Identifying IT-based rural development infrastructures： Strategic alignment approach

Information technology （IT） has been able to facilitate the rural development through empowering and integrating the accessibility of the villagers （cottagers） to the available knowledge and information and the opportunities to different extents. The success of IT approach in rural development requires some initial efforts to prepare applying IT in order to achieve it. Awareness of IT-based rural development infrastructures and subsequently preparation of required infrastructures are one of the most important steps towards delivering the development program. Considering the importance of this subject, in this paper, we have tried to identify the IT-based rural development infrastructures, using the ideas of experts in IT and rural development across the Iran country. The data analysis of 171 respondents with T-student test showed that the factors of social-cultural, organizational-managerial, technical-telecommunication and legal-legitimate are the IT-based infrastructures of rural development. Successful provision of these elements depends on the existence of strategic alignment approach and focuses on the balanced maturity of the infrastructures.     

Factors influencing the adoption of electronic commerce in Iranian SMEs： An integration of TAM2 and TPB with cost saving

E-commerce （EC） can be an important source of competitive advantage for most business organizations, especially small and medium enterprise （SME） businesses. This study examines the factors that influence e-commerce adoption in one Iranian SME. Inspired by the extended model of TAM2 and TPB and cost saving variable, 5 factors influencing intention to use e-commerce in Iranian SMEs were also identified as follows perceived usefulness, subjective norm, perceived behavior control, attitude for using EC, cost saving. To validate the research model, 82 questionnaires were collected from top managers/owners and experts of SMEs. The results indicate that the subjective norm, perceived usefulness, perceived behavioral control and cost saving have positive influence on attitude toward use, also the cost saving, perceived usefulness and attitude have positive influence on intention to use. Results can be used by developing countries, especially those in Middle East, to encourage the adoption of e-commerce among SMEs.