The Influence of Industry Association Involvement on Technology Decision-Making in Small Businesses

Jeremy A. Woods (), Richard Gottschall, Charles H. Matthews and Alan L. Carsrud
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Jeremy A. Woods: School of Business & Public Administration, California State University, Bakersfield, Bakersfield, CA 93311-1022, USA
Richard Gottschall: SUNY Plattsburgh, New York, USA
Charles H. Matthews: University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Alan L. Carsrud: Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), 2017, vol. 25, issue 03, 317-337

Abstract: Often owner/decision-makers in closely-held small businesses are overloaded with work and can become isolated from novel information that could improve their decisions and ultimately firm performance. These decision-makers become reliant on heuristics to ease their cognitive burdens and develop a strong bias for the status-quo. Research suggests that external counsel and/or informal advisors may help to encourage more thoughtful consideration of situations, thus exposing or alleviating status-quo bias. This paper contributes to the understanding of decision making in small firms by examining relationships between industry association membership and the willingness of decision-makers in such firms to adopt new technologies. Evidence is found suggesting that small firm owners’ access to decision-making information from business associations is related to a greater willingness to adopt new technologies. This is evidence of conscious decision-making that enables their small businesses to go beyond the status-quo.

Keywords: Small business; industry association; technology adoption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1142/S0218495817500121

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