
Although the accelerated technological advance
supposes business growth, SMEs are those types of organizations that present
more lag and, given their contribution to the economy, it is necessary to
inquire about the current uses and the perception of the implementation of ICT
in these SMEs and comprehend the different states in which SMEs could be
classified based on the two factors mentioned. Technological trends related to
mobile apps, security or data protection in information, cloud computing, big
data, and business intelligence are presented. These are an opportunity to
access ICT at a lower cost compared to on-site technologies (Marston, 2011). This applies to many practices,
including customer management and organizational planning (Gálvez et al., 2014).
In 2010, micro-enterprises increased their use of the
internet by 20% (Ortega, 2014); however, Weiss (2010) indicates that the perspective is
regrettable considering the different factors that influence the current era,
that technology represents daily life, and that development of systems focused
on the needs of users is becoming faster.
It shows great differences between service
SMEs in the use of ICT, which reflects that the sector is not competitive, the
government’s actions have not been effective in spreading the use of
technology, and, finally, there is scarcity of knowledge on the part of the
entrepreneur to take advantage of the available and accessible technology.
Micro-business
and SME-type firms represent a great contribution to the Colombian economy,
with more than 90% of the national productive sector, contributing 35% of GDP
and generating 80% of employment (Ministry of Labor and Social Security of the
Government of Colombia, 2019), but only SMEs contribute 28% of GDP, 67% of
employment, and 37% of national production (Hoyos-Estrada & Sastoque-Gómez,
2020). The findings have allowed us to establish five groups of firms delimited
by the use of technological tools, departmentalization, and perception of how
critical it is to implement ICTs in the organization.
Cluster 1
(36.7%) has defining as the business that experiments in the use and
implementation of ICTs, tend to turn out more complex in their
departmentalization, and has more technological implementation in key areas, but
they do not show complete comprehension of the importance of implementing ICTs.
Cluster 4 (27.3%) is defined as those organizations that are negligent with the
implementation of ICTs, the firms in this class are aware of the importance of
ICTs but have not acted to a greater degree of implementation of ICTs. This
cluster 2 (17.5%) is named firms that hesitate in the use and implementation of
ICTs, due having a lower perception of how critical it is to implement ICTs in
the organization; and Cluster 3( 13.3%) has defining as the
organizations lagging behind in the use and implementation of ICTs, corresponds
to young firms, with the least degree of departmentalization and less use of
ICTs and their employees have lower rates of knowledge in ICTs, as well as
a lower frequency in the use of electronic equipment. Cluster 5 (5.2%) as firms
that improvise in the use and implementation of ICT, which has, on average
around 20 years in market. They have a greater departmentalization and use
technological tools more frequently, despite having a low perception of the
importance of implementing ICT.
To advance
future research, it is suggested to inquire about the gap between service SMEs
that implement ICT and those that do not to expose the factors that enable or
limit the acquisition and use of ICT. Moreover, the data presented
contextualize the ICT implementation prior to the start of the pandemic period,
and because it has accelerated entrepreneurship, innovation, and digitization (Gavrila & de Lucas, 2021), it is convenient to reflect the changes adopted
during the current scenario.
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