Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
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Print ISSN: 2233-4165 / Online ISSN 2233-5382
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.13106/jidb.2020.vol11.no4.7
The Impact of Technology Adoption on Organizational Productivity
Monika LAKHWANI*, Omkar DASTANE**, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR***, Zainudin JOHARI****
Received: February 12, 2020 Revised: March 31 2020 Accepted: April 05, 2020.
Abstract
Purpose: This research investigates the impact of technology adoption on organisation productivity. The framework has three independent
variables viz. technological change, information technology (IT) infrastructure, and IT knowledge management and one dependent variable as
organisational productivity. Research design, data and methodology: An explanatory research design with a quantitative research method was
employed, and data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire using online as well as an offline survey. The sample consisted of 300
IT managers and senior-level executives (production as well as service team) in leading IT companies in Malaysia selected using snowball
sampling. Normality and reliability assessment was performed in the first stage utilising SPSS 22, and Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) was
performed with maximum likelihood estimation to assess the internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Finally,
Structural Equation Model (SEM) and path analysis are conducted using AMOS 22. Results: The research findings demonstrated that
technological change and IT infrastructure positively and significantly impact the organisation's productivity while IT knowledge management
has significant but negative impact on organizational productivity of IT companies in Malaysia. Conclusion: The research concludes that all three
factors plays important role in deciding organizational producvity. Recommendations, implications, limitations and future research avenues are
discussed.
Keywords: Organisation productivity, IT adoption, technological change, IT infrastructure and IT knowledge management.
JEL Classification Code: M10, M15, O33
1. Introduction 12
Technological evolution will continue to accelerate the
future in this modern world of rapid high-technology
changes. Organisation productivity depends on the
successful incorporation of appropriate technology into the
organisation. Technological advancements have completely
restructured organisations by making their business
processes highly effective and smooth-running than ever.
*First Author. MBA Student, Lord Ashcroft International Business
School, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Email:
[email protected]
**Corresponding Author. Head of Postgraduate Centre Cum Senior
Lecturer, School of Accounting & Business Management, FTMS
College Malaysia, Malaysia. Email:
[email protected]
***Associate Professor, Research Center for Software Technology
and Management (SOFTAM), Faculty of Information Science &
Technology the National University of Malaysia, UKM 43600, Bangi
Selangor, Malaysia. Email:
[email protected]
****Head of School, School of Engineering & Information Systems,
FTMS College Malaysia, Malaysia. Email:
[email protected]
© Copyright: Korean Distribution Science Association (KODISA)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Previous studies have proved that technology use
strengthens ICT effect. The adoption of technology is likely
to be slow in the case where technology requires complex
new skills and is expensive to implement and timeconsuming (Long, Blok & Coninx, 2016). To face the rush
of competition and to remain in existence, organisations
need to change their strategies, processes, structure, and
culture (Keong & Dastane, 2019). Choosing the right model
of a planned change is of the utmost importance to ensure
that the process of changing takes place without any
interruption and the strategic goals of the changes are met
(Igbaria & Tan, 1997).
Many studies examined the impact of Information
Technology on organisations’ services and performance
(e.g. Beckey, Elliot, & Procket, 1996; McNutt, & Boland,
1999). Although most of these studies have suggested that
IT plays a vital role in improving the quality and quantity of
information, its potential for adoption and innovation is
often uncertain (Mano, 2009). Firms allocate their resources
differently in a way that maximises their objectives, and
those firms that allocate more resources on IT perform
better than those firms that allocate fewer resources
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Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
(McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2008). Appropriate and sufficient
IT infrastructure supported by effective IT management is
pre-requisite for achieving high performance. Information
technology plays critical role in several core business
functions as well as operations along with businesses’
products and services. IT and related aspects attributes to
more than 50% of organizations spending lately, however,
effective management of such huge investment results in
key factor of importance for organizations effectiveness and
efficiency. It has been observed that poor alignment of IT
with business resulted in failure of desired outcome of IT
related investments in the past. Studies in the developed
world have attested that given the proper infrastructure, IT
can be an enabler for socio-economic development.
Examples given from the developed world where
significant IT investments have had major impacts include
increasing the United States gross domestic product (GDP)
by 7.8%, the UK by 8.0%, Singapore by 8.3% and Australia
by 8.4% (Kamel & Rateb, 2009).
In the Malaysian context, the research has been done on
ICT Adoption in Small and Medium Enterprises (e.g. Haba
& Dastane, 2018; Tham, Dastane, Johari & Ismail, 2019).
