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Firm computerization level: a structural model applied to the São Paulo state manufacturing sector

The diffusion of Information Technology (IT) is evidenced through a process that can be named "Informatization", which permeates our society and businesses. Business managers need instruments to evaluate the organizational use of IT. This paper presents a model for evaluating the organizational use of IT based on the measurement of the Informatization Level (IL) construct. Five evaluation dimensions (factors) were considered: IT organizational use, IT impacts, IT application attributes, IT infra-structure and IT governance. The model developed was based on data collected from a sample of 830 industrial companies in the Brazilian state of São Paulo and structural equation modeling was employed to develop and validate the IL. The construct complied with reliability requirements and internal validity also showing external validity, as the hypothesis of being related to the company size and not related to IT investments was confirmed.

Computerization; IT organizational use; IT use evaluation; informatization level; IT business value


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