Dissertation (MA Business Administration)
This study aimed at assessing the influence of information technology on the performance of small and medium enterprises in Tanzania by comparing between adopters and non-adopters. The study used descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling to test relationships of which path analysis, T- test and correlation analysis were done to analyse IT skills, IT usefulness, It ease of use and IT cost effectiveness in relation to dependent variables of the performance such as market share, profitability, social performance and environmental performance. The results show that, ICT ease of use, ICT usefulness and ICT cost effectiveness are the key influencers of adoption. This study also concluded that, compared to non-adopters, adopters have high chances to increase the performance. This is because most of them are the believers of the importance of ICT and therefore, they always tend to adopt information technology so as to increase performance. Generally, findings of this study recommends that, the government and other private organisations should provide training and other important workshops that can help to improve skills that can help to increase ICT adoption which was analysed to have direct influence on the performance. The study also observed that, non-adopters are not adopting ICT because of the difficult mechanisms behind the ICT practices. It was therefore recommended that, IT experts to use simple languages, simple design and simple process especially on software so as to increase number of adopters. The study also, recommends the government and other policy makers to create policies that can reduce taxes with regards to the ICT availability.