Các nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến việc ứng dụng ICT của các doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa: Trường hợp nghiên cứu đối với các khách sạn tại thành phố Đà Nẵng
Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020
DETERMINANTS OF ICT ADOPTION IN SMEs: THE CASE OF HOTELS
IN DA NANG CITY
CÁC NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN VIỆC ỨNG DỤNG ICT CỦA CÁC DOANH NGHIỆP
NHỎ VÀ VỪA: TRƯỜNG HỢP NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI VỚI CÁC KHÁCH SẠN
TẠI THÀNH PHỐ ĐÀ NẴNG
Nguyen Tran Bao Tran, Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy
University of Economics - The University of Danang
Abstract
This paper employs a qualitative study for investigating the critical determinants of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially the case
of hotels in Da Nang City. The qualitative research is conducted with semi-structured interviews with 15 hotel
managers. Voyant Tool which is employed to measure the frequency of keywords (representing for
determinants for ICT adoption) indicated that the current determinants of ICT adoption in hotels in Da Nang
City are related to “competition”, “managers”, “resource”, “security”, “benefits”, “support”. Based on their
responses, we have analyzed and discussed these factors thoroughly. Moreover, some specific suggestions for
enhancing ICT adoption in the hotel industry in Da Nang City are clearly given.
Key Words: information and communication technology (ICT), qualitative, SME, Voyant Tool.
Tóm tắt
Nghiên cứu được thực hiện nhằm khám phá các yếu tố tác động đến việc ứng dụng công nghệ thông tin
và truyền thông (ICT) đối với các doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa (DNNVV), trường hợp lĩnh vực doanh nghiệp
khách sạn trên địa bàn thành phố Đà Nẵng. Phương pháp phỏng vấn sâu, bán cấu trúc được thực hiện với sự
tham gia của 15 nhà quản lý khách sạn. Phần mềm Voyant Tools được sử dụng phân tích dữ liệu bằng cách đo
lường tần suất của các từ khoá đại diện cho các yếu tố quyết định việc ứng dụng ICT cho thấy rằng các yếu tố
tác động đến việc ứng dụng ICT ở các khách sạn tại thành phố Đà Nẵng liên quan đến “cạnh tranh”, “nhà
quản trị”, “nguồn lực”, “an ninh”, “lợi ích” và “sự hỗ trợ”. Dựa vào các dữ liệu phỏng vấn, nghiên cứu cũng
đã thảo luận sâu hơn về các yếu tố liên quan này. Ngoài ra chúng tôi cũng cũng đưa ra một số hàm ý nhằm gia
tăng ứng dụng ICT trong lĩnh vực khách sạn tại thành phố Đà Nẵng trên cơ sở kết quả nghiên cứu.
Từ khóa: công nghệ thông tin và truyền thông (ICT), định tính, doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa(SME),
Voyant Tool.
1. Introduction
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is viewed as a strategic asset and core
competence in the SMEs in general and in the hotel industry in particular (Bethapudi, 2013). It
provides organizations with many benefits including increasing performance in terms of external
measures such as increasing customer satisfaction,…. and internal measures including improving
productivity, increasing revenue and lowering operational costs… (Sirirak et al, 2011). As a result,
ICT is considered as a cost-effective method for businesses to improve their operations and enhance
their competitive advantages (Richard, 2013; Paryani et al, 2010). Therefore, it is no doubt that ICT
has been becoming increasingly popular across the world (Kiss et al, 2015).
The hotel industry is regarded as a major business making up the tourism complex, which is
one of Vietnam’s fastest-growing sectors promoting the national economy by employing thousands of
people and generating huge revenue annually (General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 2016). This sector
is also open to the elements of the fragmentary developments in the technology field. ICT, for
example, is a powerful technology in meeting customers’ demands precisely and rapidly, improving
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efficiency and enhancing the relationship between hotels and customers as well as stakeholders.
Realizing the significant role of ICT in enhancing the hotels’ competitiveness in the modern world,
Vietnamese Government together act actively to encourage SMEs in general and hotels, in particular,
adopt and invest in ICT by several important documents on ICT strategy and master planning, for
example, The Decision No. 246/2005/ QD-TTg, Resolution No. 23-NQ/TW promulgated 22/03/2018,
etc (General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 2016). These plans contribute to the improvement of the
enterprises and national competitiveness, promoting the process of industrialization and
modernization of the country. In sum, these incentives are issued to create a sound environment for
encourage hotel providers to adopt IC for enhancing their business.
