The Adoption of New Technology: A Case of Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa and Turkey

Developing countries are negatively affected by the rapid changes in technology, customer needs, the economic and political environment and the competitive environment. To manage the risk of these changes in technology, customer needs, economy and the international environment, SMMEs need to consider an adoption strategy for new technology, but SMMEs often fail to adopt potentially advantageous technology and lose opportunities to gain a competitive advantage in their market, which can impact the long-term viability of the business. The aims of the study are to explore and understand the factors and reasons effecting the adoption of technology in Turkish and South African SMMEs. Forty SMMEs in South Africa and Turkey were used in this multiple case study. The SMMes were non randomly purposively selected. The unit of analysis is financial service providers (FSP) that function as SMMEs. Data were analyzed by thematic analysis. FSPs in South Africa are forced to use technology because of the compliance and governance requirements enforced by government. As a result they contribute more to the economy as their Turkish counterparts. Turkish FSPs do not value technology as a tool to be used to create a competitive advantage. Both African and Turkish FSPs are of the opinion that government can financial contribute more to the adoption of technology by SMMEs.