an impact factor model of intranet adoption: an exploratory and empirical research

An impact factor model of Intranet adoption: an exploratory andempirical research

Shung-Ming Tang

Section 3, MIS Department, National YUNLIN University of Sciences and Technology, 123 University Road, Touliu, Yunlin 640, Taiwan, ROC

Received 11 August 1998; received in revised form 6 February 1999; accepted 19 May 1999

Abstract

Intranet adoption is a topic of increasing importance to enterprises as well as researchers. This paper discusses the development

of a theoretical model and testing of research hypotheses. The model captures the critical factors a�ecting the success of Intranet

adoption. An exploratory survey and an empirical study were conducted. Empirical analysis indicates that the proposed model o�ers

enterprises a model that can be used to plan, design, manage, and to evaluate Intranet adoption, and in turn promote the possibility

of successful adoption. Moreover, the ®ndings of the success factors on Intranet adoption are consistent with those in other

studies. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Intranet; Critical successful factors (CSF); Technology; Organization; Management; Top manager and user

1. Introduction

An Intranet is the use of the InternetÕs technologies applied within an organization. The di�erences between Intranetand Internet are that an Intranet operates within an organization for internal purposes, it shares the same ability asInternet to give access to resources to anyone who can log onto the corporate network, in spite of physical location,and that the IntranetÕs applications are as wide and varied as those of web servers used over the Internet (Michael,1996). Intranets are so fast and e�cient that Intranet adoption has recently received signi®cant attention and has beenconsidered to be another information revolution. Both enterprises and researchers are trying their utmost to investigatehow to help an enterprise adopt the Intranet successfully. A successful Intranet adoption are certainly able to enhanceenterprisesÕ competitive ability.

Survey studies (shown in Table 1) (Choe, 1996; Hsiung and Fu, 1997) relative to this problem indicate that lots ofenterprises show great interest in adopting the Intranet. 16% of the enterprises in America and 19% in Taiwan havealready adopted the Intranet. However, since the adoption of an Intranet is still more of an art than a science (Michael,1996), some unpredictable problems exist. For example, without a thorough analysis of the impact caused by adoptingthe Intranet, all too often, instead of ``dramatic improvement'', some organizations ended up with a mess. Secondly,the IntranetÕs technologies and management are rather complicated aspects to cope with, such as Internet security,change of application platforms, change of arithmetic operations, employee authorization management, the integra-tion of work ¯ow, and information updating.

To sum up, all of these problems in the process of adoption, including planning, establishment, management, andmaintenance, need a great deal of information and a large amount of experts who are experienced in Intranet adoption.Therefore, as the importance of Intranet adoption increases, continued research is needed to gain an insight into thefactors in¯uencing a successful Intranet adoption.

In this paper, an exploratory survey and an empirical study were conducted. In the ®rst phase, we attempt toidentify the critical factors a�ecting the success of an Intranet adoption by interviewing experts from 27 organizationsin Taiwan which have adopted the Intranet, and in turn we proposed a research model and some hypotheses. In thesecond phase, an empirical study were conducted to test the hypotheses.

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0164-1212/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

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2. Literature background

Although Intranet adoption is a topic of increasing importance to enterprises, it is still a rather new issue. Re-searches focusing on such a subject are relatively spare. Since the Intranet is an extension of Internet application andsince the Internet is a part of information system (IS), we attempt to identify the factors in¯uencing the success ofIntranet adoption from four aspects: organization, technology, management, and top manager and user, by reviewingthe following four areas:1. computer network and data communication,2. information technology (IT) and systems,3. the Internet,4. the Intranet.

2.1. Computer network and data communication

A 1995 empirical research on the relation between computer network and user satisfaction of the top 1000 man-ufacturing ®rms and top 500 service business in Taiwan indicated that hardware compatibility, quality of network,requirement analysis, network set up engineering, support ability of software compatibility, user training, networkmanagement, data security, top managenment support, transmission speed, and user satisfaction are critical factorsa�ecting a computer network adoption (Cheng and Lin, 1995). Hall and McCauley (1987), in a case study, suggestedthat in future any organization that wants to adopt computer network successfully should regard the network as anecessary and bene®cial facility. Steinbart and Nath (1992) also suggested that the computer network is a major factorin¯uencing the management of an enterprise, and that the network management involves hardware and softwarecompatibility, reliability of the network, network security, personnel training, and so on. Shoukat (1994), in a study onkey factors a�ecting the planning and set up of local area network (LAN), also pointed out 16 critical factors.

2.2. Information technology and systems

Lin (1995) proposed a 4-framework model which pointed out several key factors a�ecting IT adoption, such asorganization background, in¯uence of evolution, and e�ciency of adopting IS. Lin and Wang (1996) pointed out 12factors in¯uencing the development of top management IS. Lin and Yang (1995) also pointed out 5 critical factorsin¯uencing information integration, including organizational cooperation, system compatibility, user expectation,integration and planning, and morale and quality of employees. Niederman et al. (1991) pointed out four key issuesin¯uencing information management, including development of information resources. Boynton et al. (1994) proposeda 4-framework model, pointing out that managerÕs knowledge of IT plays an important part in the adoption of IT. The®nding by Stylianou et al. (1996) indicated that ISs acceptance, IS usage, user satisfaction, and user competence arehighly correlated with one another. Further studies have been made by other researchers (Thong et al., 1996; Choe,1996; Hills, 1997). All of them pointed out that enterprises should pay attention to some key factors when they want toadopt IT and system.

