Review: Simmons, Armstrong and Durkin, Analysis of the Dembla, Palvia and Krishna (Article Critique Sample)

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Article Analyses
Introduction
Considering that many small firms are continuously adopting e-commerce to compete in more market niches in which large firms dominate because of high costs of putting up physical facilities, this study will analyze two articles that explore the issue of internet adoption. They are the Dembla, Palvia and Krishna (2007)’s article and the Simmons, Armstrong and Durkin (2009)’s article that discuss factors that determine the adoption of web enabled transactions by small businesses. It is a holistic analysis that looks at both rhetoric and structural contents of the essays. Both articles were selected from academic journals, which are considered important sources of information in the discipline of business. The journals have credible editorial boards that usually read and evaluate them before they are published. In this regard, they have already been vetted by expert scholars and proved reliable, valid and authoritative contributions to business knowledge.
Synthesis and Summary
The Dembla , Palvia And Krishna(2007)’s Article (1-17)
In their abstract, the authors summarized what their paper is, by revealing the background of their study as the increasing desire by many business organizations to adopt internet-based transactions. Therefore, the study aims at identifying factors that determine internet adoption by firms. Their relatively long and cited introduction highlights how generally, the internet has affected everybody and reasons why small firms are adopting it. Using the literature review, which is relatively smaller than the introduction, the research derives the research model.
However, the literature is not sufficiently cited. From it, they derive eight hypotheses regarding what could be the factors that determine how firms adopt the internet. They include perceived usefulness, small business Information Maturity, environmental uncertainty, organization factors, among others. In their methodologies, using questionnaires in randomly selected sample from government small business records, the factors listed above were measured. However, before sending research instruments to respondents, a pilot study tested their reliability and validity. The questionnaires tested psychometric properties in participants and used Cronbach’s alpha variance to calculate convergent and discriminatory validity. The study found that perceived usefulness of the Internet was the strongest factor that determined its adoption. However, Information System (IS) maturity also seemed to influence, positively, on its adoption. An organization that had mature IS tended to adopt easily the new technology. Moreover, environmental factors such as centralization and formalization of the firm also had an influence but at a lesser extent. However, environmental uncertainty did not cause any impact on its adoption. The conclusion wraps up the whole discussion by briefly highlighting factors that determine internet adoption by small firms.
Simmons, Armstrong and Durkin (2009)’s Article (351-389)
By their abstract highlighting the importance the internet-based communication is gaining in small business operations, the paper seeks to conceptualize the understanding of determinants of internet adoption by small firms. The introduction begins by defining what a small firm is, and noting a brief background of their research as being compelled by the fact that a large part of the economy, which is composed of small businesses, is adopting internet-based transactions. In this respect, with various citations, they highlight some factors that the small businesses consider in adopting internet. However, there is no distinct consideration for a literature review; instead, it is integrated with the introduction. From the earlier parts, they begin conceptualizing determinants of business to adopt the internet. In this respect, they grouped each major determinant with its sub-components, accompanied with their literature sources. The major determinants were proposed as, owner/ manager context, company context, networking context, and industry context. Using the source literatures initially given, they would go on to discuss each of them and their sub-components, forming hypotheses. According to them, the nine hypotheses formed at the end of their discussion would provide guidance and direction for future researches so that empirically based understandings can be derived. In their conclusions and recommendation part, they wrap up the discussion, briefly explaining the four main themes derived from the determinants of the use of internet.
Analysis of the Dembla, Palvia and Krishna (2007)’ Article
Content Structure Analysis (Strengths and Weaknesses)
First, the article has an abstract, which gives a good overview of their findings. However, the literature review seemed short with few citations. They did not also, explicitly put forward their own research questions, original to their problem of research but derived them from the literature review. Their problem, as stated by the subject of their study may have many implications, as it is not explicitly related to the factors being investigated as the main determinants of internet adoption by small firms. Moreover, the research lacked explanation on how it took into account ethics and responsibilities of participants. However, the study’s formation of hypotheses is quite commendable. Furthermore, to assess the reliability and the validity of their instruments, it was important that they did pilot research. The research methodology also included objective tools for manipulations and analyses to arrive at the best estimates. In their findings, however, they have not included trend findings so that forecasting can be made. Forecasting methods should be needed in the business rather than just mere descriptive methods. Their methods provided analysis that could only be made in quantitative terms. It was, therefore, important that a qualitative analysis be made for the research to be comprehensive.
Rhetorical Content Analysis (Strengths and Weaknesses)
The first rhetoric effect is that the authors are university professors, which make people, become convinced that they are authoritative to present a paper of such quality. On the subject, the title is not quite clear on what the article is going to study, because it uses an ambiguous phrase, " Understanding Adoption…………,," when the researchers just want to study factors that determine the adoption of internet by small firms. The language of the article used is academic, therefore, it can easily be regarded as an academic correspondence to their fellows, and it is meant to advance knowledge in their field of study. However, the fact that they cannot reinforce their arguments in their literature review, they may be regarded as light. Moreover, lack of research questions may compromise their ethos on what they were really researching. It becomes unclear for the reader to know exact parameters that ...