Examining ICT application adoption in Australian home-based businesses: An innovation-decision process approach

This article reports on a study that examines an under-researched area, the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in Australian home based businesses (HBB). HBB constitute a large part of the economy, yet little is known of how they use ICT to improve their business operations. The study involved interviews with 30 business operators in the Western region of Melbourne, a major Australian city. The findings were analysed using an innovative approach to Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovations, employing the InnovationDecision process as a lens for the analysis. Additionally, the article introduces a new means to assess the adoption of ICT applications by examining their level of penetration, level of maturity and usefulness to HBB. The study findings suggest that ICT application adoption in HBB is not uniform and needs to be considered according to individual ICT applications and explained in the context of particular home-based businesses. The study contributes to studies of innovation adoption, particularly in relation to the use of ICT applications in HBB. Further, the findings could identify specific areas for policy initiatives and training priorities to effectively support ICT adoption in the economically-significant HBB sector.