Besides this, Relationship between information technology
acceptance and organisational agility (Zain, Rose, Abdullah
& Masrom, 2005). Also, Adoption of the internet in
Malaysian SMEs", Journal of Small Business and
Enterprise Development (Alam, 2009). Despite the
existence of these studies, very little attention has been
given on how the adoption and incorporation of modern
technology impacts an organisations’ productivity
suggesting that the impact of technology adoption on an
organisations’ productivity has not received adequate
research attention in Malaysia. Thus, there is a significant
gap in the relevant literature, which has to be covered by
this research. Nowadays, many businesses have little
understanding about what they are trying to achieve
through technologies they adopt and never get the picture of
the expected value. Analyses have shown that causes of low
productivity in an organisation are highly measured by the
use of incompetent technologies (Peslak, 2005).
Technology changes at a fast pace and if the employees are
working with old tools and methods, they will not be as
effective as they could be (Deal, 2007). Malaysia needs to
accelerate the adoption of digital technology to spur
economic growth and bring more benefits, especially as the
pace of digitalisation picks up around the world. To face the
rush of competition and to remain in existence,
organisations need to change their strategies, processes,
structure, and culture (Keong & Dastane, 2019).
Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of
technology adoption factors such as technological change,
IT infrastructure, and IT knowledge management on
organisation productivity. The corresponding research
questions are, does technology change impacts organisation
productivity? IT infrastructure impacts organisation
productivity? IT knowledge management impacts
organisation productivity?
2. Literature Review
2.1. Review of Key Concepts
Technology adoption: The availability of new
technologies does not automatically lead to development.
Technologies must be adopted, and the adoption of
technology occurs in the case where it is useful to the
people and industries who adopt them. When the new
technology is widely diffused and used, only then the
contribution of new technology to economic growth can be
noticed (Stoneman, 2001). The adoption of new technology
is characterised by unpredictability over future profit areas
and irreversibility that creates some fall costs (Dixit, Dixit
& Pindyck, 1994). The speed of adoption accelerates when
technology advances, as more people get familiar with it
(Mansfield, 1961). Organisation productivity: Organisation
Productivity can be stated as a ratio to measure an
organisation's capability to convert input resources (labour,
materials, machines, etc.) into goods and services. To
remain competitive in this environment, the ability of
companies to enhance the productivity of their resources is
important (Amacha & Dastane, 2017; Jallow & Dastane,
2016). The measurement of productivity is used as a key
tool by organisations to establish functional accountability,
define responsibilities, monitor and evaluate activities, link
the key organisational processes, set up the targets, and
initiate necessary changes to ensure continuous
improvement (Amah & Ahiauzu, 2013).
Technological change: The development and innovation
in technology results in a change termed as technological
change. This is the process which starts with invention then
followed by innovation and lastly diffusion of technology.
Such change can be defined as “the introduction of new
tools, facilities, services and new technical procedures”.
According to some scholars, the outcome of innovation is
referred to as technological change. In other words, the
action that leads to technological change is innovation
(Gerstenfeld, 1979; Myers & Marquis, 1969). In
operational terms, change in productivity caused by
changes in the input is described as technological change
(Bell & Pavitt, 1993). Technological change is a switch in
the production function (Rosenberg, 1963). To an
organisation, technological change is defined as “the
change in industrial techniques”. IT Knowledge
Management: Knowledge management is defined as the
organised arrangement of a company’s knowledge
Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
resources for meeting business requirements and creating
value. It is composed of the various policies and structure
that strengthen the development of knowledge. The process
of gaining, sharing and productively using knowledge is
defined as Knowledge management (Davenport, 1994).
Knowledge management encourages a combined strategy to
identify, evaluate, and share all of a company's knowledge
resources. The organisation’s databases, policies, and
experience in individual workers are included in the
knowledge assets. Information technology and the desire to
put the new technology (the Internet) to work and find its
effectiveness, was the driving force behind Knowledge
management. After a few years, it became recognised that
only integrating new technology was not functional enough
to facilitate knowledge sharing. It was apparent that human
and cultural factors are required to be included.
IT Infrastructure: In the information technology (IT)
context, the hardware, software, network resources, data
centres, facilities and associated resources required for the
operation and management of an IT enterprise is referred to
as IT Infrastructure. Through the IT Infrastructure, an
organisation can deliver IT services to its employees,
customers and partners (Broadbent, Weill & Clair, 1999). It
can be deployed internally in an enterprise within owned
facilities or within cloud management, or a fusion of both.
