Principal Causes of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Risk Failure in an SME

Abstract

The objective of the research was to analyze the principal causes of information communication technology (ICT) risk failure in an SME. Hence, it was hypothesized that there is a significant relationship between the principal causes of ICT failure and operational risk management (ORM) adoption in small and medium enterprise (SME). In order to address the hypothesis, two questions were posed (1) how well do the measures of principal causes of ICT failure predict ORM adoption within SMEs? and (2) which is the best predictor of principal causes of ICT failure? From the review of literature, an instrument (closed ended questionnaire) was developed with the aim of covering the research objective. Questionnaires were sent to 107 respondents of the SME according to simple random sampling plan. The questionnaires were analysed for correlation and multiple regression analysis to predict ORM adoption based on the ICT failure. The results of the analysis presented answered the two questions posed at the beginning. The findings revealed that the ICT principal failures included five sub variables which explained 13% (R2 =. 13) of the variance in principal causes of ICT failure as predictor of ORM adoption within SMEs. Of the five sub variables, insufficient or improper user participation in the systems development process made the largest unique contribution (a= -.38, p. 05).