The huge benefits of ICT, however, have not fully utilized by SMEs especially hotels in
Vietnam (Ministry of Communication and Information, 2019). For example, some companies have
struggled in investing ICT as well as they do not have long-term plans for ICT development. It results
from the complex process of ICT adoption. Previous research has indicated that there are many factors
such as resources, managers’ characteristics, etc… having direct influences on the ICT adoption.
Therefore, to have successful ICT adoption, this research is conducted to identify some critical
determinants for ICT adoption especially in the context of hotels in Da Nang providing a best-fit
explanation for these factors and its effects on ICT adoption.
2. Theoretical framework
2.1. Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
In the contemporary world, ICT plays an important role and is becoming indispensable in
everyday life. The conceptualization of ICT – Information, Communications, and Technology can be
referred to technologies pertaining to the new science of collecting, storing, processing and
transmitting information (Nicol, 2003). To be more detail, ICT can be defined as an extended
synonym for Information Technology (IT). However, ICT is usually a more general term emphasizing
the roles of the unified communication technologies and integration of telecommunication (e.g.
telephone lines and wireless signals), hardware (e.g computers), software, audio/ visual systems as
well as the various specialized devices and applications associated with them, such as satellite systems
and videoconferencing enabling users to access, store, transfer and manipulate information (Shortis,
2001). In other words, ICT includes IT as well as telecommunication, broadcast media, all types of
audio allowing users to control and monitor functions (Adomi & Kpangban, 2010).
Adopting and using ICT opens up opportunities for firms to cut operational costs, improve
efficiency and enhance trade links in many corporations (Kutlu and Özturan, 2008). ICT also enables
firms to cope with unexpected challenges of ever-changing environment effectively. (AlBar and
Hoque, 2019)
2.2. ICT adoption in the hotel industry
Thuy et al., (2019) stated that the hospitality industry is changing speedily around the world
due to technological changes in information and communication technology. In the hotel industry,
traditional systems are being used such as cell phone, telex, radio, television, and video conferencing
as well as more modern computer-based technologies, e.g. electronic data interchange and e-mail
(Thuy et al., 2019). However, with current development in technology, if the hotel is only using these
basic ICT components such as email, fax, telephone, etc,.. these components are considered to be not
efficient enough to affect hotel operations positively (Sirirak et al., 2011). Therefore, in the modern
world, e-distribution systems, yield management, Central Reservation Systems, and web booking
systems which are used to sell the product or services to the guests and store customer information are
popular in the hotel industry (Hu & Gu, 2013). In this regard, ICT is used not only for transmitting
information but also for controlling operations (Hu & Gu, 2013).
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Moreover, hotel owners are using technology to manage their offers according to guests and
their changing behavior. Also, a huge investment in ICT solutions is spent in shaping, redesigning
services/products, thereby, improving hotel operations effectively (Thuy et al., 2019). The research of
Thuy et al., (2019), for instance, stated that with ICT investment, a guest satisfaction system is
successfully introduced for hotels to investigate customers’ behavior and to enhance the customers’
lodging experience in Sheraton Hotel.
Interestingly, previous research in the hotel industry has demonstrated that many types of ICT
are being used in functional areas in the hotel such as marketing, finance, management, sales, etc.
(Thuy et al., 2019). Different actors or different customer segment has different expectations and
demands to use specific types of ICTs. For instance, in-room entertainment amenities are more
expected from leisure customers while convenient online booking are more requested from business
travelers. Thus, to satisfy diverse customer needs and support effectively for hotel operations, ICT is
almost being used in many hotel divisions such as Room Division ICT, Food & Beverage ICT, back-
office ICT and in-room ICT (Sirirak et al, 2011),
2.3. ICT adoption studies
Previous research has shown that there are many theories as well as crucial determinants of how
ICT is adopted in the business. Venktesh et al (2003) identify the important models which need to be
taken into consideration related to the ICT adoption: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM),
Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT),
Technology Organization Environment (TOE).
The innovation adoption/ diffusion literature is to examine the various factors influencing the
innovation adoption, the process of adoption decision making, characteristics of the adopters as well
as the discussion in the population (Rogers, 1995). The decision to adopt and use unfolds following
these stages: awareness, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. To be more detail,
these stages are awareness stage of acquiring information about the innovation, persuasion stage of
being persuaded to adopt new technology, decision stage of deciding to adopt this innovation,
implementation stage of implementation of technology innovation and start to use it; finally,
confirmation stage of evaluating the actual innovation implementation and feedback (Premkumar and
Roberts, 1999). These authors suggested that there are several factors have influences on the
technology adoption in the various stages.