All the components that play an important part in overall IT
and operations form the IT infrastructure (Broadbent et al.,
1999). The business operations and IT or business solutions
require the IT infrastructure to function properly.
According to Gartner, IT infrastructure is all the
components that support the IT processes and business
systems delivery. The term IT infrastructure includes
Information Technology. However, it does not include the
associated People and processes. Infrastructure is the base
on which a system or an organisation is supported (McKay
& Brockway, 1989). In computing, the physical and virtual
resources that help to manage and process data, form the
information technology infrastructure.
2.2. Hypotheses Development and Conceptual
Framework
Technology is developing with blinding speed and is
becoming the principal instrument for meeting the concern
of improved productivity for all organisations, both public
and private. An organisation should be able to compete
within the industry and with other competitors in the
international sector to succeed. Business processes are the
day to day operations of an organisation. They can be seen
through the sales requests, work approvals, and financial
reports that must be completed as workflows through the
organisation. These processes can be ingrained into the
culture of the company, and have a significant impact on
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how the organisation does business. While changes to
business processes can be difficult to implement, they may
be necessary to take advantage of the information
technology available to the organisation. Looking at the
significance of innovation and modernisation in today’s
times, an organisation must acquire this culture (Al-Nashmi
& Amer, 2014; Bougrain & Haudeville, 2003).
Technological innovation capability has an extensive
impact on the company’s performance (Haba & Dastane,
2019). According to Galende and Fuente (2003), business
resources, enterprise resources and intentions are influenced
by technological innovation. It affects the business,
suppliers and customers as they observe flexibility,
transformation, productivity and relatively higher speed
(Kelly & Kranzberg, 1978). Hence the first hypothesis
formulated is as follows:
H1: Technological Change has a significant positive impact
on Organisation Productivity
The superior organisations in today’s knowledge-based
economy age are dependent on their knowledge-based
capital to sustain and to get through with the changes (Choi,
Poon, & Davis, 2008). Therefore, for various organisations,
the Knowledge Management implementation has become
the most probable resource to boost Organisational
Performance (Haas & Hansen, 2005). The improvement of
the process of acquisition, incorporation and utilisation of
knowledge is the most important goal of knowledge
management (Heisig, 2009). Knowledge Management is a
process that helps to enhance organisational performance
and achieve the organisation goals through creating,
acquiring, organising and utilising knowledge (Bhatti,
Zaheer, & Rehman, 2011). According to BecceraFernandez and Sabherwal (2015), the below mentioned four
forces lead to knowledge management in today’s dynamic
economy. Increasing Domain Complexity: The knowledge
required to complete a particular business task becomes
more complex. Accelerating Market instability: Rate of
change in market trends has increased significantly over the
years to the extent that market changes may happen
overnight. Employee Turnover: Employee mobility is even
greater than before, thus leaving organisations with major
challenges of maintaining their intellectual capital
(Beccera-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2015). Intensified Speed
of Responsiveness: Decision-makers are now given much
less time to respond to the market changes otherwise risk
losing business opportunities. Based on the four forces, it
can be deduced that the competitive nature of the
marketplaces is putting pressures on organisations to
undertake personnel reduction that may result in risking
their business knowledge. Personnel reduction creates a
need to replace tacit knowledge (informal, people intellect)
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Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
with explicit knowledge (formal, stored knowledge)
otherwise organisations will end up losing a significant
amount of their knowledge as most of the organisational
knowledge is in the form of informal knowledge. This
contributes in formulation of second hypothesis as below:
H2: IT Knowledge Management has a significant positive
impact on Organisation Productivity
As IT systems and application packages become
increasingly diversified and multi-media based, a key
challenge IT managers face today is maintaining an IT
infrastructure that is capable of supporting not only what
the organisation is doing but also the changing business
needs. Very often, IT application projects failed or were
significantly delayed because the needed two
infrastructures were not in place. This is particularly the
case in companies’ that strive to deploy electronic business
applications. Many organisations found that IT
infrastructure today is more often an inhibitor of change
than an enabler (Broadbent et al., 1999). As a result, IT
infrastructure becomes an increasingly important factor that
affects organisation competitiveness (Weill & Broadbent,
1998). The importance of this issue is evidenced by a
survey of top information systems (IS) executives who
ranked building a responsive IT infrastructure as the most
important IS management issue (Brancheau, Janz &
Wetherbe, 1996). Many businesses are affected because of
IT infrastructure issues (Gorrio, 2000). The most difficult
challenge that is faced by IT managers is sustaining an IT
infrastructure that is efficient enough to support what the
organisation is doing and the evolving business
requirements, due to the increased diversification in IT
systems and application packages. The required
infrastructure being not in place has been the reason for
delay and failure in most IT application projects. As a result,
IT infrastructure has become the most important aspect by
which the organisation competitiveness is affected (AlNashmi & Amer, 2014; Weill & Broadbent, 1998).
