A CONTEXTUAL STUDY TO EXAMINE THE CHALLENGES FACED IN IT ADOPTION BY SMALL FIRMS IN HARYANA

Economic development of a nation is directly related with the amount of industrial development. The enlargement of industrial sector leads to a larger and proper utilization of natural resources, production of goods and services, creation of employment opportunities and improvement within the general standard of living. India has additionally making efforts to develop the country’s industrial base since independence. It has framed numerous policies geared toward development of industries within the public and private sectors. Special stress has been laid on SSI. SSI plays a key role in the planned development with its benefits of low investment, high potential for employment generation, diversification of the industrial base and dissemination of industries to rural and semi urban areas. P.N.Dhar and H.F.Lydall in introduction to their book, “The Role of Small Enterprise in Indian Economic Development” have ascertained that ‘The promotion of small scale industries has been widely recommended as one of the foremost acceptable means of developing industry in over populated backward countries’,(Ministry of Small Scale Industries , Government of India , 2006).


Introduction
After Independence, the foremost task for the government was to realize fast industrialization of the country within the overall framework of a state. The set objective of economic growth with social justice was kept in while making overall strategy of industrial development. Large, medium and small industrial units have been allotted a reciprocally complementary role with a view to facilitate an integrated and harmonious growth of industrial sector as a whole. Industrial Guidelines of the Administration of India and the particularly State-owned Governments have been inspiring the small scale enterprises so as to fulfill the objectives of decentralization of industries, employment generation and entrepreneurial development.
These days all types of organizations using ICT (Information and Communication Technology), not merely for cutting cost and enhancing efficiency, yet also for giving preferable services to the customers. Governments also, all over the world, are embracing ICT to offer superior services to their citizens. The selection of ICT by the organizations needs business environment strengthening ICT increasingly play an important role by enabling manufacturing firms to achieve dramatic progress in productivity benchmarks through their entire range of manufacturing processes and enabling firms to seamlessly integrate with their domestic and global suppliers and customers. Indian manufacturing companies need to ensure that business processes critical to competitiveness are IT enabled. The adoption of IT can help them to survive with the new challenges. Today all types of organisations adopting information technology around the globe, not only for reducing costs and getting better efficiency, but also for providing better customer services Li and Gao (2003). Small firms adopting IT in business operations through buying and selling products online, using IT to communicate with customer, maintaining records, E-payment etc Adewoye and Akanbi (2012), Gallego et al. (2011). Adoption of IT also playing vital role in marketing practices of small firm's. Today more and more service provider entering in the market. but with the help of IT small firm's can aware the customer about their new services through text or E-mail, they can provide timely information about services etc Atkinson (1988). To compete with the competitor small firm can also online promote their services. Many studies Dholakia and kshetri (2004), Tan and teo (1998) described the factors influencing the IT adoption like internal pressure (fast communication, security, computerization of records etc) and external pressure (Government pressure, competitive advantages, new market opportunity etc). Adoption of IT also effect on firm performance (Financial and non-financial performance). Financial performance related with profits and turnover of firm. And non-financial related with IT knowledge of human capital.

Investment Manufacturing Sector Service Sector Micro
Does not exceed twenty-five lakh rupees Does not exceed ten lakh rupees Small More than twenty-five lakhs but less than More than ten lakhs but less than two five crore rupees crore rupees Medium More than five crores but less than ten More than two crores but less than five crore rupees crore rupees

Literature Review
Tan and Teo (1998) examined the factors influencing the adoption of the internet. The main objective of the research was to rank internet applications, benefits of adopting the Internet, reasons for not adopting the Internet in Singapore. The study based on primary data. A field survey of 500 randomly selected companies was used to collect the data. The study concluded that internet adopters had found the internet useful for concerning with their customers and suppliers. Employees and individuals used the internet to convince top management. The research also explained the three main reason of adopting internet, convenient access to worldwide information, establishing a global presence and extending worldwide reach.
West and Berman (2001) examined the impact of revitalized management practices on the use and efficiency of these information technologies and other factors that outline information technology in local government, such as stakeholder pressures and demands, and policies and procedures. This study was based on a national survey of city managers, in cities with a population [101] of more than 50,000, conducted during the spring and summer of 2000.The study concluded that information technology improved organizational effectiveness through the use of revitalized management practices. The study also suggested that to meet many challenges, of information technology required development of interpersonal skills such as active listening, trust building and information sharing.

Need of the Present Study
On the view of competitive advantage, from last five years and after demonetization small firms also spending money on Information technology. This study will provide insights on how adoption of IT helps the small firms to survive. In the review of literature, it has been found that most of the studies discussed the IT adoption pattern of firms and also various variables like workers connected to Internet, computers per employee, IT expenditure per employee, workers with personal computers, etc. Findings of the current study will benefit various stakeholder including government and research institutions as well as academicians, the community and the entrepreneurs to improve the competitiveness of the small firms.

Conclusions and Discussions
In this study, utmost efforts mere made to avoid any kind of biasness in selection of firms or respondents and efforts were made to cover all types of firms so that the population is well represented and finding of the study could become most relevant. Majority of the respondents were male although few female businesswomen that was expected as female entrepreneurs are very less across all over the India as compare to male entrepreneurs. Regarding the use of ICT tools, most widely used tools were, e-banking, online payment to vendors, and online receipt of payment and Email respectively. And in the lowest use category, the ICT tools were government information, and social networking. Overall combined use of ICT among small and medium enterprises of Punjab was fairly used. Overall use of ICT was significantly same among medium and small scale enterprises (as suggested by the results of t-test). This could be due to rapid progress in the digitalization across the nations the use of ICT among small and medium scale enterprises is also improving day by day. It was also found in the results of the study that extent of use of all ICT tools among small and medium scale enterprises was almost same except the online receipt of payment from customer tools and feedback from customers.

Limitations of the Study
Most important limitation of the study was to contact the right person in the firm. Only the management level personnel were authorized to provide the information or someone actually using ICT tools, but with the permission of the management. The administrations of firms were in general quite skeptical about sharing the information. It was in general a mammoth task to convince them to provide the information. Many times the respondents did not show any interest. Monitory expenses and limited time were another constraint in the execution of the study.