Understanding the It/Is Adoption Isomorphism in Small Medium Enterprises and Its Effect on Supply Chain Management

Abstract

This article aims to give a clear understanding about the concept of isomorphism in the adoption of information technology (IT) in small medium enterprises (SMEs). Isomorphism is an action to follow or imitate the behaviour of other decision makers because of environmental pressures such as coercive pressures, mimetic pressures, and social pressures. Managing IT in SMEs beginning from the adoption into the implementation is interesting to watch, this is due to various problems faced by SMEs such as, high risks of investment failure, limited knowledge of manager, the difficulty to find proper IT application with the SMEs’s business activities, and lack of financial resources. Obviously, these problems will cause differences decisions made by SMEs in the adoption of information technology while comparing with the large companies. IT adoption is important factors that need to be analysed in depth before implementation. It is because IT support SMEs to address rapid change in business. It also creates an effective, efficient and flexible supply chain management. IT Adoption based solely on isomorphism without any strategic planning will cause a poor implementation of IT in SMEs. The existence of isomorphism in the SMEs fits with the characteristics of SMEs. Uncertainty and high risk of failure lead to SMEs manager to ‘play-safe’ in adopting IT. They will investigate beforehand how a technology provides significant benefits to the business both in terms of relations with suppliers and customers and from the efficiency of business processes. In addition, isomorphism implications for supply chain management are also discussed at the end of this paper.