IT Risk and Chaos Theory: Effect on the Performance of South African SMEs

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to investigate the relationship between information technology (IT) operations risk management (ORM) and small to medium enterprises' (SMEs) performance. Following a review of the literature, a questionnaire was developed with the aim of addressing the research purpose. A simple random sampling technique was used to sample 107 respondents in a financial SME. In order to determine the percentage contribution of some of the identified significant predictors of challenges posed by ORM solutions, multiple regression analysis was used. The percentage distribution revealed that only one variable made a significant contribution: "The way in which end-users deal with the implementation of IT projects". The results additionally revealed that the variable contributed approximately 88.4% of the variations in the level of variables that enhance SMEs' performance. The analysis of variance also revealed that the regression coefficients were real and did not occur by chance. The recommendation of the study is that SMEs should improve the way they deal with the implementation of IT projects in order to address ORM.

Keywords

• SMEs
• change management
• operational risk
• chaos theory
• IT risk