Mrs_Chikwado_Okeke

theory (1983), the characteristics of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability are used. The relative advantage of the technology in the companies was mostly put in economic terms, as the managers talked about reducing costs by adopting ICT. The cost reducing factor was greatly recognised in mail and telephone expenses, while few of the interviewed ICT Awareness in Small Enterprises in the Indian Tourism Branch Jasmina Badnjevic and Lena Padukova, IT University of Göteborg, Sweden, 2006 60 managers actually talked about more long-run aspects as reducing the enquiry processing time or cutting down on paperwork. The satisfaction or the social prestige of owning a certain software system or a piece of hardware did not seem to be taken into account by the managers as they saw the ICT as a useful tool for making business, and not something that created personal satisfaction or status. The technology’s compatibility to the users’ values, beliefs and experiences is hard to measure, as it varies as the attitudes are shifting. We have experienced that most businessmen in India no longer see the ICT as an impossible, expensive and complicated solution that requires a challenging journey into the depths of the bureaucratic system. ICT was everywhere in the business society and it is a fact that the ICT-age is to stay. Still, the belief that a computer system is less convenient than paper files was present in some of the companies. It was also considered to be complicated and hard to manage, and despite that some managers took computer courses, almost all companies that answered the question rent external technical support and installation services, and possessed little knowledge of new ICTs. This was not because the managers did not want to have a part of this but rather that, despite being the essence of a good business, they considered that there was too much to learn about new technologies and thus hard to understand for a regular person. These beliefs and attitudes result in a slower adaptation rate even for less complex systems. The trialability of the ICT systems is reduced by the conservative ways of the software sales in India where the western ways are only starting to emerge, and the companies consider any new software purchase as an expensive and quite risky investment. The effects of ICT diffusion were mostly perceived by observing other companies’ ICT use. This attitude speeds up the adaptation as the difference between the adaptors and the non-adaptors is big. The ICT is a “must” and companies do not want to stay behind, as they stated themselves. There were a small number of early adopters that did inform themselves by observing companies abroad which already had adopted different technologies. Some of the managers had travelled a lot in the western countries and tried to follow their ways. However, most of the companies were late majority as they argued that they had to adopt the ICT since all the other companies were doing the same thing. The limited resources, no budget planning for the technologies and the fear of new technology were clear signs of the late adoption. However, there was a vast amount of laggards that were not included in this study, simply due to the fact that they did not use neither the Internet nor computers in their business. 4 5.2 Environmental influences “Environmental influences” are the external factors that influence the decisions of businesses concerning the adoption of ICT. The category refers to the external factors that affect the ICT adoption, such as competitors, market and government. Businesses can be influenced by information on ICT provided from a range of different sources such as the governmental authorities, or be threatened and constrained by regulations and national standards in their adoption of ICT. 5.2.1 Contribution by other actors The environmental influences play a big role in shaping the companies’ ICT profile, as well as the rest of the business profiles. According to Van der Veen’s theory (2004) discussed in the section 2.6.2, the contribution of environmental networks affects the awareness of technology greatly. Many managers stated for example that “everyone is using the Internet”, which made them begin using the same technology. In large cities, where a lot of people are trying to find a way to make money fast and a lot of businesses emerge, it is expected that the competition is often stronger than in small ones. The small tour operators and travel agencies which we have interviewed experienced that bigger companies have more advantages and benefits in terms of finance and resources. We believe that such a pressure would, to some extent, force companies to explore and adopt the ICT innovations. According to Al-Qirim (2003), the pressure could be one of the key factors for ICT adoption. As the external environment can force the adoption of ICT in companies, the effect could also be the opposite. Buhalis (2003) means that, barriers to the adoption can come up if ICT Awareness in Small Enterprises in the Indian Tourism Branch Jasmina Badnjevic and Lena Padukova, IT University of Göteborg, Sweden, 2006 62 customers, for example, do not feel comfortable in using a certain ICT solution. For the same reason, we believe that none of the companies in our study did offer online bookings since it was too costly and since a very small fraction of Indian travel agencies offered that. Apparently, there was no demand from customers for such service because of the importance of the human contact in the sales process. Neither