Mobile Value Added Services in Fiji: Institutional Drivers, Industry Challenges, and Adoption by Women Micro Entrepreneurs

While mobile phones are making significant inroads in many developing countries, little is known about the institutional drivers, policy barriers and industry challenges that affect their use for business growth of micro-enterprises. The authors address this gap. After conducting semi-structured interviews of 74 women-owned micro entrepreneurs and ten key informants from the government and industry in Fiji, the authors found that appropriate policy framework, supporting infrastructure and appropriate ecosystem are required for rapid uptake of mobile value added services by women-owned micro entrepreneurs. They contribute by proposing a revised technology adoption framework as well as the four shackles theory of women micro entrepreneurs' empowerment and emancipation. The authors also highlight the policy initiatives necessary to accelerate the growth of women-owned micro enterprises by mobile value added services which could also guide other developing and emerging economies.

[1]  M. Hilbert,et al.  Digital Gender Divide or Technologically Empowered Women in Developing Countries? A Typical Case of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics , 2011 .

[2]  Isabelle Szmigin,et al.  Electronic Cash: A Qualitative Assessment of its Adoption , 1999 .

[3]  Niina Mallat,et al.  Exploring consumer adoption of mobile payments - A qualitative study , 2007, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[4]  Keng Siau,et al.  A qualitative investigation on consumer trust in mobile commerce , 2004, Int. J. Electron. Bus..

[5]  C. Brush,et al.  Female entrepreneurship and economic development: An international perspective , 2012 .

[6]  A. M. Hormozi,et al.  Business plans for new or small businesses: paving the path to success , 2002 .

[7]  Jinwoo Kim,et al.  Use Contexts for the Mobile Internet: A Longitudinal Study Monitoring Actual Use of Mobile Internet Services , 2005, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[8]  Jen-Her Wu,et al.  What drives mobile commerce?: An empirical evaluation of the revised technology acceptance model , 2005, Inf. Manag..

[9]  J. Kimberly,et al.  Organizational innovation: the influence of individual, organizational, and contextual factors on hospital adoption of technological and administrative innovations. , 1981, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[10]  K. Gill,et al.  Bridging the gender divide. How technology can advance women economically. , 2010 .

[11]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Choosing Critical IS Research , 2005 .

[12]  M. Terziovski,et al.  An Empirical Study of Small Business Orgaizations in Fiji Using a Competency-based Framework , 2007 .

[13]  G. Premkumar,et al.  Adoption of new information technologies in rural small businesses , 1999 .

[14]  E. Rogers.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1962 .

[15]  D. DavisFred,et al.  User Acceptance of Computer Technology , 1989 .

[16]  Praveen Ranjan Srivastava,et al.  Modeling Gender based Customer Preferences of Information Search Channels , 2017, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[17]  Thompson S. H. Teo,et al.  Adoption of WAP-enabled mobile phones among Internet users , 2003 .

[18]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[19]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models , 1989 .

[20]  Praveen Ranjan Srivastava,et al.  An Optimization Model for Mapping Organization and Consumer Preferences for Internet Information Channels , 2017, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[21]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  The role of theory in gender and information systems research , 2013, Inf. Organ..

[22]  Tao Zhou,et al.  Integrating TTF and UTAUT to explain mobile banking user adoption , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[23]  T. Inui,et al.  Making use of qualitative research techniques , 1998, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[24]  Kelley Oj.  Agency for International Development. , 1973 .

[25]  Tom Inglis,et al.  Empowerment and Emancipation , 1997 .

[26]  Christina Park.  Consumers and Mobile Financial Services , 2016 .

[27]  Kevin P. Donovan.  Mobile Money, More Freedom? The Impact of M-PESA’s Network Power on Development as Freedom , 2012 .

[28]  Chang Liu,et al.  Determinants of accepting wireless mobile data services in China , 2008, Inf. Manag..

[29]  C. Shapiro,et al.  Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility , 1985 .

[30]  L. G. Tornatzky,et al.  Innovation characteristics and innovation adoption-implementation: A meta-analysis of findings , 1982, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[31]  D. Littler,et al.  The adoption of direct banking services , 1997 .