The Effect of IT Knowledge and IT Communication on the Operational Performance of Small Firms

소기업의 IT 지식, IT 커뮤니케이션과 운영 성과와의 관계 분석

This Paper examines the effect of IT knowledge and IT communication on the operational performance of small firms. Small firms which could be defined firms with less than 50 people in total lags behind medium and large firms in computerization. In order to fill up the computerization gap resulted from size differences, Korean government has been promoting the 'Networking Small Firms' project since 2001. Survey data with 698 small firms in Korea, we could find that If knowledge and IT communication significantly contributed to the operational performance of small firms. Internal process performance is affected by individual IT knowledge, traditional communication, and e-mail communication. Customer performance is affected by above three factors, organizational IT knowledge and internet/EDI communication. Interestingly, financial performance is not affected by traditional communication but only IT knowledge and IT communication.