According to McKay and Brockway (1989), the base
foundation of information technology future upon which
the operation depends is referred to as IT infrastructure. IT
infrastructure is the technological configuration that
supports the enterprise to fulfil operation and administration
needs Earl (1989). So the third hypothesis is formulated as
below:
H3: IT Infrastructure has a significant positive impact on
Organisation Productivity
From a theoretical perspective, few pieces of research
focused on the impact of information technology on
productivity, such as Hooi and Ngui (2014), Another
research (Alam & Noor, 2009) examines factors of ICT
adoption such perceived benefits, perceived cost, ICT
knowledge, external pressure and government support. Zain
et al. (2005) researched to examine the relationship
between information technology acceptance and
organisational agility in Malaysia. Until today, among the
studies which have been carried out in Malaysia, very little
attention has been given on how the adoption and
incorporation of modern technology impacts an
organisations’ productivity. This means that the impact of
technology adoption on an organisations’ productivity has
not received adequate research attention in Malaysia. Thus,
there is a significant gap in the relevant literature in
Malaysia. As for that, this study is the extension of what
has been studied by previous researchers to further
narrowing the gap.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
3. Research Methodology
The Positivism research approach, along with the
explanatory design, is adopted for this research as the
research progress is through hypothesis using quantitative
techniques. Primary data is used with the quantitative
research method, and the data is collected through a
structured survey questionnaire, further tested and analysed
statistically (e.g. Oluwafemi & Dastane, 2016).
The survey questionnaire was circulated to respondents
electronically through internet and traditional hard copy.
For electronic distribution, google form is used, and the
survey data is stored. All participants’ identities are kept
confidential in this study. For the survey distribution, the
participant information sheet and participant consent form
are attached to make known the purpose of the research and
to obtain the consent from the participants. The
questionnaire consists of 2 parts. Part 1 consists of
questions meant to gather information about the profile of
Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
the respondent. This section covers demographic data such
as age, gender, education, occupation, and income. Part 2
seeks to measure items that are related to independent
variable (IT adoption) with its dimensions. The survey
questions were designed base on four variables;
technological change, IT knowledge management, IT
infrastructure and organisation productivity. All items have
been evaluated on a 7-Point Likert. The scale below is an
example that shows the measurement used in the designated
instrument using a score from 1 to 7 (Sekaran & Roger,
2003). The layout of the Questionnaire: Respondent’s
profile (5 items), Technological Change (8 items), IT
Knowledge Management (8 items), IT Infrastructure (11
items), Organisation Productivity (8 items).
Target population group is selected based on the position
of managerial level or above from companies in Malaysia
who is Malaysian with age of 18 years old and above
(Stated by Direct Sales Act 1993 as the legal age to join)
regardless of gender, race, part-time or full-time. This target
population group is the correct group as they understand
and comprehend the nature and structure of IT
organisations and their environment. The survey was
targeted towards IT managers or those at a senior executive
level and above including the employees from the
production team, service team & other teams of an
organisation. The sample size of 300 is selected for this
research. For the sample size in this research, the rule-offive technique for sample selection is adopted (36 items
multiply with 5) that is a minimum of 180 samples which
fit as sampling population. Besides, as the data is to be
analysed using IBM SPSS AMOS 22, the minimum sample
requirement is 200. The decided sample size exceeds both
of these requirements and so will suffice for the analysis.
Snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling technique
where subjects are selected through networking (Ilker
Etikan, Musa & Alkassim, 2016). The relative cost and
time required to carry out a snowball sample are small in
comparison to probability sampling techniques. This
enables the researcher to achieve the sample size required
in a relatively fast and inexpensive way.
After data collection, various statistical methods will be
used to determine the relationship between variables via the
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The data
analysis plan in this research covers descriptive analysis,
normality analysis, reliability test utilising SPSS 22.
Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) and variance
analysis were obtained in the subsequent stage. To
determine the overall fit of the measurement model,
Structural Equation Model (SEM) was developed using
AMOS 22 with maximum likelihood estimation to assess
the internal consistency, convergent validity and
discriminant validity.
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4. Analysis and Findings
4.1. Demographics Analysis
A total of 350 questionnaires was handed out via email;
however, 300 responded to the survey. This means that the
response rate was 85.71%. This is an impressive response
rate given that according to Oliver (2010), a 60% response
rate is good enough for a research study. Amongst the 300
correspondents, 65% were male, while 35% were female.
This indicates a sufficient gender distribution enabling the
researcher to obtain a balanced opinion between male and
female respondents. The collected set of data has proven to
be practical and valid by going through a series of tests
such as normality test, reliability test, CFA and SEM model
fit, and the testing of data that emerged with outcome that is
in an acceptable range.
4.2. Normality Assessment
The normality of error terms is a basic assumption of the
linear regression model. Statistically, two numerical
measures of shape – skewness and excess kurtosis – are
used to test for normality. For the data collected for this
research, overall normality assessment is good where most
of the values were within the rule of thumb (-1 to +1) (Bee,
2011; Nornadiah, 2011). However, there are a few
questions where the value is above the agreed rules for
Skewness and Kurtosis, which can be accepted as further
validity assessment tests will be conducted after performing
confirmatory factor analysis.
4.3. Reliability Assessment
According to DeVellis (1991), from the viewpoint of
data consistency, Cronbach’s alpha scoring of 0.7 is
regarded as unacceptable, questionable or poor and scoring
of 0.9 or above is deemed to be excellent. The
questionnaire has a total of 35 questions, including eight
items for measuring technology change, eight items for IT
knowledge management, 11 items for IT infrastructure and
eight items for organisational productivity. Reliability
assessment has resulted in Cronbach's alpha value for each
variable as 0.928 for technology change, 0.903 for IT
knowledge management, 0.921 for IT infrastructure and
0.919 for organisation productivity. All the variables have
met the minimum coefficient values, and the overall
average for the reliability test is achieved as it averaged up
to 0.970 (DeVellis, 1991). From the observation of the
overall Cronbach’s alpha scoring of 0.970 from the 35, it
indicates exceptionally high reliability and internal
consistency in reflecting our scale.
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Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
4.4. Confirmatory Factor Analysis
CFA relies on several statistical tests to determine the
adequacy of model fit to the data. The chi-square test
indicates the amount of difference between expected and
observed covariance matrices. A chi-square value close to
zero indicates little difference between the expected and
observed covariance matrices. Besides, the probability level
must be greater than 0.05 when chi-square is close to zero.
In CFA, several statistical tests are used to determine how
well the model fits the data. A good fit between the model
and the data does not mean that the model is “correct”, or
even that it explains a large proportion of the covariance. A
“good model fit” only indicates that the model is plausible.
conceptual model was assessed and done by using the same
set of data. According to an argument by Anderson and
Gerbing (1998), the confirmation of the multiple-item
construct measure’s accuracy must be done with CFA
before testing the hypothesis. The specification of the
observed measure’s relations to their posited underlying
constructs is done with AMOS 22 as it allows the
constructs the freedom of inter-correlation (Chin, 1998). To
reflect a more accurate resultant scale accuracy and an
acceptable fit, the elimination process was done in the
validation of initial specification, items below the
recommended 0.5 value were eliminated — the result of
modified CFA path diagram as shown in Figure 3.
