| This study addressed the hypotheses: (a) The rate of increase of productivity in Thai companies significantly applying information technology (IT) is greater than in those not significantly applying IT, and (b) the rate of increase of productivity after introducing IT is greater than before introducing IT.;In the main study, a questionnaire-cum-interview survey found that, among the five levels of IT, all sample companies had installed IT at the level of a transaction processing system (TPS), office automation system (OAS) or both. A company that had installed a management information system (MIS) was defined as a "significant" IT user, whether or not it also used a decision support system (DSS) or executive support system (ESS). A company using TPS or OAS, but not MIS was defined as a "less than significant" user. The questionnaire ascertained whether or not a company was a significant user of IT, and requested data on total annual revenue and costs, for a period from 3 years before to 3 years after, the introduction of IT.;A Mann-Whitney U test of responses from a final sample of 30 companies employing, and 30 not employing, MIS found no significant difference in productivity growth between the two groups before introduction of IT. After introduction of IT, productivity growth in the group employing MIS was greater than in that not employing MIS at a significance level of P* < .05. A Wilcoxon Matched-pairs Signed Ranks test found that productivity growth for companies employing MIS was greater in the period after introducing IT than before, at a significance level of P* < .05. For companies not employing MIS there was no significant difference.;It was concluded that the introduction of MIS led to a statistically significant increase in the rate of productivity growth. The positive effect of IT on productivity justifies increased investment in IT and increased government support for such investment. Training in IT should form a major component in education for productivity. Suggestions are made for future research.*.;A pilot study among 657 companies found significant differences in IT hardware use among top, middle, and lower management and employees of manufacturing and service industries.;*Originally published in DAI Vol. 57, No. 12. Reprinted here with corrected title. |