2.3. Internet

Misic and Hill (1994), and Foo and Lim (1997) suggested that the critical factors in¯uencing the development of theInternet are: ease of access, ease of use, worldwide connection quick access, document provision, and personneltraining.

Table 1

Survey of the current state of the Intranet

Survey topic Intranet survey in USA Intranet planning survey in Taiwan

Survey institution Forrester research, 1996 Institute for information industry, 1997

Survey statistics Intranet enterprise 16% Intranet enterprise 19%

Evaluate to create Intranet 24% To create Intranet in 1 yr 40%

Planning to create Intranet 26% To create Intranet in 2±3 yr 31%

Not planning to create Intranet 34% To create Intranet in 4 yr 4%

Not planning to create Intranet 6%

158 S.-M. Tang / The Journal of Systems and Software 51 (2000) 157±173

2.4. Intranet

Michael (1996), in his study, pointed out that the success factors for implementing corporate Intranet are: security,internal control, tools and training, administration and management, legacy support, and basic network infrastructure.Sacha (1996) suggested that when implementing Intranet, the enterprise should pay attention to ®ve aspects, includingsecurity, goal, privacy, policy, and training. Other studies also showed that many critical factors in¯uence the adoptionof Intranet, such as transplantation and integration of old IS, high-level management support, updating, internalcontrol, user satisfaction, user requirement, user perception, user participation, di�erent data format, and so on(Shrednick et al., 1992; Misic and Hill, 1994; Davis, 1996; Thong et al., 1996; Link, 1997).

The literature review provides a rich body of theory and evidence to help us identify critical factors and model asuccessful adoption. In the following, we present a two-phase research design:1. an exploratory study, and2. an empirical research.

3. Exploratory survey

3.1. Initial source variables

In the ®rst phase, we conducted an exploratory study to discuss the development of a model that captures thecritical factors a�ecting the success of Intranet adoption and to test our research hypotheses. One hundred and sixvariables for the ®rst phase were identi®ed from literature review related to this subject. Then 63 key factors in¯u-encing Intranet adoption were selected out of 106 variables by interviewing with 10 experts who work in top en-terprises in Taiwan which have adopted Intranet and have rich experience in implementing the Intranet. Each factorwas measured on a three-point scale, ranging from 3 to 1: 3� essential; 2� important; 1� not relevant. Then, acontent validity ratio (CVR) was computed for each item according to the following formula: CVR ��nÿ N=2�=�N=2�, where n is the frequency count of the number of panelists rating the item as either ``3� essential'' or``2� important'' and N is the total number of respondents (Lawshe, 1975). The CVR for each item was evaluated forstatistical signi®cance at the 0.05 level, according to the table published by Lawshe (1975). All source variables withmeans less than 2.5 and those are not signi®cant at the 0.05 level were dropped. Table 2 lists 63 critical factors in-¯uencing Intranet adoption.

3.2. Research variables

3.2.1. Exploratory questionnaireData for the exploratory study were gathered through a questionnaire survey and interviewing with specialists. The

questionnaire consists of two parts: Part A to study the current state of the company and the respondents, and Part Bto explore the respondentÕs opinion about the 63 key factors a�ecting the success of Intranet adoption. Each item wasmeasured on a ®ve-point Likert scale, ranging from extremely important (� 5) to extremely unimportant (� 1). Ac-cording to Delphi method, the development of the questionnaire involved a series of pretests (Lawshe, 1975). Thepretest resulted in minor revisions to the item wordings and the rearragement of some of the factors to improve clarityand minimize ambiguity. The ®nal revised revision of the questionnaire was used to gather the data we needed. Thequestionnaire used in the second survey was measured on a seven-point scale, and that used in the third survey wasmeasured on a nine-point scale.

3.2.2. Validity and reliability of exploratory questionnaireThe questionnaire was tested for validity and reliability with a sample of 2 top information managers and 8 experts

with rich experience in Intranet adoption. CronbachÕs a was calculated for each factor as an indicator of its reliability.As a result, CronbachÕs a for each factor is greater than 0.7, above the recommended value of 0.6 for exploratoryresearch (Jones and Harrison, 1996).

Since the 63 factors were gathered by reviewing related literature and by interviewing specialists with rich experiencein Intranet implementation, the content validity of the questionnaire is not a problem, at least not in this case. On theother hand, one-tailed statistic test were used to measure the convergent validity of this questionnaire. The resultsshowed that 62 items out of 63 were highly correlated at the level of 0.01 (Chau, 1996).

S.-M. Tang / The Journal of Systems and Software 51 (2000) 157±173 159

Table 2

Initial variables of 4 main factor frameworks

Sources

1. Technology

Transmission quality Cheng and Lin (1995)

Information quality Hills (1997), Ang et al. (1995), Kweku and Przasnyski (1991), and Steinbart and Nath

(1992)

Software compatibility Lin (1995), Cheng and Lin (1995), Ang et al. (1995), Misic and Hill (1994), and Steinbart

and Nath (1992)

System quality

Data security & encryption Cheng and Lin (1995), Becker and Hatcher (1997), Davis (1996), Michael (1996), and

Steinbart and Nath (1992)

System integration Lin and Yang (1995), Stylianou et al. (1996), Chau (1996), Li (1997), and Bailey and

Pearson (1983)

Data integration Foo and Lim (1997), and Ang et al. (1995)

Basic structure of network Becker and Hatcher (1997), Davis (1996), and Misic and Hill (1994)

Easy to use Davis (1996), Link (1997), and Misic and Hill (1994)

Technical ability of information employees Lin and Wang (1996), Hsiung and Fu (1997), and Stylianou et al. (1996)

Equipment selection Cheng and Lin (1995), and Misic and Hill (1994)