there was pressure from the competitors since only such a small fragment of the agencies were offering online bookings. According to Van der Veen (2004), these two factors: customers and competitors, are creating needs or requirements for adoption of an innovation. So as a chain is never stronger than its weakest link, the ICT infrastructure does not reach its potential until all of the actors in the business processes and distribution chain will adopt the technologies to a common extent. As long there is an actor that draws back the development, e.g. hotels that do not use Internet to make bookings or customers that do not wish to pay online, even the most sophisticated ICT system will be worthless. Therefore, it is extremely important that the ICT awareness is developing throughout the whole population, on a national level, so that the tourism sector can use the advantages of ICT to all of its potential and increase it further. 5 The cost and security issues of ICT In some cases, the customers might not use Internet services due to the high internet cost (Buhalis, 2003). In India, there is a huge gap between the middle class, that sees ICT as a necessity, and those that consider even a local telephone call a luxury. We have showed the positive outcome the lowered prices of Internet connection and a more competitive market in this sector have had on the ICT usage in India after the ending of state’s monopoly of Internet Services in 1995. The interviewed companies did not at the present consider the cost of Internet as high or an obstacle but the fact that none of the companies adopted Internet before 199827, demonstrates clearly that the growing number of Internet service providers has, to some extent, had an effect on the companies’ use of Internet, since the highest growth rate of Internet subscribers in India has been between 1999 and 2001. The security aspect of ICT was hard to grasp because of the companies themselves that considered the e-business insecure and too costly but at the same time they preferred to contact a real person to make a reservation, which also is discussed above. However, regardless of the possibility that the Indian culture is or could be a constraint to the adoption of e-commerce, we think that it would be hard for the companies to adopt more advanced ICT services due to the bad quality of infrastructure and security, which is also a reason why systems in India are unprepared for e-commerce activities, as Dahlman (2005) states. India is not fully ready for all-covering e-commerce, especially not in such small companies as those in our study, who lack knowledge and skill about more advanced technologies. Another reason is that opportunities provided by ICT, such as e-commerce, are not to be used if there is no demand for it. As long as companies’ partners, such as hotels, do not adopt appropriate ICT, nor will the travel agencies and tour operators do that. Also, as long as the customers prefer personal touch, the effects of the e-commerce use within travel agencies and tour operators will probably not be successful. However, a demand must be created, and that’s why we are not excluding the possibility that the Indian business culture could be changed with the increased use of ICT and e-commerce. But first, the businesses and citizens have to experience the advantage of it in order to change. The contribution of government to the ICT Considering the results of our literature study, we are convinced that the government plays a big role in contributing to the development of a country, and therefore also to the development of ICT. The government of India would need to make the ICT available and affordable for its citizens and businesses. We have seen the effects of liberalizing ICT services and the government’s involvement in the liberalising reform programme. The government of India is aware of the problems that India faces and it is undertaking measures to benefit the development of ICT. Being active as e-governance, it contributes to the awareness of ICT in the country but it still has a way to go in, for example, by creating appropriate local ICT applications or lowering tariffs would do well to the Indian businesses, according to Dahlman (2005). As Mattoo et al. (2004) state, sec competitive market and ICT Awareness in Small Enterprises in the Indian Tourism Branch Jasmina Badnjevic and Lena Padukova, IT University of Göteborg, Sweden, 2006 64 other restraints as much as the liberalised service sector has done. Therefore, we believe that the government can do much more to increase the ICT use in the country and compared to other countries in South Asia, it has more potential for doing this. The small companies that took part in our study saw the government as something that stands in their way because of the bureaucratic procedures. We think that both government and businesses would benefit by a smoother use of governmental services and by a better corporation between these two actors. We suppose that the companies would in this was feel more comfortable in taking advantage of the help that the government is providing them as well as it would be possible for the government to influence more on the development of the enterprises. We believe that this is true especially in the case of companies that have been taking part in this study. Considering that the tourism is essential for the development of India as much as the small companies are, both tourism and small travel agents and tour operators would profit if a closer interaction with the government was established.