Technology adoption by small businesses : an exploratory study of the interrelationships of owner and environmental factors/ created by James W. Peltier, Yushan Zhao and John A. Schibrowsky

An integrative small business adoption of a technology model, which incorporates consumer and organizational behavior theories, is developed and tested to explore the direct and indirect impacts of owner and environmental factors on information technology adoption. Through structural equations modeling we present and test a conceptual framework that examines the interrelationships between owner-related characteristics and perceptions, and environmental-related constructs to predict the adoption of information technology by small retailers. The results indicate that all the tested variables affect the adoption of technology by small businesses directly and/or indirectly through mediating variables. The study advances the literature by creating a small business technology adoption model (SBTAM) that highlights the importance of examining interrelationships between the independent variables. The results have significant implications pertaining to organizations interested in marketing technological innovations to retailers and for small retailers that use this technology.