INTRODUCTION Research into the use of information technology (IT) in small businesses is extremely diverse. It encompasses the many different characteristics of small businesses, including size, culture, business strategy, attitudes to IT, industry and location, to name a few. The authors in this book have contributed chapters that address many of these characteristics of small businesses. This...

The Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance and Technology (OTA) is offering the Right from the Start program to provide Massachusetts businesses with the technical and regulatory support needed to maximize environmental and economic performance. It is especially designed to encourage businesses seeking permits for expansion or start up of new manufacturing operations to consider pollution...

The digital economy is creating abundant opportunities for operations research (OR) applications. Several factions of the profession are beginning to respond aggressively, leading to notable successes in such areas as financial services, electronic markets, network infrastructure, packaged OR-software tools, supply-chain management, and travel-related services. Because OR is well matched to the...

An issue facing the manager of a small business is the use of cloud computing to meet the information technology (IT) needs of the firm. These businesses typically have limited in-house IT capabilities and often outsource much of their IT. This paper discusses this rapidly evolving technology and provides a framework for businesses to decide on harnessing the power of cloud computing. It recomm...

Businesses are increasingly becoming software rich with a plethora of systems varying in age, reliability and ease of use. People working in these businesses are increasingly dependant on their software systems: they are unable to work effectively when “the computer is down”. More generally, businesses need to adapt rapidly to new opportunities and regulations. This requires both changing exist...

Overview Businesses throughout the US economy continue to transform even after the technology boom has faded. The key sources of this continuing transformation are investment in the information technology (IT) package (hardware, software, and business-service applications) and reorientation of business activities and processes to use both information and technology effectively. Globalized produ...

This paper reports the preliminary results of an exploratory survey of information technology usage by businesses located in regional Thailand. With growing concern about the digital divide, Thailand is an important and interesting region to study. There has been very little prior research that has examined the take-up of information technology in this region. The research context for this stud...