Abstract

The innovation and technology literature suggests that Information Technology (IT) play a critical rol of achieving organizational success. Other studies also sustain that the support of IT to the value chain has been of great importance to obtain a sustainable organizational development. This paper provides the foundation for the assessment of the level of support of IT to the SMEs technological development at the cooper mining industry in the Antofagasta region, Chile. An measurement instrument was developed and sent to a 107 SMEs in the Antofagasta Region. The results show that IT contributed to the company value chain at the support level basically at the management and Human Resources activities. Additionally, this study suggest that the companies receiving support in more than one primary activity of the value chain are scarce however a high proportion of companies don't received any support at this level of the value chain.