Organisational characteristics associated with AMT adoption: Towards a contingency framework

Using data collected from 132 manufacturing companies in Australia and New Zealand, this paper assesses the differences between firms in terms of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) investment planning and implementation based on firm size and ownership. The analysis presented shows a number of differences. This is an exploratory study with the purpose of providing background data to guide future research in building up a contingency framework for AMT management. It is argued that variables such as firm size and principal ownership are useful additions to the contingency framework in addition to the infrastructure variables such as worker empowerment, quality leadership, soft integration, etc. It is concluded that organisational variables influence adoption of AMT and, hence, future research should focus on examining the relationships between the organisational context and the planning and infrastructure variables, and then relate these to the adoption process and the overall performance of AMT.