Venkatesh et al, (2003) proposed a model, which is called the Unified Theory of Acceptance
and Use of Technology (UTAUT) including four key constructs, which are performance expectancy,
effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. They demonstrated that these four
determinates the ICT intention and behavior (Venkatesh et al., 2003). Moreover, these authors pointed
out that gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use are positioned to mediate the influences of
these four factors on ICT adoption intention and behavior (Venkatesh et al., 2003).
Technology acceptance model (TAM), which discovers how users of information systems come
to accept and use technology, is widely used as a theoretical basis to study technology adoption in
organizations (Davis, 1989). TAM includes variables that relate to the use of new technology, human
and social factors (Celuch et al., 2013). It assumed that several external variables affect perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use, which are considered as determinants in the new technology
acceptance model (Davis, 1989).
In the research of Zhu et al., (2004), the Technology Organization Environment (TOE)
framework is taken into consideration. This framework contains three aspects that explain the process
of adopting and implementing a technological innovation: technological context, organizational
context, and environmental context (Zhu et al., 2004). Doolin & Ali (2008), for example, also employ
the TOE to examine the critical determinants for the new technology adoption in New Zealand. Both
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studies confirm that information density, the degree of organizational readiness, partner influence,
relative advantage, and compatibility are the key factors for ICT adoption (Zhu et al., 2004).
Li et al, (2011) analyzed the usage of online direct sales channels among the small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the United States. They found out that there are many different
sets of factors determining the SME’s technology adoption and post-adoption. Moreover, the research
of Al- Natour & Benbasat (2009) indicated that apart from the traditional model like TOE, TAM,
TPB, more and more research needs to be conducted to attract the attention from other crucial factors
surrounding the use of ICT components.
The above discussion pointed out that there are various critical determinants for ICT adoption
in organizations under different circumstances. However, these researches do not make a general
agreement on the critical factors affecting ICT adoption. Furthermore, the findings to these studies are
only fully applied for explaining ICT adoption in a specific country. This is because: (a) the lack of
empirical evidence for generalizability of results, (b) the lack of consideration of the unique
characteristics of SMEs especially hotels for ICT adoption, (c) the lack of consideration of the
characteristics of developing countries. Therefore, this study conducts the qualitative study to identify
the critical determinants for ICT adoption in Vietnamese SMEs, especially the examples of hotels in
Da Nang city.
2.4. Research methodology
2.4.1. Data Collection
• Qualitative research and research site
Patton (2015) demonstrated that research projects must be situationally responsive and
appropriate to the specific context. Hence, this research employs a pragmatic approach by employing the
qualitative method, allowing an in-depth exploration of the situation (Botterill & Platenkamp, 2012).
Moreover, there are many other reasons motivating authors to examine the research topic in
the context of hotels in Da Nang city. The first one is that Da Nang which is one of the most well-
loved destinations in Asia with many attractive beaches and incredible places is ranked as the most
competitive region in Vietnam (Nguyen et al, 2015). Secondly, nowadays, there is fierce competition
in the hotel industry as there is a rapid increase in the number of hotel providers (Nguyen et al, 2018).
Within the first six months of 2019, according to the report of the Da Nang Tourism Promotion
Centre, (2019), more than 100 accommodation facilities with more than 6,000 rooms have been
established. However, under 3 - star hotels are mainly family hotels with limited investment whilst
three-star hotels and upscale hotels are the middle and upper-class hotels with enormous resources.
Therefore, with considerable resources, managers’ technical and management skills, hotel innovation
is taken consideration seriously. In this paper, a series of interviews with managers in 3-star and
upscale hotels that have knowledge in ICT was carried out to assess their understanding, as well as to
identify determinants affecting ICT adoption and their ICT development plan in the future.
• Sampling and interviewing:
To identify determinants for ICT adoption in the hotel industry, stratified sampling was
employed. With this technique, random samples of 3-star, upscale hotels are selected. It was an
appropriate technique in this study because it enables the right selection from each hotel star ratings
group (3-star, 4-star, and 5-star hotels).
