The impact on companies' performance is among the possible measures for Information Technology (IT) success. Several researches showing the influence of IT on firms' results have been conducted, but mainly through studies carried out in large enterprises. The objective of this work was to analyze the relationship between IT investments and organizational efficiency - focusing on micro, small and medium sized enterprises. To this end, critical success factors for industrial companies' performance were identified, and a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was developed and tested in a sample of firms in the capital goods sector. DEA is especially interesting because it allows comparing and differentiating the firms in the sample which are more efficient in deriving results from IT. Among the results observed, there were the higher capacity of small firms to transform IT investments into operational efficiency and the higher capacity of larger companies to convert critical success factors into profitability.
Information technology; Computerization; Manufacturing industries; Micro, small and medium enterprises management; Data Envelopment Analysis - DEA
