The technological readiness of construction contractors

The Australian construction industry is often criticized for its comparatively low productivity. The most significant future productivity gains are predicted to arise from improvement in the firm’s project management. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are thought to offer such improvement. ICT adoption is particularly poor among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Existing studies provide only a general overview of adoption and diffusion of ICTs in SMEs, with no previous research measuring their readiness to adopt ICT. This paper outlines a theoretical approach to address this gap, exploring how to improve ICT adoption in Australian construction SMEs. A review of literature is undertaken to address the research question ‘What is the best conceptual approach to understanding ICT adoption in SMEs?’ The results emphasize the efficacy of a novel Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model (TRAM) to assess SMEs’ ICT implementation readiness. The proposed model consists of four major constructs to measure readiness comprising:

(1) optimism,

(2) innovativeness,

(3) discomfort and

(4) insecurity;

two major constructs to measure technological acceptance comprising:

(1) perceived ease of use and

(2) perceived usefulness;

and two extension variables comprising:

(1) self-efficacy and

(2) facilitating conditions.

A limitation is that the performance of the conceptual model is yet to be tested empirically. Such research is planned in the coming year by the authors.