After careful approach and serious discussion, 15 people who are managers in the hotel
industry agreed to participate in the study and each was given a code for anonymity (their information
is presented in table 1 below). Semi-structured interviews are employed to increase the data
comprehension, avoid gaps therein and facilitate data rearrangement and analysis (Patton 2015).
Themes explored during the interviews included: general information, factors affect ICT adoption,
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ICT components and their plan for ICT investment. In line with the ethics approval for the research,
the interviews were conducted in Da Nang, Vietnam, digitally recorded with the participant’s written
consent and then transcribed. Ereaut et al. (2002) define qualitative research as a form of research
seeking to explore and understand people’s attitudes, motivations, and behavior. Moreover, the “why”
and “how” behind the “what” are answered, by using this method that seeks to reach understanding
through dialogue and evocation (rather than measurement) (Ereaut et al., 2002). In this study, the
analysis approach is useful to find common thematic elements across research participants and the
events they report (Chrzanowska, 2002).
Table 1: Demographic information about participants
Interviewee indicator
CODE1
Gender
Male
Seniority
Position
Hotel rating
4-star
3-star
3-star
4-star
3-star
4-star
4-star
3-star
3-star
3-star
3-star
4-star
21
8
General manager
CODE2
Female
Male
Department manager
General manager
CODE3
12
13
10
5
CODE4
Male
General manager
CODE5
Female
Male
General manager
CODE6
Department manager
Department manager
Department manager
Department manager
Department manager
Department manager
General manager
CODE7
Male
7
CODE8
Male
10
30
9
CODE9
Male
CODE10
CODE11
CODE12
Female
Male
7
Male
15
CODE13
CODE14
CODE15
Male
Male
Male
10
18
23
General manager
General manager
3-star
4-star
3-star
Department manager
(Source: own data based on the results on in-depth interviews)
2.4.2. Qualitative Data Analytic Framework (QDAF)
This research is conducted following the proposed framework which is called as Qualitative
Data Analytics Framework (QDAF). This framework contains 4 stages consisting of collecting data,
pre-processing, analyzing data ( text – mining) and visualizing (Zaman et al., 2017). Figure 1 below
shows QDAF used in this study.
ANALYZING
DATA
COLLECTING
DATA
PRE-
PROCESSING
VISUALIZING
(TEXT
MINING)
Figure 1: Qualitative Data Analytics Framework (QDAF)
Source: Based on the research of Zaman et al., (2017).
(1) Collecting data:
In this stage, information is collected from the interview session with hotel managers. The data
collected is transformed to verbatim without any changes containing the whole interview between
interviewer and participants. All the interview data is stored in files.
(2) Pre-processing:
Before the process of analyzing data, a pre-processing stage needs to be conducted to remove
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errors and inconsistencies from the dataset collected in the previous stage (1) (Zaman et al., 2017).
The first step is to convert all words into lowercase to ensure that different forms of keywords are
identified similarly (Rsid et al., 2017). Then, all the numbers, whitespace, symbols or special
characters are removed from the text. All the stop words which have no significant meaning are also
removed. The cleaned data was finally stored in files.
(3) Analyzing data (Text mining):
Analyzing data is an important step in this framework. Analyzing data takes place when the
cleaned data in the previous step finishes. In this step, Voyant Tools is employed to extract the word
frequencies, pattern of factors that have impacts on ICT adoption in the hotel industry (Rsid et al., 2017).
Voyant Tools is an open-source, online system which is developed by Stéfan Sinclair &
Geoffrey Rockwell (Rsid et al., 2017). It enables users to perform text analysis, statistical analysis and
data – mining by representing the most counted words in different ways based on users’ preference
(Zaman et al., 2017).
(4) Visualizing
Visualizing is the final step in representing the research results. In this step, users can use
many techniques to create images, graphs, or diagrams to give a better understanding or analyzation.
More than that, in this step, users can figure out mistakes from data or input from previous steps
(Zaman et al., 2017).
The results from text-mining are visualized by word frequencies table, word cloud, termsberry,
trends,…providing some insight into the major factors affecting ICT adoption in the hotel industry in
Da Nang city.
3. Results and discussion
The text got according to the responses to the main question of “Which factors are considered
to affect ICT adoption in the hotel industry in Da Nang City?”. The interviews were recorded and
transcribed verbatim and document corpus generated. This corpus has 18,886 words and 1,501 unique
word forms.