4.5. Modified Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Figure 2: Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Though several varying opinions exist, Kline and
Rosenberg (2010) recommends reporting the Chi-squared
test, the Root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the
standardised root means square residual (SRMR). For this
measurement model, the P-value was recorded as 0.00,
which shows that the validity of the research data is fit and
confirmed. The comparative Fit Index (CFI) value should
be more than 0.90 (Hu & Bentler, 1999) and value returned
for this research is not acceptable as it is 0.757. For the
Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), the
value less than 0.05 is considered good, and value between
0.05 and 0.08 is considered moderate. For this research, the
RMSEA value is 0.118, which means the value is not
acceptable. To have a good and acceptable Parsimonious fit,
the value must be less than 5. For this research, the
Chisq/DF outcome is 5.133. This means there are some
issues with the validity of data collected. The proposed
Due to some issues with the first Confirmatory Factor
analysis, researcher re-ran the regression, and upon
eliminating the irrelevant data, a modified Confirmatory
Factor Analysis was performed. As Horst Müller says, a
rule of thumb is to remove item loadings above 0.40 always,
and above 0.707 only when it improves the Average
Variance Extracted (AVE). If AVE decreases, the item
should be maintained. AVE is a measure of the amount of
variance that is captured by a construct with the amount of
variance due to measurement error. The first round of data
regression noticed a few questions that were redundant and
with low factor loading. The researcher removed items one
at a time, using empirical information (item loading
strength, cross-loadings, etc.) and rational decision-making
(when out of two items, one is very similarly worded to
another item, remove this item first as its wording is
redundant). After removing one item, researcher re-runs the
analysis on the remaining items as the loadings and other
parameters will be different after removing an item. The
researcher then tested this model using CFA on the second
sample. Upon removing the impacted questions, from the
technological change variable (TC1, TC2, TC7, TC8), from
the IT knowledge management variable (KM1, KM3, KM5,
KM7), from the IT Infrastructure variable (IT1, IT4, IT5,
IT6, IT7, IT8, IT10, IT11), and the Organisation
productivity variable (OP1, OP2, OP4, OP6), the factor
loadings met the rule of thumb which is 0.7 and above
(Hair et al., 2014). Upon performing the modification, the
loading factors results improved further. Chi-square value
over degree of freedom value between 1 and 3 (X²/df), CFI
(Comparative Fit Index), GFI (the Goodness-of-fit Index),
IFI (Incremental Fit Index) of 0.9 equivalent or greater, and
finally the equivalent value of 0.08 or lesser of the Root
Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) value were
used to specify the acceptable model fit. After modification,
the Chisq remained 0, RMSEA dropped to 0.081 from
0.118, CFI increased from 0.757 to 0.946 and Chisq/DF
Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
dropped from 5.133 to 2.947, which means overall the data
collected is fit. The conclusion can be drawn that the final
overall model fit assessment values are within the statistical
recommendation based on the observation of overall data
that fits the model within reason (CFA model fit results).
All indicators depict an acceptable fit for the dataset of the
measurement model. A scoring of 2.947 for Chi-square
value over degree-of-freedom, 0.900 (GFI), 0.946 (CFI),
0.946 (IFI), 0.932 (TLI), and 0.079 (RMSEA) are shown in
the measurement model. This study proceeds to the testing
of the hypothesis as the CFA measurement of model fit
values was presumed acceptable.
4.6. Correlation Analysis
Based on the result, the correlation coefficient (r) of each
variable is as follows: (FR r = .465 mean Strong positive
relationship; PR r = .392 mean Moderate positive
relationship; CR r = .580 mean Strong positive relationship;
NDR r = .562 mean Strong positive relationship; RPR r
= .690 mean Strong positive relationship). On top of the
significant value of 0.000 for all variables, the affiliation
among the five variables and online shopping behavior is
significant. The correlation coefficient of all variables is
between the minimum value of +0.392 and the maximum
value of +0.690, indicating that the strong point of the
affiliation among the independent variable and the
dependent variable is from moderate to strong,
demonstrating the variables that perceive risk have a
positive and significant relationship with online shopping
behavior.
13
4.7. Divergent Validity
Factor loadings of each item are listed in Table1. As all
the factor loadings are above 0.5, the measurement model is
said to have divergent validity.
Table 1: Divergent Validity
Technology
Change
TC3
0.764
TC4
0.813
TC5
0.715
TC6
0.794
IT
Infrastructure
IT2
0.755
IT3
0.803
IT9
0.835
IT
Knowledge
Management
KM2
0.801
KM4
0.762
KM6
0.818
KM8
0.730
Organisation
Productivity
OP3
0.829
OP5
0.776
OP7
0.769
OP8
0.791
4.8. Convergent Validity
Table 2 displays factors, items, factor loading,
compostire reliability (CR) and Average Variance
Extracted (AVE) figures. The convergent validity for the
measurement model is achieved when all values of AVE
exceed 0.50. The composite reliability is achieved when all
CR values exceed 0.60.
Table 2: Convergent Validity
Factors
Technological Change
IT Infrastructure
IT Knowledge Management
Figure 3: Modified Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Item
Factor
Loading
TC3
0.764
TC4
0.813
TC5
0.715
TC6
0.794
IT2
0.755
IT3
0.803
IT9
0.835
KM2
0.801
KM4
0.762
KM6
0.818
CR
AVE
0.855
0.596
0.840
0.637
0.860
0.606
14
Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
Organizational Productivity
KM8
0.730
OP3
0.829
OP5
0.776
OP7
0.769
OP8
0.791
0.870
0.626
effects amongst the constructs as can be seen in the
parameter estimates of the structural model. Significant
relationships among the latent constructs are shown based
on the significant coefficients from the output revealed
above
4.10. Hypotheses Testing
4.9. Structural Equation Modelling
The test of reliability, convergent validity and
discriminant validity were met for the model’s
measurement quality.
