IS/IT Investment Evaluation and Benefit Realization Practices in Taiwanese SMEs

Abstract

This paper investigates the practices of IS/IT benefits and evaluation, critical success factors and the degree of satisfaction with the adoption of IS/IT investments in business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B-EC) by the small and medium-size enterprise (SME) sector in an emerging economy - Taiwan. The survey reveals that the respondents had relatively high usage of IS/IT investment evaluation methodology and low usage of IS/IT benefits realization approaches. In addition, these methodologies or approaches were generally not used widely and effectively within these organizations. Moreover, only a quarter of the respondents were satisfied with their IS/IT investments in B2B-EC. The internal factors which consist of lack of staff resistance, organizational readiness, integrating internet with marketing strategy, and top management support were found to be the critical success factors for the IS/IT investments in B2B-EC by SMEs in Taiwan.