Authors : Saad Mahmood Ahmed, Aryan Mohammadi Pasikhani, Mohamad Shanudin Zakaria and Huda Ibrahim
Abstract: Electronic information sharing and integration among employees in the private sector is one of the important characteristics to improve decision-making and the quality of businesses. Its purposes are to increase the level of information integration, quality and accuracy while minimizing the cost and time of sharing the information. Thus, there is a need to conduct a study to identify the possible strategies and steps to increase electronic information sharing and integration among employees in SMEs. Technology plays an important role in information sharing and integration. Therefore, SMEs should provide a good IT infrastructure and employ people who have good IT skills for such a purpose. However, SMEs encounter integration issues because of the lack of resources such as financial, data and information. Information integration would be enhanced if SMEs have had a good electronic information sharing. There exists a high degree of information sharing between the employees SMEs now. However, the same cannot be said about electronic information sharing between them which bring difficulties and delay in performing and making decisions. The main objective of this study is to develop electronic information sharing and integration model for SMEs. Qualitative method has been utilized to identify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs). The objective of this study is successfully achieved through sixteen factors that were investigated based on previous studies. From these factors, eight CSFs were selected by validity. The CSFs are (compatibility, IT capability, size, top management support, risk, cost, policy and trust). Our model provides significantly contribute to an overall improvement in the way SMEs share electronic information.
Saad Mahmood Ahmed, Aryan Mohammadi Pasikhani, Mohamad Shanudin Zakaria and Huda Ibrahim, 2017. What are Electronic Information Sharing and Integration Critical Success Factors that Influence the Participation in SMEs?. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12: 4234-4240.