ENGT 5214: Critical Analysis of Business Technology and Innovation

This report provides a critical analysis of business technology, examining its impact on value creation, social media adoption, and the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The analysis draws on three articles, the first of which discusses the importance of creativity, investment in machinery, human capital, and infrastructure in value creation, while also highlighting the significance of connectivity and individual actors. The second article investigates business-to-business companies' attitudes toward social media, identifying ways to leverage platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and emphasizing the role of social media in breaking communication barriers and boosting sales. The third article focuses on the challenges of technology adoption for SMEs, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0, and examines the impact of factors like the Internet of Things and big data on sustainable business performance, with a focus on the Thai context. The report concludes that while technological changes bring pressure on companies to innovate and can enhance productivity, SMEs face significant barriers to technology adoption due to limited resources and a lack of human capital implementation.

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Management

Introduction
It is true that business technology has put the emphasis on creative ideas for creating value in
the organisation. In every organisation whether it is IT or any industry, technological changes
are essential. Implementation of the several new and innovative technologies tends to
enhance the performance in business. In the paper, critical analysis of business technology
has been undertaken by including positive and negative outcomes.
Business technology: critical analysis
In the first article, discussion has been carried on the significance of creativity and ideas in
the “value creation processes. It has underlined the importance of investment in machinery,
human capital as well as infrastructure. However, it can be critique by stating that if any
business is doing the higher investment in these three ingredients but not getting the actual
growth and development in business. At the same time, it has also discussed the significance
of connectivity as well as importance of individual actors. It has highlighted that some of the
problems might arise during transferring of knowledge. However, it fails to mention the
problems that can arise due to transfer of knowledge. It is because several failures might
occur during the transferring of knowledge that will hamper the knowledge sharing. It is true
that technology has evolved over the time but it still has several difficulties especially for the
small business firms who do not have enough knowledge, or investment. In this regard, it has

emphasised on the importance of manager in providing knowledge. The reason behind
importance of manager lies in business and political ties for facilitating the acquisition of
external knowledge. In conclusion, it has only stated that several issues are seen due to
technology and knowledge sourcing responses. It therefore fails to concentrate on the
suggestions and issues that might occur due to knowledge transfer. 1
In the second article, it has investigated the business-to-business companies’ attitude and
perception toward the social media. It has identified the survey which states that only 40 per
cent of IT companies tends to implement the social media.2 It also listed the several actions
that might help the business-to-business companies effectively through leveraging the social
media. In the recent time, it is true that customers are using social media for modifying,
creating, discussing, as well as sharing the internet content. Author has rightly stated that
business to consumer firms regularly adjusting to the quick changing business environment.
It has identified some of the ways where it can make profitable use the applications like
Facebook, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Instagram, as well as Twitter. On the one side, one author
has stated that social media is a tool that serves the missing link by ensuring connection
between communities to the business strategy of the organisation. On the other side, another
author has stated that social media can lead to the increasing sense of improved working
processes, group cohesiveness as well as effective professional ties with the employees of the
organisation. On the positive side, it rightly stated that social media has broken the barriers of
the communication as well as boost the sales in business to customer markets. It has
identified the goals of different companies but failed to provide the reason behind their goals.
In conclusion, it has stated that B2B companies are regularly adopting social media tools in
their business. As compare to this, industrial companies are postponing the systematic social
media activities. In this way, it can be said that communication in different parts of the world
has become possible than it was before. 3
In the third article, technology is seen as the difficult task for the medium and small sized
firms due to some market issues and lack of resources. Industry 4.0 is to gain the advanced
level of productivity and operational effectively by ensuring automatization in higher level. It
1 C. Veldeman, E. Van Praet and P. Mechant, "Social Media Adoption in Business-to-Business: IT and
Industrial Companies Compared", International Journal of Business Communication, vol. 54, no. 3,
pp. 283-305, 2015. Available: 10.1177/2329488415572785 [Accessed 13 March 2020].
2 Study.com, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-business-
technology-characteristics-development.html. [Accessed: 15- Mar- 2020].
3 J. Linton and G. Solomon, "Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and The Small Business-
Technology and Innovation in Small Business", Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 55, no.
2, pp. 196-199, 2017. Available: 10.1111/jsbm.12311 [Accessed 13 March 2020].

has identified that technological challenges have negatively affected the sustainable business
operation. In this article, author has stated the different characteristics of Industry 4.0 that are
connected with internet technologies. It has majorly given the emphasis on technological
issues faced by small business enterprise. It only included the SME in Thailand. Due to this,
it has relevancy issue as it has carried the research on Thailand only. Another limitation of
this article is the application of this study in the business environment.4 Due to the lack of
resources in small business enterprise, SME’s failed to apply the latest technology. It is true
that technology adoption is the major issue but several other issues are also important which
article has not given the emphasis on. 5The major reason behind technological issue is the
lack of human capital implementation. It has mentioned that several factors such as internet
of things, big data as well as smart factory which put positive effect in boosting the
sustainable performance. In conclusion, it can be said that the main role of industry 4.0 is to
ensure the promotion of sustainable business performance in Thailand. It has also made
attempt to solve the solutions related to several technological challenges. 6
4 A. Tatnall, "Innovation Translation and Innovation Diffusion", International Journal of Actor-Network
Theory and Technological Innovation, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 67-74, 2009. Available:
10.4018/jantti.2009040105.
5"What is business technology (BT)? - Definition from WhatIs.com", SearchCIO, 2020. [Online].
Available: https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/business-technology-BT. [Accessed: 15- Mar-
2020].
6 M. Haseeb, H. Hussain, B. Ślusarczyk and K. Jermsittiparsert, "Industry 4.0: A Solution towards
Technology Challenges of Sustainable Business Performance", Social Sciences, vol. 8, no. 5, p. 154,
2019. Available: 10.3390/socsci8050154.

Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that technological changes has been
brought in the business environment that put pressure on the companies to bring several
innovative changes. Due to the higher investment, it is not for SME’s to apply the latest
technology in the business environment. However, application of latest technology brings
higher productivity and growth in the organisation.