Evaluation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Models of Adoption and Use in Saudi Arabian SMEs

Research laboratories, universities and consulting firms undertakeresearch activities for performances analysis, businesses, technologies,products and services developments, governments, and political andsociological systems developments. In the case of firms' studies, the keyinformants regarding any research are the firms' managers that are involvedeither through interviews, or ethnographies or questionnaires responses. Thekey informants provide many types of data for the development of researchand their role is primordial in its on-going process. In the process of datacollection, there can be some challenges and obstacles slowing down themove toward data analysis for the confirmation of the hypothesis of theresearch or the achievement of the research output. Thus, the aim of thispaper is to investigate on the factors that can slow down the on-goingprocess of any research while communicating with the managers for theirresearch participation. The 'Déjà Vu' research method derived from theresearch and used is based on the analysis of the interactions taking placeamong university's researchers and firms' managers in the automotive andaerospace industry. The initial purposes of these interactions were for actionresearch for businesses analysis and development and case studies creationfrom the firms for action learning of an international master program students.The paper presents the 'Déjà Vu' research method' and provides details anddefinitions of the factors' constraints with respect to the firm's managersresearch participation. We find out that both actions 'research and learninghavecommon factors' constraints as the managers availability andmanagers' strategic position in the firms, and different factors regarding theimplications as value-added to business development and financial funds,and the brand image and the financial supportfor learning, respectively. Andaccording to the types of actions and based on the factors' constraints, wederive a brief methodology for researchers to enhance firms' managersparticipation in research.