ICT in Small Firms: Factors Affecting the Adoption and Use of ICT in Southeast England SMEs

This paper explores patterns of adoption and use of information and communications technology (ICT) by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the southwest London and Thames Valley region of England. The paper presents preliminary results of a survey of around 400 SMEs drawn from four economically significant sectors in the region: food processing, transport and logistics, media and Internet services. The main objectives of the study were to explore ICT adoption and use patterns by SMEs, to identify factors enabling or inhibiting the successful adoption and use of ICT, and to explore the effectiveness of government policy mechanisms at national and regional levels. While our main result indicates a generally favourable attitude to ICT amongst the SMEs surveyed, it also suggests a failure to recognise ICT’s strategic potential. A surprising result was the overwhelming ignorance of regional, national and European Union wide policy initiatives to support SMEs. This strikes at the very heart of regional, national and European policy that have identified SMEs as requiring specific support mechanisms. Our findings from one of the UK’s most productive regions therefore have important implications for policy aimed at ICT adoption and use by SMEs.