Abstract:

The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) plays a key role in developing business strategies that enable businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), improving their competitiveness in a globalized, changing and competitive market, as the one they face today. That is why this empirical research of explanatory type was aim to analyze the impact of ICT on the competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs of the state of Aguascalientes, México. Firstly, the scales to measure the use of ICTs and competitiveness were identified, then they were subjected to a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) through the method of maximum likelihood, which have both reliability and validity. Information obtained from 200 manufacturing SMEs was treated statistically through the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and the tested hypotheses results allow us to infer that ICTs impact positively and significantly on the financial performance, the costs reduction, the use of technology and on the competitiveness of these kinds of businesses. Key Words: ICTs, Financial Performance, Costs Reduction, Technology Use, Competitiveness, SEM.

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