Information Technologies (IT) represent a key resource for organizations since its uses have resulted in diverse benefits. Its implementation has resulted in a global penetration in all fields and kinds of organization. However, the diffusion of IT has been uneven and unbalanced around the world, revealing the digital divide between developed and developing countries. Therefore, it is important to understand how IT has been diffused and what are the key factors to motivate IT adoption in developing countries since the majority of the research on IT diffusion has been done in developed countries, which have a high level of IT diffusion. In this sense, as a contribution to fill the research gap on IT diffusion and adoption in developing countries, and in Mexico in particular, this research identified and analysed the level of IT diffusion and adoption, focusing on the historical perspective of the diffusion process of IT within Mexican large enterprises in Iztapalapa, one of the ten most important economic sub-regions in the country. The study analyses the organizational, technical and environmental factors associated with IT adoption, as one stage of the IT diffusion process. In this research a triangulation, mixed methods design was used, through the Validating Quantitative Data Model. A survey instrument was used to analyse diffusion in Mexican firms from 1960 to 2008 of three dominant ITs: Electronic Data Processing (EDP), Personal Computers (PC) and networks. The data analysis techniques also sought to validate which organizational, technical and environmental factors were associated with IT adoption in these firms. Concurrent with the quantitative data collection, interviews with firm's top managers were realized to explore IT diffusion and adoption from the participant's points of view in firms. This research was conducted in 55 large organizations located in one of the most economically active municipalities of the major Mexican city, in a cross-sectional study from May to December 2008. Based on the data collected from the survey, statistical tools were used to analyse the results and to corroborate the potential relationships between the factors included and IT adoption. Cluster analysis was used to create new variables involved in a set of questions of the questionnaire and to differentiate groups in the sample. Exploratory statistics based on frequency distributions were used to obtain the characteristics of each variable included in the analysis of the IT diffusion and adoption within firms. After that, an overall test by association analysis was made to test the possible relationships among IT adoption and organizational, technical and environmental proposed factors. A correspondence analysis was carried out as a multivariate technique, to establish the multiple relationships among all variables. Based on the tested results a logistic regression model was made to show the possible effects on IT adoption as an association model. In addition, in order to complement the survey data, the interviews were analysed and used to complete and exemplify the quantitative results. Four company cases were developed to show differences and similarities in experiences around IT diffusion and adoption within Large Enterprises in Iztapalapa (LEIs) According to this research findings although the diffusion of IT had a delay since the first computer was launched in the market, Mexican firms have adopted IT and diffused its use within their organizations. The history of how LEIs have diffused IT over time confirms that organizations have to learn about technologies in order to gradually acquire experience and know how in the use of IT in order to obtain full advantage of it. The research found in general two different levels of IT infrastructure, a high level of IT and a low level of IT. The research identified the presence of some of the determinants that have already been established in developed countries, such as organizational structural characteristics, IS Department, IT strategy, top management support, IT investment and competitive presence. However, the research identified a new factor that has not been widely discussed in the literature, the conglomerate variable, which indicates that IT could represent diverse advantages for a group of partner enterprises, incrementing its diffusion and adoption among them. IT investment was also found as a relevant factor which has a strong effect on IT adoption in LEIs, showing that for firms in developing countries, lack of economic resources could make the difference in the adoption of new IT and the establishment of better IT infrastructure. The existence of an IS Department resulted as strongly positive, associated with IT adoption, differentiating this research from other studies of IT adoption where authors have tended to take for granted the existence of a specific area for IT management. Even though there was not a proven relationship between institutional influence and IT adoption, we found that government, through institutional normative actions, has started to pressure firms to adopt IT. However, the policies and programs developed by the government in order to motivate firms to adopt IT are not influential in achieving this aim LEIs have obtained several benefits produced by IT use, generating the diffusion of IT in diverse areas and function within the firms, as well as in companies from developed countries. Based on these benefits, firms have decided to adopt new IT in order to improve their current IT infrastructure. As a dynamic system, the inclusion of a new technology in firms has also brought changes in the organizations Nevertheless, the research demonstrated that even though these technologies are complementary - hardware, software and networks - their growth within companies has been gradual, since firms have adopted more hardware, and they need more applications to spread the technology overall the firms, and to use it in a more strategic way through the use of appropriate software. The diffusion of IT within LEIs has been also different in each industry and enterprises have adopted IT according to their particular contexts and needs. Through the development of a graphical model that includes the obtained results, this research presents the diffusion and adoption of IT as a holistic combination of factors in order to explain the complex systems that organizations are, and the multiple determinants that could affect organizations in the global economy. The inclusion of an institutional theoretical perspective allows the explanation of the computerization movement, which has not been only the result of a fashionable institutional intervention, but also the firms' needs to find solutions to improve their productivity and take advantage of the technology. Thus the research results of the most predictable factors associated with IT adoption would be useful for other firms which want to adopt IT and to know the key areas which have to be included to successfully develop that process. The new factors identified in the adoption of IT represent the possibility that for developing countries research can be conducted to look for new determinants that currently could be more important for firms in countries with basic IT infrastructure and with particular needs and contexts often different from areas which already have highly developed IT infrastructure.
| Date of Award | 2010 |
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| Original language | English |
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