In the contemporary world with its rapid technological progress the issue of adoption of the innovative technologies by the businesses is frequently discussed. In theory, the adoption of the latest inventions and their integration into business process is highly effective and helps to maximize productivity and working process of the companies. Yet, the vast majority of small businesses turn out to be reluctant towards the adoption of new technologies. This happens due to several reasons among which there are such causes as cost of technology adoption and integration, human factor, and the speed of technological development of the contemporary world.
One of the biggest potential disadvantages that prevent small businesses from the adoption of new technologies is the cost (Hamel, 2015). The introduction of innovative technologies to a business requires investments. The leaders and owners of small businesses have to carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of such investments.
Besides, Hamel (2015) also notes that the integration of new technologies is also a costly process because when the employees start learning how to use the freshly introduced innovations their productivity normally decreases. For small businesses with lower revenues adoption of new technologies often turns out unreasonably expensive this is why they prefer to keep functioning in the habitual way. If the adoption ends up ineffective this will lead to a loss of income which a large company would be able to overcome in some time, but for a small business such loss may simply become fatal.
Human factor is another serious reason preventing small businesses from the adoption of new technologies. Being reluctant to accept change is a part of human nature, we arrange our surroundings in a suitable way, we get used to them and then we experience discomfort when something changes. The old technology needs to become of no use at all for us to have a desire to give it up and try something new.
This way, one of the most common obstacles to the adoption of new technologies by small businesses is lack of necessity (Fitzgerald, Kruschwitz, Bonnet & Welch, 2013). To test this idea one may try asking the following question: “which of us and our friends and colleagues were brave enough to buy an iPad right when it was first released?” (The Technology Adoption Life Cycle, 2015). Practical thinking and lack of spare costs normally keeps people from investing into new inventions before they pass the value test and prove to be absolutely necessary.
Finally, the speed of the technological progress in the contemporary world is astonishing. Sometimes it becomes hard to realize that only ten years ago cell phones used to be rather rare, and if we compare the cell phones of 2005 to the ones we own today the difference will be striking. This way, another reason that serves as an obstacle to the adoption of new technologies is the risk that by the time the technology is properly integrated into the business process it will become old-fashioned or useless and will have to be replaced again.
Overall, adoption of the new technologies brings multiple benefits. First of all, it creates new business opportunities, allows better advertisement and brand awareness. Besides, new technologies increase business productivity speeding up the process of data transmission and processing. New technologies allow expansion and advanced long-distance communication.
Moreover, they provide the opportunity for the maximization of customer base and increase the loyalty of tech-savvy clients. Adopting new technologies the businesses become more competitive and successful in their markets, their internal communication becomes faster, their interaction with the customers evolves and gains quality. All of these changes result in higher revenues which justifies the initial process of adoption from the cost perspective.
Reference List
Fitzgerald M., Kruschwitz, N., Bonnet, D. & Welch, M. (2013). Embracing digital technology. Web.
Hamel, G. (2015). Advantages & Disadvantages of Progression in Technology. Web.
The Technology Adoption Life Cycle. (2015). AAO. Web.