Figure 4: Structural Equation Modelling
The conduct of this study indicates that the measurement
model suffices to test the path coefficients in determining
the developed relationship of the model (Gerbing &
Anderson, 1992). The figure 4 was developed with AMOS
version 22 in the research testing and calculation of the
structural model. The structural model testing of this
research was done by AMOS version 22 in Figure 4. The
model is deemed to be in the acceptable range of goodnessof-fit with the model fit results. The following results of
CMIN/DF value <3; RMSEA value ≤0.080; GFI, TLI and
CFI value≥0.90 indicates that the model fit is acceptable.
CMIN/DF (2.947), GFI (0.900), CFI (0.946), IFI (0.946),
TLI (0.932) and RMSEA (0.079) were the test result of the
study. The achievement of the threshold is suggested with
the results being in the acceptable range (Bentler, 1990), it
implies that the model is well converged and the SEM
model is in an acceptable level fitting to the data and data
structure that is collected and gathered in a Malaysian
setting. The investigation of the construct exhibits the direct
H1: Technological Change has a significant positive impact
on Organisation Productivity
There is a significant relationship between technological
change and organisation productivity (refer to Table 3). The
value of the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is 0.51 (pvalue ≤ 0.001), which renders the relationship to be a
moderate positive correlation. This explains that if the level
of information technology innovation in organisations is
high, the organisation productivity will be positively
enhanced and improved. The management is aware that the
core of IT adoption is information technology innovation,
which leads to improving organisation productivity. These
findings are in parallel with the research conducted by
Manual (2005), who defines innovation to be an activity
that produces new or notably improved goods (products or
services), processes, marketing methods or business
organisation. In this framework, according to the Frascati
Manual, technological innovations comprise new or
significantly modified technological products and processes,
where technological novelty emerges from their
performance characteristics. According to Dibrell, Davis
and Craig, (2008) the present businesses environments are
integrated with the concept of IT innovation. Information
technology concepts should be associated with innovation
so that investments in innovation activities can be
optimised. Camison-Zomoza, Lapiedra-Alcami and
Boronat-Navarro (2004) argues product innovation reflects
the change in the product or service offered by the
organisation, whereas process IT innovation represents
changes in the way organisations manufacture their
products or services. Information technology has been
regarded as a sophisticated and competitive tool for gaining
competitive advantage in the present business environment.
H2: IT Knowledge Management has a significant positive
impact on Organisation Productivity
There is a significant relationship between knowledge
management and organisation productivity (refer to Table
3). The value of the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is 0.41 (p-value ≤ 0.001), which renders the relationship to be
a negative correlation. This explains that if the level of IT
knowledge management applied in Malaysian organisations
is high, the productivity of these organisations will be
Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
decreased. IT knowledge management is related to both
strategies and practices used in an organisation to identify
and enable the adoption of IT. Nowadays, there is a lot of
issues with knowledge management in several different
organisations and one of the main issues is the lack of
expert human resources. Explicit knowledge is derived
from tacit knowledge captured by experts and so
knowledge management is more of a people-centric. In
addition, departments are resistant to dealing with complex
systems frequently. The majority of respondents said that
the lack of connection of departmental systems between the
different departments within the organisation is a major
issue. A good portion of respondents affirmed that
departmental system interaction could mitigate those issues
if not eliminate them; thus, it can improve interdepartmental decision-making process significantly. The
lack of documentation of some of the business processes
within departments may also add to the issues and there is a
lack of knowledge in some specialisation areas within
departments. Probably, the worse issue of all is the fact that
the concept of knowledge management is unknown to many
organisations especially the SMEs (Bougrain & Haudeville,
2003).
All those factors may add up to cause
inconsistency in decision-making quality within
organisations. These conclusions are not in line with the
research conducted by Chang and Gurbaxani (2012), who
have examined the impact of IT outsourcing on the
productivity of firms that choose this mode of services
delivery, focusing on the role of IT-related knowledge. He
demonstrates that IT outsourcing does lead to productivity
gains for firms that select this mode of service delivery. In
the same context, López, Peonfound that IT competency
has a direct effect on the processes of knowledge
management.
