Summary
The manner in which small-to-medium-sized (SMEs) organizations grow and develop has been a focused interest of management researchers for decades. Categorizing this development into a life cycle of organizations has been a goal of researchers for understanding the problems and opportunities associated with growth. Using Kazanjian's four-stage organizational life cycle model (1988) to represent the crises or critical problems faced in each stage, this paper explores how information technology (IT) capabilities can address the critical problems of each life cycle stage (i.e., conception and development, commercialization, growth, and stability) to facilitate continued growth and development.
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Extract
Information Technology Capabilities: Suggestions for Sme Growth
Introduction
The concept of organizational development has been an important research agenda for decades. The issue is why some entities grow and even flourish while others muddle along, falter then surge, or completely go out of existence. Categorizing organizational development into a life cycle of organizations has become a commonly accepted method for understanding the problems and opportunities associated with growth. Essential to this life cycle construct is the identification of critical problems to overcome during each stage if an organization is to continue to grow, rather than stagnate or regress.Such a life cycle model that not only describes discrete stages of development but also identifies the critical problem to overcome during each stage has been put forth by Kanzanjian (1988) which is particularly important because of its emphasis on early development issues involving small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). A key component of SME operation in today's competitive environments is information technology (IT). We propose that IT can ameliorate the crises of growth at each stage of Kanzanjian's organizational life cycle, enabling small businesses to grow and flourish. Recent surveys of small business owners/managers revealed that 66% are using the Internet in their business, 77% feel that a web site is a necessity, 60% wished they had built a web site sooner, and 85% would recommend other small businesses use this technology (Greenspan, 2002). Furthermore, the wide reach of the Internet and other ITs can help SMEs overcome their size disadvantage and internationalize new ventures more quickly (Oviatt & McDougall, 1995)....See the full content of this document
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