ADOPTION OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR SMES

Purpose: This paper analyzes the implementation of Business Intelligence (BI) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as part of their efforts to increase their competitiveness in a highly dynamic business environment in West and Eastern Europe. A better understanding of the adoption levels of innovation by SMEs is highly relevant due to the important contribution of SMEs to both employment generation and economic growth in European countries. Design/methodology/approach: The type of research is exploratory and descriptive, comparing a series of qualitative factors relevant to adoption of BI by SMEs, covering 9 European countries. Findings: The research concludes that SMEs share the challenge of a lack of sufficient time and financial resources to cover the initial investment, a lack of qualified human resources and limited knowledge of users to effectively benefit from BI. The research also found that Cloud Computing (SaaS) and Mobile Business Intelligence (MBI) offer opportunities for SMEs to overcome these challenges. Research/practical implications: This research serves as a guide for SMEs interested in implementing BI and to develop BI as a source of competitive advantage and business strategy. The analytical model could be used in future research for the analysis of the adoption of BI in other countries and to develop more standardized criteria for the selection of BI tools compatible with different SME sizes and categories. Originality/value: The study offers a comparative analysis of the adoption and implementation of BI in SMEs in Western and Eastern European countries with interesting findings that can be found counter intuitive to the expected adoption levels in more and less developed economies.