IT Adoption and the Independent Retail Business: The Retail Newsagency

Abstract

ROGER BROOKSBANK IS AN independent marketing consultant, David Kirby is Booker Professor of Entrepreneurship at Durham University Business School, and Stephen Kane is managing director of Task Retail Management Systems Ltd., all in the United Kingdom. Thispaper focuses on the adoption of information technologh systems (IT) by independent retail newsagents -- small retail businesses operating in a traditional, established and economically important sector of UK retailing facing increasing pressure on its long-term survival. On the basis of two large-scale questionnaire surveyus conducted during 1988 and 1990 respectively, the paper examines the extent of usage and the rate of adoption, together with a range of issues surrounding the perceptions of newsagents as to its usefulness and the potential for future adoption. In contrast with other studies (Treadgold, 1988 and 1990), the results indicate a considerable proportion of newsagents using IT and demonstrates how IT helps the small independent retail business improve its competitive position.