La valutazione e l'impatto della "prontezza ICT" nelle piccole e medie imprese

This paper analyses the strategic, organisational and structural conditions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to fully exploit the potential of the information and communication technology (ICT). In other words, we investigate under which conditions the \u201cmarriage\u201d between SMEs and ICT can be \u201ca happy one\u201d rather than a relationship affected by misunderstandings and lost opportunities. To this purpose we build an interpretative framework relating the \u201cICT readiness\u201d (a measure of the aforementioned conditions) to two key dimensions: the \u201cstrategic vision of ICT\u201d, which is closely related to how the top management looks at ICT opportunities, and the \u201cICT maturity\u201d, which evaluates the ICT infrastructure and applications of the firm. Our framework is then adopted in a pilot case study, that of Lanterna Alimentare S.p.A., a medium enterprise producing and selling bakery products