Suchergebnisse

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate internet adoption of very small B2B firms in Greece. This study aims to construct a model which will classify companies according to internet activities undertaken and then to explore whether different adoption can be interpreted by business demographics and a limited number of perceived barriers.


Design/methodology/approach
– This empirical research was carried out by the means of survey focussing on the Greek jewellery industry. Data were submitted to a sequence of statistical analyses resulting to a model of Internet adoption. The model was then bench marked to representative domestic and international adoption patterns.


Findings
– Firms can be classified into three groups, ranging from non-adopters to relatively mature adopters, similarly to previous patterns of international B2B small to medium enterprises. Business size and type, international cooperation and knowledge with regards to internet proved to be significantly correlated to adoption status.


Research limitations/implications
– The paper focusses on one Greek business sector and thus the applicability of its results to cross-type international micro-businesses remains questionable.


Practical implications
– The findings of this study can assist company owners to plan their internet strategy, software vendors to target firms by offering tailored solutions and governmental authorities to implement initiatives aiming to confront the highlighted internet adoption disablers.


Originality/value
– This is one of a few information and communication technology studies that focus on very small companies and perhaps the only one providing an empirical classification model of internet adoption for this business size.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the benefits of the application of a requirements engineering framework to assist Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) development. This framework combines the technology-driven and the process-driven approaches for requirements analysis and implementation. Specific business process modeling methods enhance the framework and assist the formulation of the functional specifications of the ERP system and the management of requirements.


Design/methodology/approach
– A case study strategy was chosen as the most appropriate method to answer the research question and test the theoretical propositions. The case study's unit of analysis is a Greek manufacturing company and its ERP implementation project. A requirements engineering framework enhanced with business process modeling methods was applied and the results were evaluated using metrics for ERP implementation success. Data were collected using multiple sources of evidences, including interviews with various stakeholders, structured questionnaires, direct observations, vendors' functionality papers and company's documentation.


Findings
– This study proves that the configuration of ERP's reference models together with the adjustments of organization's processes, provided through a structured requirements engineering framework can lead to reliable functional specifications, a smooth transition to an ERP system and, eventually, to successful ERP implementation, concerning its alignment with requirements.


Research limitations/implications
– A single case study is conducted in a typical manufacturing company, providing opportunities for further research in other industries, testing in parallel well-defined requirements and other success factors for ERP implementation.


Originality/value
– The paper fulfils the identified needs for applied methodologies and frameworks for requirements engineering which can assist successful ERP implementations.