Chinese system compatibility Li (1997)

Development tools of IS Hsiung and Fu (1997), and Li (1997)

Network e�ciency Davis (1996), Liu and Hsieh (1995), and Steinbart and Nath (1992)

Data security and encryption Liu and Hsieh (1995)

Groupware of Intranet Becker and Hatcher (1997), Davis (1996), Shoukat (1996), and Jones and Harrison (1996)

IS development methodology

Professional employees of information industry Hills (1997), and Ang et al. (1995)

2. Management

Human resources planning Becker and Hatcher (1997), and Steinbart and Nath (1992)

Education training Cheng and Lin (1995), Choe (1996), Davis (1996), Misic and Hill (1994), and Michael

(1996)

Project training Cheng and Lin (1995), and Choe (1996)

Requirements of professional technology Misic and Hill (1994)

Consultant planning Cheng and Lin (1995), and Hills (1997)

Project management

Objective of Intranet Shrednick et al (1992), Ang et al. (1995), and Steinbart and Nath (1992)

Promotion of Intranet Coe (1997), Li (1997), and Michael (1996)

Documents management Misic and Hill (1994)

Promotion and communication ability of CEO

Enterprises strategy planning and control Liu and Hsieh (1995), and Byers and Blume (1994)

IS development planning and control Choe (1996)

Service quality of Intranet Stylianou et al. (1996)

Good service of Intranet Li (1997), and Hills (1997)

Cost evaluate and control of Intranet Cheng and Lin (1995), Misic and Hill (1994), and Byers and Blume (1994)

Authorization of top managers

3. Organization

Orgnaization scales Lin (1995)

Internal communication channel Lee et al. (1997), Stylianou et al. (1996), and Choe (1996)

Internal-control of organization Lin (1995)

Centralization of organization decision Lee et al. (1997), and Lin (1995)

Formalization of structure Lin (1995)

Attemptaince of IT leader Lin (1995)

Communication of external environment Lin (1995)

Sta� impact of organization Lin (1995), and Shrednick et al (1992)

Functional decompose states Stylianou et al. (1996)

Top managers have con®dence in exployees

Aggressive of cultrual concept Lin (1995), and Lin and Wang (1996)

Opposite to innovation and change Lin (1995)

Cooperation states of organization Lin and Yang (1995)

IP Levels on organization Lin (1995), and Kweku and Przasnyski (1991)

Consultant committee Lin (1995), and Stylianou et al. (1996)

Pro®t of organization Lee et al. (1997)

Departments cooperation and communication

democratic climate of organization Lin (1995), and Lin and Wang (1996)


3.2.3. Exploratory surveyTo promote high response rate, preliminary contacts via telephone calls were made to 40 enterprises and 2 Intranet

manufacturing ®rms to determine whether they agreed to participate in our survey study. The 40 enterprises werechosen because they have already adopted the Intranet and have rich experience in it. As a result, 27 out of 42 agreed toparticipate in this study.

So a survey was distributed to 27 computer executive o�cer (CEOs) of 25 enterprises and 2 technologists working inIntranet manufacturing ®rms. Among them, 21 enterprises were asked to answer the questionnaire mailed to them, and6 of them were asked to do an interview. The participants were asked to response to each question in the questionnaire.Since the questionnaire was designed on ®ve-point, seven-point, and nine-point scales, a primary mailing and twofollow-up mailings were made; the ®rst and second follow-ups were made about two weeks from the date of initialmailings. Overall, three questionnaires were mailed and three interviews were done. Finally, a total of 78 surveys werereturned for a response rate of 96.3%. Table 3 provides a summary of the characteristics of each respondent.

3.3. Data analysis

Basic statistics analysis was employed to derive the ®nal critical factors that could in¯uence the Intranet adoption inan organization. First, mean for each factor was calculated. Mean of each factor should be greater than 4.0. Based onthis criteria, several factors with low mean (mean < 4.0) were dropped. Finally, 38 critical factors out of 63 were de-rived. Results are shown in Tables 4±7.

3.4. Research model and hypotheses

3.4.1. Factor analysisFactor analysis was used to derive the common factors from 38 critical factors. Factors of four aspects were an-

alyzed separately. On the one hand, eigen value for each common factor equal to or above 1 are adequate to bederived; otherwise it must be dropped. On the other hand, the total variance must be greater than 70%. Results arelargely consistent with those in previous studies. The results of factor analysis are provided in Table 8.

3.4.2. Research modelBased on theoretical literature review and exploratory research in areas of computer network, the Internet, the

Intranet, and IS, we propose organization, management, technology and top manager and user as 4 critical factorframeworks of Intranet adoption success. The proposed model consists of 16 critical factors that are hypothesized tosigni®cantly a�ect Intranet adoption success. The proposed model is shown in Fig. 1.

