An Evaluation of the relative influence of IT on the result criteria of the EFQM model compared with the effect of other cause criteria

This article is partly based on the results of an investigation for a doctoral thesis1, carried out within the ITIO group (Integration of Inform a t i o n Technology in Organisations) of the Business Organisation Department of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, as part of the SOCOTE2 project. By means of a statistical analysis of a sample of small and medium enterpri ses (SMEs) from different industries of the Community of Valencia (especially from the furniture industry), the influence of the cause criteria of the model of business excellence proposed for the investigation, adapted from the EFQM3 model, on the result criteria from it, was quantified by multiple linear regres sion analysis. This has permitted the empirical corroboration in the sample under consideration of the hypothesis that "IT (Information Technology) is as relevant or even more so than other EFQM indicators, that is to say, it has an equal or greater influence on the result criteria of the model."