Adopting Information Systems in a Small Company: A Longitudinal Study

For some time there has been an increase in adoption of enterprise systems by small companies. With well-documented potential benefits, there are a lot of reasons to adopt them. In this study however the choice to adopt smaller pieces of information systems by a small organization is investigated to provide a counter example to the integrated-solution literature. With the intention to adopt an enterprise system at the beginning, the case provides a dynamic story of a small organization and how various factors impacted on the intention and resulted in an assemblage of information systems instead. By adoption the technology-organisation-environment framework and a single case study design, the case indicates that in addition to the oft-cited factors such as organisational size and IT readiness, social norms and the characteristics of a central individual, such as the owner, play a prominent role in information systems adoption, and highlights how these factors are connected to each other. JEL classification: M15; O33