3.4.3. Research hypothesesBased on the research model, the ®rst proposition to be addressed is that all factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet

adoption success. The ®rst hypothesis is therefore:

H1: All factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet adoption success.Technology is viewed as an important factor in¯uencing Intranet adoption in several models of IT and IS (as

mentioned in Section 2). Technology framework involves 4 factors: information quality, system development,

Table 2 Continued

Importance of IT Lee et al. (1997), Lin (1995), and Stylianou et al. (1996)

Importance of employees learning and training Link (1997)

4. Top of manager and users

Users ability Kweku and Przasnyski (1991), and Coe (1996)

Supplies Lee et al. (1997), Cheng and Lin (1995), Hsiung and Fu (1997), and Ang et al. (1995)

User friendliness Li (1997)

Tenure of CEO Lin (1995)

Top management support Lin and Wang (1996), Cheng and Lin (1995), Choe (1996), Hills (1997), and Steinbart and

Nath (1992)

CEO characteristic Lin and Wang (1996)

User acceptances Coe (1996)

User satisfaction Coe (1996)

User participation

EmployeeÕs expectation Li (1997)


communication quality, and system integration. The second proposition is that all of the 4 technology factors playimportant role in Intranet adoption success. The second hypotheses is therefore:

H2: Technology factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet adopt success.Organization framework involves 5 factors, including requirements of IT, employees rotation, goals and attitude,

department communication, and pro®t of organization, which could signi®cantly in¯uence Intranet adoption success.Thus, the following is hypothesized:

H3: Organization factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet adoption success.The e�ciency of management is also believed to in¯uence Intranet adoption. The following relationship is

hypothesized:

H4: Management factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet adoption success.The framework of top manager and user is also supposed to play an important role in Intranet adoption

success. The more the top managers support Intranet adoption, the more successful it will be. Furthermore, theability of users, including user acceptance, user satisfaction, user understanding, and user participation, is alsoin¯uential in Intranet adoption. The higher the ability of users is, the higher the adoption success will be. Besides,the sta� expectation and perception of their own involvement in adoption is believed to a�ect adoption success.Expectation and involvement are positively related to perceptions of adoption success. The ®fth hypothesis istherefore:

H5: Top manager±user factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet adoption success.Whether the interaction of 4 frameworks in¯uences Intranet adoption success is also an important problem that

should be investigated. The sixth hypothesis is therefore:

Table 3

Statistical analysis of basis data

Sample Percentage

1. Sample classify

General company 25 93

Supply 2 7

2. Professional years

6 2 yr 3 0.11

>2 and 6 4 yr 8 0.30

>4 and 6 6 yr 3 0.11

>6 and 6 8 yr 8 0.30

>6 and 6 10 1 0.04

>10 yr 4 0.15

3. Employee

101±250 7 0.26

251±500 4 0.15

501±1000 7 0.26

>1000 9 0.33

4. Employee

3±5 4 0.15

6±10 13 0.48

11±20 6 0.22

21±50 3 0.11

>50 1 0.04

5. Intranet years

6 2 yr 10 0.37

>2 and 6 5 yr 10 0.37

>5 and 6 10 yr 7 0.26

6. Intranet application

Shares of ®le data 27 100

E-mail services 24 89

Information noti®cation 16 59

Access of Internet 5 0.16

Use group-ware 17 0.62

Electric document 8 0.30


H6: The interaction of all factors signi®cantly a�ect Intranet adoption success.

4. Empirical research

In order to test the proposed model and hypotheses, in the second phase, an empirical research was conducted.

Table 4

CSF selection of main technology factors

Variables Survey samples Interview Total mean

(M1 + M2)/2

CSF

Mean M2 Standard

variance

Rank Mean M1 Rank

1 Data security and encryption 4.84 0.47 1 4.625 1 4.7325 Con®rm

2 System integration 4.56 0.5 2 4.625 1 4.5925 Con®rm

3 Development tools of IS 4.04 0.61 9 4.5 2 4.27 Con®rm

5 Easy to use 4.36 0.75 4 4.125 4 4.2425 Con®rm

6 Technical ability of

information employees

4.28 0.54 5 4.125 4 4.2025 Con®rm

17 System quality 4.44 0.76 3 3.875 6 4.1575 Con®rm

12 Information quality 4.28 0.79 5 3.375 9 3.8275 Con®rm

9 Network e�ciency 4.02 0.95 12 4.375 3 4.0875 Con®rm

7 Equipment selection 4.12 0.6 8 4 5 4.06 Con®rm

13 Data integration 4.16 0.85 7 3.875 6 4.0175 Con®rm

4 Transmission quality 4.24 0.59 6 3.85 7 4.055 Con®rm

8 Basic structure of network 3.88 0.83 11 4 5 3.94 Dropped

11 Software compatibility 3.92 0.7 10 3.875 6 3.8975 Dropped

14 Chinese system compatibility 3.76 0.83 13 3.875 6 3.8175 Dropped

10 Groupware of Intranet 3.52 0.82 15 4 5 3.76 Dropped

15 Professional employees of

information industry

3.64 0.86 14 3.875 6 3.7575 Dropped

16 IS development methodology 3.4 0.86 16 3.875 6 3.6375 Dropped

Total mean value 4.073 4.044 4.058529

Table 5

CSF selection of main management factors


(M1 + M2)/2

CSF

Mean M2 Standard

variance

Rank Mean M1 Rank

1 Cost evaluate and control of

Intranet

4.36 0.56 1 4.5 1 4.43 Con®rm

3 Promotion and communication

ability of CEO

4.32 0.62 2 4.375 2 4.3475 Con®rm

2 Education training 4.2 0.5 4 4.375 2 4.2875 Con®rm

4 Good services of Intranet 4.12 0.66 6 4.375 2 4.2475 Con®rm

6 Objectives of Intranet 4.24 0.59 3 4.25 3 4.245 Con®rm

9 Promotion of Intranet 4.24 0.52 3 4.25 3 4.245 Con®rm

Enterprises strategy planning

and control

4.08 0.64 7 4.25 3 4.165 Con®rm

10 Project training 4.16 0.62 5 4.125 4 4.1425 Con®rm

Requirements of professionals

technology

4.16 0.68 5 4.125 4 4.1425 Con®rm

12 Documents management 4.04 0.67 8 3.725 4 3.835 Dropped

14 Services quality of Intranet 4.04 0.61 8 3.625 4 3.825 Dropped

5 Human resources planning 3.88 0.66 10 3.82 3 3.85 Dropped

7 IS planning and control 3.88 0.6 10 3.80 3 3.84 Dropped

13 Project management 3.96 0.73 9 3.64 4 3.80 Dropped

Authorization of top managers 3.96 0.67 9 3.60 4 3.78 Dropped

16 Consultant planning 3.44 0.82 11 4 5 3.72 Dropped

Total mean value 4.068 4.227 4.147031


4.1. Research design

4.1.1. The sampleA random sample of 500 manufacturers and 300 service industry was obtained from the top 1000 manufacturers and