Table 2: Most frequent words in the corpus
#
1
Term
Competition
Managers
Resource
Benefits
Security
Support
Count
588
399
371
266
238
224
175
151
122
114
93
2
3
4
5
6
7
Compatibility
Culture
8
9
Employee
Knowledge
Size
10
11
12
13
14
15
Stakeholders
Financial
Skills
81
61
60
Cost
59
(Source: own data based on the results on in-depth interviews)
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The structure is analyzed and word cloud is created based on the interview input using Voyant
Tools. In the table below it is apparent that “competition”, “managers”, “resource”, “ security”, “
benefits”, “support” are the most frequent terms. In other words, these terms can be referred to the
most crucial factors affecting ICT adoption in the hotel industry. To be more detailed, it is
representing that the frequencies of the important word like “Competition” occur 588 times indicating
as the most highest word frequency.
Figure 2 illustrates the trends for the top six most frequent words. X-axis displays the document
topics and Y is relative document frequencies. Although the figure for the term “ competition”
fluctuates significantly, it has the highest frequency level in terms. “Managers”, “resource”, “
security”, “ benefits”, “support” are also presented to be the important terms with very high frequency
Figure 2: Trends of the six most frequent word
(Source: own data based on the results on in-depth interviews)
Instead of using the term table and graph of trends, the most frequently used words can be
visualized easily in the form of word cloud representing in Figure 3 with the most 100 frequent words
occurring in the interview. Noticeably, the most mentioned words appeared as the biggest word and
are positioned centrally like “competition”, “managers”, “benefits”, “ resource” and “ security”. These
factors can be understood as the crucial determinants affect the intention of ICT adoption in the future.
Figure 3: Word cloud of most frequent single word terms
(Source: own data based on the results on in-depth interviews)
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Six factors “competition”, “managers”, “resource”, “security”, “benefits”, “support” are
identified to be the critical determinants of ICT adoption in the hotel industry with very high frequency
in comparison with other factors. Therefore, these six factors are elaborated clearly in this section.
Competition – One of the major factors affecting ICT adoption
•
Competition can be understood as the short term representing competitive pressure. Several
authors have empirically considered competition as a core determinant of ICT adoption (Baldwin et
al., 2004; Hollenstein, 2002, Hollenstein, 2004). Empirical studies have shown that competitive
pressure impacts the adoption and diffusion of ICT in companies (Thong, 1999). Other authors argued
that competition is also recognized as a driver of ICT adoption (Apulu & Latham, 2011)
Many interesting insights are given by respondents about this factor:
“… Nowadays, the business environment is so severe and our hotel is facing more intense
competition in the market. Our competitors are frequently changing, applying ICT in seeking potential
customers and managing businesses; hence, my company needs to invest in ICT to ensure survival.
….. Today, apart from basic ICT components that we used, we have just applied customer relationship
management (CRM), restaurant reservation system, etc. Hence, we can store customer database and
give them some promotions, gifts on their special occasions ….” – CODE 1
This opinion shows the similarity to the studies of Setiowati et al., (2016) state that ICT
innovation representing the effective means to deal with environment turbulence is seen as a requisite
to compete in the marketplace nowadays. It can be interpreted that if they do not adopt the ICT, their
chances of surviving are slim. Hence, in other words, they are forced to invest ICT.
Another manager gives the specific reason for his future plan for ICT investment. He stated
that to compete in the market, their hotels need to create value for target customers to obtain business
competitive advantages.
“.. Our main customers are teenagers and young people who enjoy self- planned tour or
backpacking instead of traditional guided tours…. In the F&B department, these target customers are
used to using apps to order foods and drinks… We need to update different ICT components to attach
more value to customers and to keep pace with their changing buying behaviors…..” - CODE 4.
Code 14 also confirms that investing in ICT is seen as an effective way for hotels to upgrade or
increase the value of their processes, thereby, obtaining some sort of competitive advantage.
“….. We need to collect, store the categorized customers’ database to formulate a suitable
policy for our loyal customers. Based on these data, we can customize our guest service or
experience, thereby, we can create the added value for our customers and competitive advantages….”
- CODE 14.
• Managers
Before the technology adoption, ICT adopters need to examine the owner-managers’
characteristics. Managers can be the short term representing characteristics of people who are
responsible for making key decisions in their enterprises such as chief executive officer (CEO) or top
manager (Bayo-Moriones et al., 2007).
