Abstract
The innovation of information technologies has opened new business chances also for small businesses. In order to assist small businesses with few management resources in Hiroshima Prefecture, many joint projects among industries, academics, and governments have been proposed. Hiroshima Prefectural Organizations for Industrial Technological Promotion is one of the major organizations coordinating those projects. The objective of this paper is to clarify basic problems surrounding these organizations to effectively promote new information technologies and successfully assist small businesses. The following are our main points: (1)The joint projects do not always reflect the actual conditions and needs of small businesses because of their"idealistic"thinking. (2)Small businesses have their own faults. Most of them passively accept results of the projects and do not have"a creative challenging"attitude. (3)In order to overcome these difficulties, strong commitment of top management of businesses is suggested. Top management should realize the potential ability of these new technologies as management tools and the importance of new business chances they are offering in the fields, e.g., of digital revolution of management, active applications of Electronic Commerce as strategic means multimedia market.