top 500 service industry published in the 1997 top enterprises in Taiwan: this source generally lists medium to largeTaiwan corporations representing industries such as utilities, transportation, insurance and agencies, and consequentlyare likely to have adopted the Intranet and have rich experience in Intranet adoption.

Table 6

CSF selection of main organization factors


(M1 + M2)/2

CSF

Mean M2 Standard

variance

Rank Mean M1 Rank

3 Department cooperation and

communication

4.16 0.55 1 4.375 1 4.2675 Con®rm

2 IP levels on organization 4.12 0.78 2 4.375 1 4.2475 Con®rm

1 Opposite to innovation and change 4 0.57 5 4.375 1 4.1875 Con®rm

4 Organization scales 4.08 0.49 3 4.25 2 4.165 Con®rm

5 Internal communication channel 4.04 0.45 4 4.25 2 4.145 Con®rm

7 Importance of employeeÕs learning

and training

3.92 0.7 7 4.25 2 4.085 Con®rm

9 Importance of IT 3.96 0.84 6 4.125 3 4.0425 Con®rm

6 Internal control of organization 3.79 0.56 12 4.25 2 4.0405 Con®rm

19 Pro®t of organization 3.98 0.78 8 3.995 5 4.005 Con®rm

10 Attemptance of IT leader 3.92 0.84 11 4.084 4 4.002 Con®rm

17 Democratic climate of organization 3.97 0.91 9 3.985 5 3.975 Con®rm

16 Top managers have con®dence in

employees

3.96 0.77 10 3.975 5 3.965 Con®rm

18 Aggressiveness of cultural concept 3.52 0.91 14 3.875 5 3.6975 Dropped

Centralization of organization

decision

3.48 0.87 15 3.875 5 3.6775 Dropped

14 Communication of external

environment

3.48 0.91 15 3.875 5 3.6775 Dropped

15 Sta� impact of organization 3.48 0.65 15 3.875 5 3.6775 Dropped

11 Cooperation states of organization 3.56 0.91 13 3.625 6 3.5925 Dropped

21 Formalization of structure 3.28 0.67 17 3.625 6 3.4525 Dropped

Functional decompose states 3.36 0.99 16 3.375 7 3.3675 Dropped

8 Consultant committee 2.88 1.09 18 2.75 10 2.815 Dropped

Total mean value 3.89 3.893 3.8915

Table 7

CSF selection of top manager and user framework


(M1 + M2)/2

CSF

Mean M2 Standard

variance

Rank Mean M1 Rank

1 Top management support 4.68 0.47 1 4.75 1 4.715 Con®rm

2 EmployeeÕs expectations 4.32 0.47 2 4.5 2 4.41 Con®rm

3 User participation 4.28 0.67 3 4.375 3 4.3275 Con®rm

5 User satisfaction 4.2 0.4 4 4.25 4 4.225 Con®rm

4 User acceptance 3.92 0.7 5 4.375 3 4.1475 Con®rm

6 User friendliness 3.6 0.76 9 4.25 4 3.925 Con®rm

9 CEO characteristic 3.72 0.79 7 3.625 7 3.6725 Dropped

7 Tenure of CEO 3.28 0.97 11 4 5 3.64 Dropped

8 User ability 3.36 0.9 10 3.875 6 3.6175 Dropped

10 Supplies 3.8 0.76 6 3.375 8 3.5875 Dropped

Total mean value 3.83 4.01 3.920208


4.1.2. The instrumentData for the second phase were also gathered through a questionnaire survey. Again, the questionnaire was pilot-

tested for content validity with a sample of 10 CEO in manufacturers. This pilot test resulted in changes in thewordings of certain items to improve clarity and minimize ambiguity. Questionnaires were prepared and mailed

Fig. 1. Research model.

Table 8

Factor analysis of theoretical main factors

Factor (eigen value) Variables (eigen vector)

Technology (total reliability: a � 0:84; cumulative explain variance: 0.76)

1 Information quality (3.26) Easy to use (0.82), technical ability of information employees (0.31), data

integration (0.74), transmission quality (0.58), information quality (0.85)

2 System development (1.98) Data security and encryption (0.84), development tools of IS (0.57), system quality

(0.83)

3 Communication quality (1.81) Network e�ciency (0.83), equipment selection (0.85)

5 System integration (1.25) System integration (0.72)

Management (total reliability: a � 0:84; cumulative explain variance: 0.78)

1 Project management (3.32) Cost evaluation and control of Intranet (0.90), requirements of employees (0.75)

2 Strategy planning and control

(1.48)

Clear objects in project initialization (0.85), enterprises strategy planning and

control (0.76), promotion of Intranet (0.76)

3 CEO ability (1.21) Promotion and communication ability of CEO (0.82), good services of Intranet

(0.89)

4 Education training (1.25) Education training (0.82), project training ( 0.78)

Organization (total reliability: a � 0:88; cumulative explain variance: 0.76)

