CEO CHARACTERISTICS, ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN SMALL BUSINESSES

The importance of information technology (IT) to businesses is widely acknowledged. Yet, while large businesses have been using computers fo r some time, small businesses have been slow in adopting IT. The Liter ature on technological innovation suggests that there are two main cla sses of variables that are important in determining adoption of an inn ovation: individual characteristics and organizational characteristics . As IT can be viewed as a technological innovation, these two classes of variables are possible determinants of IT adoption. This paper exa mines the effect of three characteristics of the Chief Executive Offic er (CEO) and three organizational characteristics on adoption of IT. T he three CEO characteristics studied are CEO innovativeness, CEO attit ude towards adoption of IT, and CEO IT knowledge. The three organizati onal characteristics studied are business size, competitiveness of env ironment, and information intensity. Six hypotheses were formulated an d tested using data collected from a sample of 166 small businesses. T he results suggest that notwithstanding the business size, CEO charact eristics are important factors affecting IT adoption in small business es. Small businesses are more Likely to adopt IT when the CEOs are mor e innovative, have a positive attitude towards adoption of IT, and pos sess greater IT knowledge.