## 5 Results and Discussion
### General Characteristics
#### 5.1.3 Motivation for IS Adoption (RQ3)  
All the companies that use IS were asked to indicate how important they consider each of the seven driving factors that have been discussed in Section 3.3, by rating them on a five-point Likert scale with 1--\"the least important\"--and 5--\"extremely important\". The average ratings are shown in Figure 4. All driving factors have an average score above 3.5 which means all of them are considered important. In addition to the two of them--competitive advantage and select appropriate suppliers--the rest are considered as at least \"very important\" motivators for a company to adopt an IS.  
Figure 4: Drivers of IS adoption.  
Figure 3: Level of profitability due to IS adoption.  
The current research is in accordance to several researches [28; 29; 45; 46] that have been conducting regarding information systems (ISs) and they consider competitive advantage as an important motivator that forces companies to seek to adopt these technologies or update with newer versions or add-ons those they already use. Although in the current study most of the other motivators are considered more important than \"competitive advantage\". In addition to competitive advantage being a key motivator [PERSON] and [PERSON] [29] recognize other two important drivers of IS adoption which are customer satisfaction and reduce cost. Providing better customer services and in a way aimed for customer satisfaction is an important element that has been taken into account during the assessment, selection and adoption stages of an IS [47]. The most profound choice on that effect and the one that is specifically designed to serve the customers seem to be CRM [23] even in B2B (Business to business) markets [41] in which customer satisfaction is also considered as a performance measure. Of course, that does not rule out other forms of IS that can be used for that effect such as: customer satisfaction or generally providing better service to the customers [27; 47; 48]. [PERSON] et al. [10] use several forms of information technology in an attempt to minimize cost. Similarly, cost reduction is considered a major objective in other researches too [14; 48]. Cost savings was also a great concern for respondents in [PERSON] et al. research [31]. According to [PERSON] et al. [12] the production process is too complex to be conducted without an IS that will help not only large companies but also the SMEs. Generally, production planning and control can be considered as the second-best motivation for implementing an IS [31]. In the current research Production planning is the second more important driver for IS adoption. Companies aim for low inventory levels in order to attain better inventory management [9] which reduces overproduction. The least important factor that motivates companies to adopt an IS is to select appropriate suppliers. If the company and its supplier have systems that can be integrated that could be positive for their supply chain but that does not mean that it is a priority for them--the integrated systems or suppliers with the latest systems available [12; 31]. Mostly the benefits that are obtained due to IS/IT adoption in the supplier selection process are non-financial and more relative to management decisions [22].