1 Requirements of IT (3.26) IT importance (0.80), attitude of IT leader (0.85), internal control (0.58)

2 Employees rotation (1.72) Importance of employees learning and training (0.84), top managers have

con®dence in employees (0.66), democratic climate of organization (0.62)

3 Goals and attitude (1.64) Objectives of Intranet (0.52), opposite to change and innovation (0.85), internal

communication channel (0.66)

4 Department communication

(1.46)

IP levels of organization (0.83), department cooperation and communication (0.87)

5 Pro®t of organization (1.28) Pro®t of organization (0.82)

Top manager and user (total reliability: a � 0:86; cumulative explain variance: 0.78)

User ability (2.54) User acceptance (0.82), user satisfaction (0.86), user friendliness (0.83), user

participation (0.46)

2 Top management support (1.34) Top management support (0.94)

3 Employee expectations (0.94) Employee expectation (0.82)


directly to CEO with instructions requesting him/her to express their opinion about critical factors that play key rolesin Intranet adoption success, regardless of whether their Intranet adoption was successful or not.

The questionnaire consists of two parts:1. The current states of the company and respondent.2. 38 critical factors a�ecting Intranet of adoption success.The critical factors of 4 frameworks (technology framework, organization framework, management framework, andtop manager±user framework) were described and respondents were asked to answer each question, on a ®ve-pointLikert scale, ranging from ``strongly agree (� 5)'' to ``strongly disagree (� 1)'' (Appendix A illustrates the speci®citems used for the study).

4.1.3. Assessing validity and reliabilityCronbachÕs a was calculated for each factor as an indicator of its internal consistency. High values indicate high

internal consistency. In general, reliability coe�cients of all 38 factors are over 0.70; factors with CronbachÕs aP 0:70are judged to be high in internal consistency (Jones and Harrison, 1996). Since a number of researchers have identi®edlots of critical factors that have great impact on Intranet adoption success and since all 38 factors were strictlytherefore identi®ed by experts with rich experience in Intranet adoption, the content validity for each factor is deemedacceptable. Furthermore, convergent validity was evaluated. Convergent validity is demonstrated if items that measurethe same factor correlate highly with one another. One-tailed t-statistic tests showed that 36 out of 38 inter-itemcorrelation were highly correlated at the level of 0.01.

4.1.4. Response and non-response analysisSeven hundred and ninety questionnaires were distributed to 800 ®rms because 5 ®rms have identical addresses and

5 ®rms have wrong addresses. A total of 190 useable questionnaires were returned by ®rms for a response rate of 24%.Comparisons (using v2 tests at P � 0:01), between respondents and non-respondents were made in terms of the basicdata of respondents. The results suggested the absence of non-response bias. This response rate is therefore adequate,though somewhat lower than that usually achieved. Manufacturers comprise 57.8% of respondents, and service in-dustries comprise 42.2%. The majority of respondents have adopted the Intranet less than 2 yr (60%) and the majorreasons for adopting the Intranet are to increase e�ciency (73.8%) and to improve organizational communication(74.5%).

4.1.5. Cognition di�erence analysisComparisons (using v2 tests at P � 0:01) among respondents (divided into three groups: successfully adopted, well

intended to adopt, and not intended to adopt) were made in terms of cognition of critical factors in¯uencing Intranetadoption success. The results of v2 test shows that the cognition between ``successfully adopted'' and ``well intended toadopt'' did not di�er signi®cantly whereas the cognition between ``successfully adopted'' and ``not intended to adopt''di�ers signi®cantly. So the sample of ``not intended to adopt'' are dropped during the following hypotheses testing.

5. Research hypotheses testing

5.1. Hypotheses testing

During hypotheses testing, a one-way multivariate analysis was carried out. The dependent variables are two typesof Intranet adoption: ``successfully adopted'' and ``well intended to adopt''.

Table 9 shows the multivariate analysis of the 4 critical factor frameworks. The independent variables are ``tech-nology framework'', ``management framework'', ``organization framework'', and ``top manager±user framework''. Asexpected, the results showed that signi®cant di�erences exist between 4 frameworks and two types of Intranetadoptions. Hence, H1 was supported.

Table 10 presents the multivariate analysis of the technology factors. The independent variables are: informationquality, system development, communication technology, and system integration. As is evident, the results showed thatsigni®cant di�erences exist between ``information quality'', ``system development'', ``communication technology'' andthe two types of Intranet adoptions, with the exception of ``system integration''. Thus, H2 was partly supported.

Table 11 shows the results of multivariate analysis of management factors. The independent variables are: projectmanagement, strategy planning and control, CEO ability, and education training. As expected, the results showed thatthe impact of all 4 factors on Intranet adoption is signi®cant. Hence, H3 was supported.


Table 12 displays the results of multivariate analysis of organization factors. The independent variables are: re-quirement of IT, employee rotation, goals and attitude, department communication, and pro®t of organization. Asexpected, the results showed that the impact of these factors on Intranet adoption is signi®cant with the exception ofemployee rotation. Thus, H4 was partly supported.

Table 13 presents the e�ects of multivariate analysis of top manager±user factors on Intranet adoption. The in-dependent variables are: user ability, top management support, and employee expectation. As is evident, the resultsshowed that all of them achieved signi®cant di�erences. Thus, H5 was supported.

Table 9

Multivariate analysis of the 4 main factor framework

Mean square F DF Pr > F

Technology 0.5923 0.32 15 0.0312a

Management 0.9347 2.15 15 0.0009b

Organization 0.7023 1.63 23 0.0105c

Top manager and user 1.1245 2.18 12 0.0008b

a P < 0:05.b P < 0:001.c P < 0:01.

