Colloquia

Samenvatting

As market competition and product complexity increase, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are urged to enhance their product development processes to remain competitive. However, SMEs struggle to adopt emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR), which have shown to improve collaboration, design understanding, and decision-making. Despite becoming more affordable, VR technology remains more widely adopted by large enterprises. This thesis explores how VR can be made more accessible to SMEs in the engineering design industry.

Using a research-through-design (RtD) approach, a case study was conducted at an SME to explore the adoption of an iteratively designed VR solution. This process revealed key barriers including limited financial and technological resources, lack of internal expertise, and employee resistance. Additionally, enablers such as phased and cost-effective adoption strategies, and access to external support, were identified as well.

Findings led to the development of an extended TOE framework, introducing a Strategy dimension that focuses on aspects that lower the barriers of SME-specific constraints, ensuring SMEs can adopt VR without excessive risk. The framework serves as the foundation for a VR adoption roadmap, providing a structured approach towards the selection or development of a VR solution fitting the SMEs needs based on continuous assessment of the extended TOE framework.

Through the extended TOE framework and VR adoption roadmap, this research provides a systematic and low-risk approach to VR adoption for SMEs. The findings help bridge the gap between VR potential and accessibility, ensuring that SMEs can effectively leverage immersive technology and remain competitive in an evolving market.