The Assessment of Organizational Innovativeness as a Mediator Between ICT Adoption and Firm Performance in Turkish SMEs

This study aims to examine the managerial and organizational factors affecting ICT adoption in SMEs, and the link between ICT adoption level and firm performance. In this context, a survey was performed with owners, top-level managers, middle-level managers, and first-line managers of SMEs. The study was carried out in three phases. First, after assessing the ICT adoption level for each participating SME, the effect of owner and manager-related characteristics and organizational attributes on the level of ICT adoption was examined. Second, an analysis was performed to find out if there is a relationship between ICT adoption levels and organizational innovation types. Finally, the effect of ICT adoption level on firm performance and the mediating effect of organizational innovativeness types on this link were investigated. Data obtained from 393 owners and managers of 203 SMEs were analyzed through SPSS. Analysis results show that the owner’s/manager’s education level and awareness of the benefit of ICT are positively related to ICT adoption level. In contrast, awareness of the costs of ICT is negatively related to ICT adoption in SMEs. Moreover, the results reveal that internal integration and strategic integration level ICT adoption on firm performance is mediated by organizational innovativeness. These findings stand to help SMEs strategically plan their ICT adoption phases based on their organizational needs.