E-LEARNING AS A SOLUTION TO THE TRAINING PROBLEMS OF SMEs - A Multiple Case Study

Andrée Roy, Louis Raymond

2008

Abstract

Facing pressures from an increasingly competitive business environment, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are called upon to implement strategies that are enabled and supported by information technologies and e-business applications. One of these applications is e-learning, whose aim is to enable the continuous assimilation of knowledge and skills by managers and employees, and thus support organisational training and development efforts through the use of Internet technologies. Little is known however as to the actual role played by e-learning with regard to the training problems faced by SMEs. A multiple case study of 16 SMEs in the Atlantic region of Canada, including 12 that use e-learning with varying degrees of intensity, was designed to explore this question. We observed the firms’ training process in terms of training needs analysis, method selection, tool selection and evaluation, and ascertained how this process is impacted by their use of e-learning. E-learning is then characterised in terms of opportunity and feasibility for the development of SMEs and their region.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Roy A. and Raymond L. (2008). E-LEARNING AS A SOLUTION TO THE TRAINING PROBLEMS OF SMEs - A Multiple Case Study . In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST, ISBN 978-989-8111-26-5, pages 356-363. DOI: 10.5220/0001514503560363

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist08,
author={Andrée Roy and Louis Raymond},
title={E-LEARNING AS A SOLUTION TO THE TRAINING PROBLEMS OF SMEs - A Multiple Case Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,},
year={2008},
pages={356-363},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0001514503560363},
isbn={978-989-8111-26-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST,
TI - E-LEARNING AS A SOLUTION TO THE TRAINING PROBLEMS OF SMEs - A Multiple Case Study
SN - 978-989-8111-26-5
AU - Roy A.
AU - Raymond L.
PY - 2008
SP - 356
EP - 363
DO - 10.5220/0001514503560363