Impact of organizational size, number of sites, and line of business on telecommunications acquisition

Abstract

Technological developments in telecommunications are going to bring about as fundamental a change in the functioning of organizations in the future as computers have in the recent past. The study reported in this paper is part of a large-sample survey examining the acquisition and management of telecommunications technology by small and medium-sized organizations. The study examines variations in telecom purchasing patterns by an organization's number of sites, employee size, and its line of business. The impact of these predictor variables was assessed in terms of a number of dependent variables pertaining to the telecommunications characteristics of the organization, the process of acquiring telecommunications technology, and the outcome of this process. Findings indicate that size of the organization has a pervasive impact on almost all aspects of the telecom technology and its acquisition. Number of sites seems to have a clear impact on the cost, size, and complexity of the system acquired, a mixed impact on the purchase process, and only a marginal impact on the telecom characteristics of the organization. The impact of line of business is influenced by the specific line and the type of dependent variable.