The Importance of Being Small

Abstract

Numerous books have been written on the subjects of business strategy and the use and development of information systems (IS) in organisations. These aspects of business have been researched, studied and discussed at length by academics. Most of this work has centred on large organisations, even if this is not made explicit. Case studies are often multinational organisations and discussions revolve around strategic business units, that is, units made up of subsections of employees of the organisations. Often it is assumed a dedicated information technology (IT) department exists. A quick scan of the contents pages of popular books on these subjects reveal case studies in organisations such as Nestle, Coca-Cola and Xerox. Either small businesses are not mentioned or it is assumed that the difference between large and small is merely one of scale and that the techniques and principles only need be scaled down to allow them to be applied in small businesses.