Tajamal Hussain

M.Sc. Thesis Title Assessment of Advance Manufacturing Technology Determinants in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) ABSTRACT The world begin industrial development in eighteenth century and experienced four Industrial Revolutions. Advent of technology in each revolution have been attributed to occur due to chance, choice or crises and each one is either disruptive or sustaining in nature. Industrial revolutions came along with novel methods of manufacturing and working environment that perceived as necessary to remain in the competition. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) always suffer with the severe issues in innovative technology adoption phase. While, large industries in comparison face problems of their own kind. Both these sectors must evaluate the facilitator/inhibitor factors systematically before deciding to install Advance Manufacturing Technology (AMT). We developed a research model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Diffusion Of Innovation (DOI) and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. Data was collected from 181 SMEs and 133 large firms in Pakistan, and is used to test the related hypothesis in both sectors. All of the sixteen variables have been measured using multiple items based on five point Likert scale. Multiple regression technique were used for data analysis. Results predicted that relative advantage, complexity, technological readiness, top management support, competitive pressure, maintainability/reliability and end of life cycle have a direct effect on a firm’s adoption of advance technology in SMEs while influential factors in large industries are relative advantage, complexity, technological readiness, top management support, competitive pressure, compatibility, competitive pressure and end of life cycle. Developing countries should make healthy policies in future to stay in competition as next era will be self-regulating micro industry.