Valoración inicial de los Tiburones en Bachillerato (Taller)

The following organisational factors were included in this study: top management supports; organisational size; absorptive capacity; and internal need.

3.3.2.1 Top Management Supports

Top management support has been identified as a key predictor in the adoption and

implementation of IT (Fink 1998). Several previous studies have shown that top management support is a significant predictor of technology adoption and leads to more successful IT use in many organisations (Caldeira & Ward 2002; Grover 1993; Kumar, Maheshwari & Kumar 2002; Seyal & Rahman 2003; Tan & Teo 2000; Thong 1999). It is important to create a supportive climate and adequate resources for the adoption of new technology (Premkumar & Roberts 1999).

Top management would be able to identify business opportunities for the exploitation of IT and their active involvement and support would provide appropriate strategic vision and direction for the adoption of new innovations (Thong & Yap 1995). Moreover, this

characteristic would also send signals about the importance of the innovation and succeed in overcoming organisational resistance to accept the information system. As a result, securing the support of top management will lead to obtaining necessary assistance related to required capital spending and labour support, and the cooperation to complete for resources in the

104 project-planning and development stage (Grover 1998). In addition, Wixom & Watson

(2001) indicated that “top management” is as an important factor of BI success.

However, without the support from top management, it will result in stronger resistance from employees and will become a substantial barrier to the adoption of data warehouse (Haley 1997). Therefore, it is expected that the greater the extent of top management support, the more likely the organization will adopt BIDSA.

3.3.2.2 Organizational Size (Resources)

Some studies in organisational innovation adoption have indicated that there is no significant relationship between business size and organisational innovation adoption (Mistillis, Agnes & Presbury 2004; Sahadev & Islam 2005; Seyal & Rahman 2003). On the other hand, a number of previous studies have shown that business size has influenced the use of technology

(Buonanno et al. 2005; Dholakia & Kshetri 2004; Rogers 1983; Thong 1999). Studies suggested that as the size of a business increases, so will the likelihood of information technology being present within the organisation (ABS 2000).

A study by Gibson & Arnott (2003) reported that business scale is as one of the factors that have an effect on the adoption of BIDSA in small businesses. It has been considered to be an adoption factor facilitator (Damanpour 1992) and has been used in IT adoption since

researchers believe larger firms tends to have abundant resources, be more capable of bearing risks, and possess more power to urge trading partners to adopt IT (Zhu, Xu & Dedrick 2003). In order to adopting innovative IT, adequate resources could enhance this success (Poon & Wagner 2001; Tait & Vessey 1988). Organisational resources refer to the level of 1) financial and 2) technological resources that the firm has (Iacovou, Benbasat & Dexter 1995).

105 is considered because small and medium business organisation and budget setting tend to lack the resources that are necessary for information systems (Murphy et al. 2003; Paraskevas & Buhalis 2002). Moreover, the findings of Heung (2003) showed that financial resources and well-trained staff are important factors for some business sectors. BIDSA is an expensive, multiyear investment in terms of BI platforms, infrastructure, and applications.

IT sophistication (Pare' & Raymont 1991) captures not only the level of technological expertise within the organisation, but also the level of management understanding of and support for using IT to achieve organisational objectives. To understand its value prior to adoption and later during implementation requires a diverse set of skills and expertise. Tan & Teo (2000) reported that technology infrastructure is the key determinant, which shifts to organisational capabilities in terms of integrating to leverage existing information systems and databases, and is significantly associated with organisational innovation adoption.

It suggests that larger firms usually have sufficient resources to compensate the accompanied limitations of huge expenses and labour required in the adoption of IS (Dewar & Dutton 1986; Levin, Levin & Meisel 1987). The degree of coordination of organisational resources is one of the most important factors in the adoption of a data warehouse (Grover 1998; Haley 1997; Wen, Chou & Yen 1997). Prior research by Barquin & Edelstein (1997), Haley (1997), and Watson & Haley (1997) indicated that the adoption of data warehouse technology comes with characteristics such as large expense and consuming much times). Thus, this study assumes that the coordination of organisational resources (funding, technology, time, etc.) is a key factor, which affects the adoption of BIDSA. Therefore, it is expected that organizational size is positively related to adoption of BIDSA.

106

3.3.2.3 Absorptive Capacity

Absorptive capacity is the ability of key organisational members to utilise available or pre- existing knowledge (Griffith, Redding & Reenen 2003). It facilitates a sort of reaction process of the knowledge with their mind (Alavi & Leidner 2001). This absorptive capacity of organisations indicates an ability to recognise the value of external and internal

information, and to assimilate and apply it effectively to realise economic benefits. Sambamurthy & Zmud (1999) have suggested a need to be critical to organisations’ innovativeness.

Applied to the IT area, organisations’ absorptive capacity reflects the capacity to absorb information relating to appropriate IT innovations through employees’ individual knowledge repositories, cognitive structures, and processes for supporting operational or strategic activities, and to enhance firm performance (Boynton, Zmud & Jacobs 1994). According to Nonaka (1991, 1994), research on new product development and management is supportive of the notion that supportive capacity is prerequisite for rapid innovation and flexible

organisational response to changing market conditions.

Therefore, a major innovation like BIDSA requires an awareness of what it can provide or enable, and an understanding of how to exploit its potential within an organisational context. Rogers (1995) referred to this also as the embedded context (Tornatzky & Fleischer 1990). The adoption of BIDSA is unlikely unless key users can creatively identify unique ways through which new knowledge can be extracted by integrating data from multiple functional areas within the firm (Nambisan, Agarwal & Tanniru 1999). However, such creative thinking may be unlikely unless adequate knowledge exists within the firm. A study by Fichman (1992) noted that the ability to adopt is critical with respect to innovations; such ability has

107 been found to be a key in adoption of open systems (Chau & Tam 1997). It is believed that organization absorptive capacity is a strong predictor of an organization’s ability to adoption innovations (Cohen & Levinthal 1990). Thus, this study assumes that the absorptive capacity in the adoption stage is positively related to the adoption of BIDSA.

3.3.2.4 Internal Need

Previous studies (Premkumar & Ramamurthy 1995; Zmud 1984) showed that the internal need in an organisation is an important factor affecting the adoption of information technology. The adoption of BIDSA results from internal needs such as the demands for requiring better information from single data source faster (Watson & Haley 1997). Grover and Goslar’s research (Grover & Golslar 1993) suggested that the internal needs can be classified as the needs for better response time, improving service quality, reducing costs, providing correct information, and raising competitive advantage. It would be beneficial to adopt BIDSA such as data warehouse technology only after organisational decision-makers completely understand the internal needs to necessitate such an adoption. Thus, this study assumes that internal needs in ERP companies will drive the decision for an adoption of BIDSA.