A model for managerial decision-making in wireless technology management: user-based evaluation criteria for business application – an empirical study with Middle Eastern companies

Business applications positively contribute to corporate performance and decision-making. The challenge remains with large investments in the design, installation, and maintenance of physical connectivity infrastructure to support knowledge management, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business applications. With the emergence of wireless technologies featuring user convenience and speed, executives are reconsidering technology choices. We propose a model for managerial decision-making and test it empirically using primary data collected from Middle Eastern companies. We build a regression model that relates management performance to six variables: price of technology; installation and maintenance; user convenience; corporate tenure; security breach; gain of global competitiveness. We found that the first, second, third, and sixth variables are positively and significantly correlated with corporate performance; the fourth was not significant, and the fifth was negatively correlated. The research provides insight about sunk cost effect, refuting the classical perception that established firms are less spurred to innovate than start-up.