ICT adoption and organizational change in public and private enterprises

Abstract

In this paper we explore whether there are differences in IT adoption, as well associated organizational change between private and state owned enterprises. We use two datasets from India to conduct this analysis- primary survey data of about 500 firms in India that contains detailed information on IT related organizational changes at these firms, and a secondary plant-level panel dataset by the Annual Survey of Industries which comprehensively covers the Indian manufacturing sector. We find important differences across the two kinds of enterprises in terms of extent and intensity of adoption as well as organizational structures across both datasets. The survey data suggests that IT induced organizational changes especially in terms of removal of levels of hierarchy are higher in state owned enterprises. The secondary data on the other hand shows that there are no statistically significant differences between the two kinds of enterprises as far as adjustment in composition of supervisory and managerial staff and other skilled workers is concerned.