The adoption of ICT in projectbased and traditional organizations: Evidence from Finnish and Swedish companies

Purpose – This research aims to investigate the adoption of electronic communication tools and seeks to shed more light on their diffusion process, a challenging task for projectbased (PBO) and traditional business organizations (TBO). Design/methodology/approach – The data for the study were collected through three surveys, one total population survey in the Finnish and Swedish house building industries representing traditional business organizations, together with a focused and a total population survey in projectbased organizations. Findings – The main findings from the survey indicate a difference in attitude between the employees of TBOs and PBOs. Moreover, electronic document management and scheduling were more prominent among PBOs, because these firms exhibit more interorganizational communication. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited to projectbased and traditional business organizations. The research emphasises the fact that PBOs make more interfirm collaboration efforts and thus require more extensive communication systems for interorganizational links. Further research is needed in other industries to validate the present findings. Practical implications By looking at the use of ICT, the aim was to determine which ecommunication tools are more tightly coupled to management and how firms can benefit most from these tools for organizational governance. Originality/value – This is one of the few studies to have examined the uses of ICT in a PBO and TBO context and especially in Finnish and Swedish background.