Table 10

Impact analysis of technology common factors


Information quality 0.7321 1.31 8 0.0092a

System development 1.2547 2.06 6 0.0008b

Communication technology 1.0983 2.23 5 0.0009b

System integration 0.3251 0.57 3 0.0537a P < 0:01.b P < 0:001.

Table 11

Impact analysis of main management common factors


Project management 0.8793 1.48 4 0.0082a

Strategy planning and control 1.1645 2.15 6 0.0073a

CEO ability 0.9376 1.72 4 0.0238b

Education training 0.7985 1.89 6 0.0009c

a P < 0:01.b P < 0:05.c P < 0:001.

Table 12

Impact analysis of organization common factors


Requirements of IT 0.5417 0.86 7 0.0078a

Employee rotation 0.5768 0.83 8 0.0589

Goals and attitude 0.3415 0.56 8 0.0063a

Department communication 0.6835 1.32 6 0.0009b

Pro®t of organization 0.3231 0.82 4 0.0079a

a P < 0:01.b P < 0:001.

Table 13

Impact analysis of top manager and user common factors


User ability 0.0813 0.23 7 0.0087a

Top management support 0.0896 0.34 4 0.0009b

Employee expectation 0.4012 0.59 3 0.0075a

a P < 0:01.b P < 0:001.


Table 14 displays the results of multivariate analysis of interaction of 4 factor frameworks. The results showed thatthree of them (technology * organization, technology * top manager±user, and management * top manager±user)achieved signi®cant di�erences, while the other three did not. Hence, H6 was partly supported.

6. Finding and suggestions

This study has a�rmed the impact of critical factors of technology, organization, management, and top manager±user on the success of Intranet adoption in an enterprise. It also o�ers several suggestions to enterprises, ISs managers,professionals, and researchers to help them improve the success of adopting Intranet or further investigate new ways ofdoing so.

6.1. Suggestions from technology factors

The results in Table 8 show that among 11 critical technology factors, information quality, data security and en-cryption, and system quality are viewed as top 3 critical factors. The ®ndings are largely consistent with those inprevious studies (Shoukat, 1994; Cheng and Lin,1995; Sacha, 1996; Hsiung and Fu, 1997). On the other hand, theresults of multivariate analysis of 4 main technology factors (shown in Table 11) are consistent with those of Liu andHsieh (1997) and Davis (1996). The ®ndings o�er several suggestions:1. Enterprises should create information security system like setting up Fireware, SET of IBM and RSA, creating the

tracing system of security record to control the user access account password and authority, and preventing illegalusers from completing information security system.

2. Enterprises can ensure their information quality by creating total quality method (TQM) and international standardorganization (ISO) system.

3. Enterprises should perform system integration by integrating traditional MIS into Groupware Intranet so that olddatabase can be transferred to new database by linking computer graphic interface (CGI) with Middleware.

6.2. Suggestions from management factors

Results in Table 8 show that among 9 management factors, ``promotion and communication ability of CEO'' and``clear objects in project initialization'' are viewed as top 2. Thus, ``project management'' which implies the integrationand planning of total information sources plays a very important role in Intranet adoption. The ®ndings are consistentwith those of Liu and Hsieh (1997), and Davis (1996). Furthermore, the results of multivariate analysis of 4 man-agement common factors (shown in Table 11) are also consistent with those of Liu and Hsieh (1997), and Lee et al.(1997). The ®ndings indicate that 4 management factors have great impact on the success of Intranet adoption. Thus,we suggest that enterprises should make a carefully worked-out plan to integrate the whole enterprise and MIS into theIntranet.

6.3. Suggestions from organization factors

Results in Table 8 show that ``department cooperation and communication'' and ``attemptance of IT leader'' are thetop 2 factors of 12 organization factors. The results are largely consistent with those of Ishman (1996), Thong et al.(1996), Lee et al. (1997), and Davis (1996). On the other hand, the ®ndings of multivariate analysis of 4 organization

Table 14

The interaction impact of 4 main factor frameworks


Technology * management 0.5235 0.68 69 0.07

Technology * organization 0.6124 0.f84 80 0.045a

Technology * top manager and user 0.5842 0.76 60 0.049a

Management * organization 0.5046 0.58 70 0.852

Management * top manager and user 0.6046 1.04 62 0.025a

Organization * top manager and user 0.5826 0.63 60 0.074a P < 0:05.


common factors (shown in Table 12) are consistent with those of Liu and Hsieh (1997), Lee et al. (1997), Davis (1996),and Shoukat (1994). The ®ndings o�er two suggestions:1. It is necessary for the enterprise to combine information network with the relational network of reputation to create

a virtual network organizational model. The ®nal goal is to maintain the relation of reputation and increase com-petitive ability.

2. Enterprises should integrate the application of extranet, Intranet, electronic data interchange (EDI), and electronicorder system (EOS), so as to provide a good platform for system integration.

6.4. Suggestions from top manager±user

Results in Table 8 show that ``top management support'' and ``user satisfaction'' are the top 2 factors of 8 topmanager±user factors. The results are consistent with those of Liu and Hsieh (1997), Hsiung and Fu (1997), and Sacha(1996). The ®ndings means that the more the top managers support the Intranet adoption and the more the usersaccept the Intranet adoption, the higher the possibility of a successful adoption will be. The ®ndings o�er two sug-gestions:1. Top manager should cultivate his interest in IT cognition or improve his personal competence, such as ability of

accepting challenges, spirit of adventure, and management style.2. Users should increase their opportunity of receiving information education and of using high IT.

