The antecedents of supply chain technology adoption among the SMEs in Johor Bahru

Abstract

The invention and development of Information Technology (IT) have moved forward the concept of supply chain to a recognized strategic component with effective, positive impact on the firm’s business. There are very few studies related to the antecedents of supply chain technology adoption on local context. Therefore, the supply chain technology can be adopted by the large companies as well as small and medium enterprises due to advance of technology. The objective of this study is to examine the antecedents of supply chain technology adoption among the SMEs in Johor Bahru using the combination of supply chain technology adoption framework by Patterson et al. (2003) and Russell and Hoag, (2004). The framework model determined three antecedents which were environmental factors, organizational factors and communicational factors. Data and information were gathered from 103 respondents through the personal administrated questionnaires for 6 months. Data was analyzed by descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson Correlation analysis and Multiple Regression analysis via the software Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results show that were significant and positive correlation between the antecedents of supply chain technology adoption and supply chain technology adoption. The regression analysis shows that out of three antecedents, only the organizational factors have a negative impact to the supply chain technology adoption while the communicational and environmental factors have a positive impact towards the supply chain technology adoption. It is recommended that future study to determine additional antecedents of supply chain technology that pertinent with the current SMEs industry. Further study is also recommended to examine a wider scope to a more geographical data coverage, other nature of businesses and research instruments.