Several research demonstrated that the owners/ managers’ characteristics are of great
importance in the technology acceptance and implementation (Mahmood et al., 2001). Previous
literature supports that there is a strong link between CEOs characteristics especially attitude towards
technology implementation and firms’ success (Seyal et al., 2006).
The findings of our study also confirm the connection between ICT adoption and hotel
adopters:
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“….Our hotel has upgraded many ICT components…. This is mainly thanks to our hotel
manager who is always pioneer to try out new technology and does not afraid of changes…..” –
CODE 8
“ … My manager is a risk-taker, innovative and creative person. Moreover, he is also an
expertise in the IT industry. Thus, he can wisely choose the suitable and affordable ICT components
for my company as well as instructs our employees to use these technological systems clearly…..”-
CODE 9.
These opinions gave evidence to suggest that the owner/managers' characteristics especially
innovativeness and knowledge contribute to the adoption of new technology in their hotels. These
opinions above infer that the higher ICT knowledge and innovativeness, the higher the chances of ICT
adoption. However, not all managers are risk-takers and have enough understand to involve in the ICT
investment.
“… I am a hotel owner and manager. Our hotel is only using these ICT components such as
email, fax, and telephone to contact to our customers and other stakeholders supporting our
operations…..It’s enough for our hotel. What is global distribution system and management support
system? Why don’t you ask me about these systems? Why don’t we need to upgrade our systems?” -
CODE 13.
It can then be concluded that managers’ lack of ICT knowledge can inhibit the decision to
innovate their businesses.
•Resource
Resource is found to become critical for new technology adoption. In a company, to adopt new
technology, the most important resources which need to be taken into account are finance, human and
technology resources (computers, telephone lines, cables, etc) (Chairoel, et al., 2015). Below is the
opinion related to financial readiness and its effects on ICT adoption in the hotel:
“Our hotel has a good reputation, good occupancy room rate and financial readiness.
Moreover, my hotel owner pays a lot of attention to ICT and he is ready to invest in this ICT
innovation….. We have just upgraded many modern ICT components ….”- CODE 7, CODE 1
With limited resources in SMEs, this factor also turns out to be the barriers for ICT adoption
such as:
“…. We are using these ICT components: mobile, fax, email, etc. If we want to upgrade to the
more innovative ICT systems, it is such a big deal….. It is expensive…. We need to discuss with our
management board about this carefully…..” – CODE 11
“…Our hotel has just redesigned and officially established recently…. We are waiting for a
pay-back from investment… We cannot invest in the latest technology now…. Our staffs’ competency
is not high … therefore, if we both investing in new technology and training employees about ICT
knowledge, we find it extremely difficult…. - CODE 13.
These opinions strongly confirm that economic constraints and lack of skilled personnel are
operational problems that ICT adopters must consider before ICT adoption. Economic constraints
such as inadequate capital to finance ICT or lack of available funds have been identified as a critical
determinant of ICT adoption. This is also noted in the research of Kunda & Brooks (2000). Regarding
human resources, lack of internal skill and ICT knowledge can cause the company to postpone the
adoption of ICT. If their employees have IT knowledge or competency to learn new things, the
organization will speed up the adoption process technology.
• Benefits
Perceived benefits refers to the perception of the positive outcomes achieved by using new
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technology such as flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, compared with actually used technology (Alraja
& Malkawi, 2015). Further, in any business, if people expect more benefits from adopting the new
ICT components, this expectation will assist the process of adopting this new technology (Lina, and
Lin, 2008).
The findings of our study also emphasize the effects of perceived benefits on ICT adoption:
“…. I have planned to make a long-term investment in ICT as using ICT allows me to manage
business operations and increase labor productivity effectively… In the past few years, we have
attached special importance to the ICT innovation and ICT investment….”- CODE 1
“…. Upgrading ICT will enable us to accomplish our organizational task more quickly,
accessing to potential customers easily, ...… that’s why we have just upgraded ICT equipment… “ –
CODE 7
“........I think that the more ICT components are, the more benefits my hotel has…. If my
restaurant is provided with a reservation system or order entry system which enables staff to check
the food processing status, provide food service quickly or. I think our customers will be more
satisfied and give repeat business…..Therefore; we have invested a part of our resources in
developing our ICT…. – CODE 4
Rational adoption decisions in the hotel can result from the evaluation of advantages that the
new technology may bring. Upgraded ICT equipment is expected to provide many benefits to the
adopters in terms of reduced turnaround time, better customer service reduced costs and timely
information available for decision making (Thuy et al., 2019). In a competitive market place, these
benefits will generate high motivations for adopting these latest technologies.
