| Small business information systems (SBIS) emerged as a new research area in the 1980's due to rapid advances in information processing technology and the accompanying drastic cost reductions. Several publications have addressed the effective management of SBIS. These research efforts, however, produced many inconsistent results. A major reason for this lack of agreement is that important confounding variables, such as differences in information systems, were not controlled. This empirical study investigated the factors affecting successful implementation of an information system (IS) in small businesses, while alleviating the problem described above. It also provides guidelines and a framework for practitioners and for future research.; Three critical research questions were examined in this study: (1) What are the critical success factors (CSF's) responsible for the effective management of SBIS? (2) Does the relative importance of CSF's change as information systems evolve? (3) Should small companies in different industries have different IS usage and strategies?; A cross sectional field survey was conducted to answer the above questions. Analysis of the returned questionnaires revealed two important points. First, the usage and management characteristics of information systems in small businesses are not affected by industry type, but are strongly influenced by information system development stage. Second, this research revealed that there exist different critical success factors for small firms whose IS's are in different stages of development. These findings indicate that managers should consider different strategies and management plans for their information systems based on the type of IS present in their firm. |