7. Conclusions

Despite the presumed importance of Intranet adoption there is relatively a little empirical research focusingspecially on it. This study builds on and expands existing research literature on Intranet adoption, and hence helpsto establish a model of critical factors in¯uencing the success of Intranet adoption. The signi®cant positive rela-tionship that was found between the 4 factor frameworks and the success of Intranet adoption provides empiricalevidence of the hypotheses and the proposed model. This study contributes to Intranet research and practice in twoways. First, it provides a model of critical factors in¯uencing the success of Intranet adoption. Second, the model isof practice value, because it contributes to our ability to think about or analyze the impacts of Intranet adoption onenterprises. Finally, this model can be used to help enterprises plan, manage, evaluate and implement their ownIntranet successfully.

Appendix A. A survey on critical successful factors of Intranet adoption: enterprises questionnaire

General information1. All answers of this questionnaire will be held strictly con®dential.2. If you are interested in the results of this research, please complete the questionnaire and the last information on the

last page and we will be happy to send you a result copy of this research.3. Please return this questionnaire in the perfect envelope we have provided before 30 April 1998.4. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Section A. Basic information

1. How long has your company information department been in the industry?1 2 3 4 5<1 yr (1±2] yr (2±5] yr (5±10] yr >10 yr

2. How long has your career been in the information Job?1 2 3 4 5<1 yr (1±2] yr (2±5] yr (5±10] yr >10 yr

3. What kind of industry is your company?h Manufacturing industry h Electric information h Banking & insuranceh Food industry h Retail h Governmenth Transportation industry h Chemical industry h Building tradeh Others ± ±


Section B. Please complete the basic information of your company

Section C. The critical successful factors of Intranet adoption

The statements below are related to critical successful factors of Intranet adoption at your company. Read eachstatement carefully and then check the blank square that best describes how you feel about the statement. Use thefollowing scale:1. Strongly disagree2. Disgree3. Undecided4. Agree5. Strongly agree

A. Technology factors

1. Does your company implement the Intranet nowadays?h Yes ® please skip to question no 2h No ® please answer question no 2 and then skip to Section C2. Does your company intend to adopt Intranet?h Well intended to adopt h Not intended to adopt3. How long has your company used network?1 2 3 4 5<1 yr (1±2] yr (2±5] yr (5±10] yr >10 yr

4. How long has your company adopted the Intranet?1 2 3 4 5<1 yr (1±2] yr (2±5] yr (5±10] yr >10 yr

5. What is the reason for your company to adopt the Intranet?h Increasing employeeÕs e�ciency h Marketing policyh Education training h Customer servicesh Improving the e�ciency of organization communicationh Match to the organization reengineering h Others ± ±

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree Strongly agree1. Is it important for users to use the Intranet easily?(Easy to use)

h h h h h

2. Is it important to have information employees with good professional technology?(Professional technology of information employees)

h h h h h

3. Data accurancy, reliability, and e�ciency are important?(Information quality)

h h h h h

4. Is it important to have good data access, management and integration on Intranet?(Data integration)

h h h h h

5. Is it important to have transmission distance, media, and speed of good quality?(Transmission quality)

h h h h h

6. Is it important to have good systems of data transfer and access security?(Data security and encryption)

h h h h h

7. Is it important to have good tools of IS development platform and application?(Development tools of IS)

h h h h h


B. Management factors

C. Organization factors

(As to Intranet, do you think:)1. It is important to have good cost evaluation and control?(Cost evaluation and control of Intranet)

h h h h h

2. It is important to have good support for requirements of professional technology?(Requirements of professional technology)

h h h h h

3. It is important to have su�cient perfect project goals?(Objectives of Intranet)

h h h h h

4. It is important to have su�cient complete strategy planning and control?(Strategy planning and control)

h h h h h

5. It is important to have good promotion planning?(Promotion of Intranet)

h h h h h

6. It is important for CEO to have su�cient Intranet promotion and communication ability?(Promotion and communication ability of CEO)

h h h h h

7. It is important to provide good services?(Good services of Intranet)

h h h h h

8. It is important to have good education training planning?(Education training)

h h h h h

9. It is important to have su�cient perfect planning about Intranet project training?(Project training)

h h h h h

8. Is it important to have the stability, reliability, and operation e�ciency?(System quality)

h h h h h

9. Is it important to have good equipment of computer, network, and auxiliary software?(Equipment selection)

h h h h h

10. Is it important to have good communication archiecture, equipment, and 1 line of Intranet?(Communication structure of network)

h h h h h

11. Is it important to have good integration of systems, network structure, and server software?(System integration)

h h h h h

(As to Intranet, do you think:)1. It is important to have su�cient perfect planning of employees learning and training chance onorganization?(Importance of employees learning and training)

h h h h h


D. Top managers and users factors

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(As to Intranet, do you think:)1. Users acceptance is an important factor for IT?(Users acceptance)

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2. Users satisfaction is an important factor for IT?(Users satisfaction)

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3. Users friendliness is an important factor for IT?(Users friendliness)

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h h h h h

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h h h h h

8. It is important to have high organization pro®t?(Bene®t of organization)

h h h h h


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Tang Shung-Ming was born in Tainan, Taiwan, the Republic of China, on 28 May 1952. He acquired his B.S.degree in the Business AdministrationDepartment of National Taiwan University in June 1976. He received the M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in June 1979, January 1993, respectively. Today,he is an associate professor at the MIS department of National YUNLIN Sciences and Technology University. His research interests includeElectrical Commence, Virtual Organization, Network Organization Management, Strategy Alliances, etc.