H3: IT Infrastructure has a significant positive impact on
Organisation Productivity
The results of this section indicate that there is a
significant relationship between IT infrastructure and
organisation productivity (refer to Table 3). The value of
the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) is 0.97, (p-value ≤
0.001), which renders the relationship to be a moderate
positive correlation. This explains that if IT Infrastructure
in an organisation is high, employee productivity will be
positively enhanced and improved. This explains that the
results gathered from analysing the responses of
respondents for this section support the fact that IT
infrastructure plays a vital role in enhancing employee
productivity in organisations. This conclusion is similar to
the findings of the research conducted by Jenkins (2006)
when he concludes that success comes when employees are
empowered to improve their workflow and. The social
15
change that was introduced by the new IT infrastructure has
a dual effect of greater efficiency and cost reductions. In
general, based on the overall hypothesis testing and
findings, out of the three proposed hypothesis, the
exceptional one is the IT Knowledge management which
indicates a negative impact on Organisation productivity.
Other two hypothesis are supported namely Technological
change and IT Infrastructure, which produce significant
positive impacts on Organisation productivity.
Table 3: Hypotheses Testing Result
Hypotheses
Estimate
P
Decision
H1
Organisation
Productivity
<---
Technological
Changes
0.51
***
Accepted
H2
Organisation
Productivity
<---
IT
Knowledge
Management
- 0.41
***
Rejected
H3
Organisation
Productivity
<---
IT
Infrastructure
0.97
***
Accepted
5. Conclusion
The study concludes that all three selected factors of
technological change, i.e. technological change, IT
infrastructure, and IT knowledge management impacts
significantly on organisational productivity. Among the
three, the first two factors of technological change, IT
infrastructure impacts positively on organisation
productivity. As both of these factors has a strong impact
on organisational productivity, the later has the strongest
impact on all three. IT knowledge management displayed
negative impact on organisational productivity; however,
the impact is not as strong as the other two. Based on the
above findings, the following recommendations are
apparent. It is suggested that companies should keep IT
infrastructure up to date in order to achieve good
productivity. Technological change is also instrumental and
do companies should not shy away from bringing changes
whenever required. In terms of knowledge management,
further research is suggested in future on its negative
impact on organisational productivity.
Theoretically, the study fills up a research gap by
providing measurement and structural model of the impact
of technology adoption on organizational productivity. The
study also highlights the extent to which such impact exists.
In terms of managerial implications, the study contributes
in several ways. Managers can relate the organizational
productivity related issues to the adoption of technology
and such issues can be resolved by analyzing organizations
IT infrastructure and knowledge management. It also has
implications on the decision making related to investment
on upgradation of IT infrastructure in the organization.
16
Monika Lakhwani, Omkar DASTANE, Nurhizam Safie Mohd SATAR , Zainudin JOHARI / Journal of Industrial Disribution & Business Vol 11 No 4 (2020) 7-18
Nevertheless, the study has several limitations like any
other study. Firstly, the study is conducted in limited region
of Malaysia by using snowball sampling and these results
in limiting the study from generalizing it to entire Malaysia
or other countries for that matter. Secondly, organizational
productivity is the outcome of several factors and so the
when it comes the research framework, one has to agree
that there can be few control variables resulting in
possibilities of different conclusions. For example, different
conclusions can be drawn based on company history and
industry. Hence, modelling the impact on organizational
productivity cannot be just based on selected three factors
of technological adoption. Lastly, the research has
limitations in terms of measuring productivity based on
employees ‘observation as well as perception.
For future research, it is suggested to measure
productivity based on realistic data from project managers
such as project completion time, workforce utilization etc.
it is suggested to add in mediating variables or more
variables which might influence the organization
productivity of companies in Malaysia, with further
analysis on industrial composition, capital-labor ratio,
research and development spending, employee productivity
and other managerial, personal, and administrative factors.
Most companies tend to invest in IT for increasing the share
of capital investment. It is important to understand how
these investments generate more revenues, and this can
happen by stimulating employee productivity. In addition,
for future research the researcher proposes to adopt
a qualitative method which may bring about new
outcomes (See. Dastane & Lee, 2016). Extending the
study’s population in order to embrace more
entities, future studies can also include profit and
non-profit
organizations.
The reason behind this
extension is to improve the significance of the research’s
conclusions and to compare the impact IT adoption could
contribute on the organization productivity in different
sectors.
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