Nakanishi Aki    Department   Undergraduate School  , School of Business Administration    Position   Professor
Language	Japanese
Publication Date	2016/12
Type	Academic Journal
Peer Review	Peer reviewed
Invitation	Invited paper
Title	Can Local SMEs Adopt and Utilize ICT including Cloud Service?
Contribution Type	Sole-authored
Journal Type	Japan
Volume, Issue, Page	pp.3-13
Details	The purpose of this paper is to discuss the conditions and possibilities of information and communication technology(ICT) especially cloud services in local small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). First we examine some government statistics which reveal that most of local SMEs have not utilized the ICT such as cloud service yet. However some advanced SMEs are wisely using cloud technologies. We find the importance of "concierges" which intermediate local SMEs and ICT. Business supporters(local venders, chamber of commerce, local banking, consultants, and so on), business partners and national/local governments play important roles when local SMEs adopt ICT including cloud service and can be such intermediaries. Finally, we extract the challenges and issues of both actors, SMEs and intermediaries.