• Security
Some research has revealed that security and confidentiality are critical determinants of ICT
adoption (Hussin et al, 2008). This is because after adopting new technology, hotels may face some
security problems that occurred in various forms such as attacks from viruses, loss of customers’
database and confidential customers’ information or even hotel privacy information (Kannabiran and
Dharmalingam , 2012). Some participants also expressed the same opinions:
“……….Actually, security is a big issue before we intend to invest in more ICT components.
Only when our suppliers ensure our privacy and data protection … we will discuss other conditions to
come to a general agreement…..” - CODE 3
“……Security is our priority when we intend to upgrade our software and hardware
equipment.....” – CODE 4
It is realized that mainly security concerns coming from external factors such as products and
manufacturers. However, it is important to notify that security problems including cyber-attack, data
loss can also be created by bad outsourcing decisions:
“…. Security must be our first concern… In case, employees do not obtain enough ICT skills
and knowledge to use ICT, some ICT adopters may come up with ideas that outsourcing may be
better. We are not saying outsourcing is inherently bad….. but some hotels they get breached have
certainly made some outsourcing decisions…..” – CODE 1
Businesses need to understand the risk suppliers may introduce and some risk from using third
party fulfillment partners to outsource hotel operations before making any decisions related to ICT
adoption.
• Support
According to the interviews, support means support from the government and other
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Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020
stakeholders. Government is one of the critical determinants for ICT adoption (Ambali, 2014).
Asongu & Biekpe, (2017) also noted that there is a significant positive relationship between
government support and ICT adoption. Due to hotel size and resource strains, SMEs will speed up the
new technology adoption if they receive support and external resources from the state and related
stakeholders (Alam & Noor, 2009).
“… Vietnamese government has issued some regulations and resolutions aimed at supporting
ICT adoption in SMEs… Hence, we have confidently adopted and applied some ICT components in
our hotel….”- CODE 10
“ …. Apart from government incentives, we have also received some ICT training programs in
my city enhancing access to and use of ICT … After these programs, our employees have a better
understanding of ICT and freely develop some initiatives in ICT application and ICT usage,….” –
CODE 12
According to these managers, government entities can be considered to be among the most
powerful institutional supports affecting innovation. Hence, government support through financial
aids, regulations, infrastructure, and educational training can facilitate ICT adoption among hotels.
However, apart from government support, companies also desire to receive support from
related stakeholders for their ICT adoption presented in the example below. It can be inferred that
support from external stakeholders is also of great importance in fostering ICT adoption:
“…..Our customers desire to receive more values when choosing to spend their holidays in our
hotel. Apart from room service quality, our customers also want to receive some useful information
about travel information and travel guides, such as city tours, restaurants, shopping malls,… If we
have enough information to advertise these services to customers electronically, it can enable our
hotel to create competitive advantages by adding value to our customers. However, with our
resources strains, we hope to receive the support from our stakeholders including travel companies,
media, and entertainment companies, etc, to adopt ICT successfully…..” – CODE 11
4. Conclusion
Analysis of the in-depth interviews with 15 hotel managers in Da Nang city revealed 6 key
factors influencing ICT adoption in their hotels in the future. These factors are “competition”,
“managers”, “resource”, “security”, “benefits”, and “support”. According to our findings,
“competition” has the strongest influence on ICT adopters based on the area of this factor on the
association map. It can be inferred that firms that are facing higher competition pressure or actively
creating competitive advantages exhibit positive effects of ICT adoption. In other words, competition
is considered as an effective push for hotel adopters to adopt ICT effectively, followed by
characteristics of hotel managers, hotel resources, security of ICT system, perceived benefits and
support of government and other stakeholders. Our unique approach, using the analysis of Voyant
Tools, ensures that the results are the objective.
Many different factors above indicate that the government should customize its business
policies and give more support to meet local needs. The government also needs to offer some more
training programs to raise the managers’ ICT awareness as well as to enhance ICT skills of the labor
force. Based on the results above, information security is also an indispensable part of ICT adoption.
Hence, it is crucial for ICT suppliers to develop a good ICT security system and the government to
issue necessary security regulations ensuring customers’ privacy towards a risk-reduced environment.
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