IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eco/journ3/2012-02-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mobile Phone Usage by Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Semi-Rural Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Adjei Kwakwa

    (Department of Business Economics,Presbyterian University College Ghana, Akuapem Campus, Ghana.)

Abstract

This work looked at the use of mobile technology among entrepreneurs/managers of micro and small scale businesses in the Akuapem North district of Ghana. The major findings were that entrepreneurs/business managers would use more than one mobile phone and/or subscribed to more than one network in order to make affordable calls, to enjoy excellent service from other network providers, for business purposes, security reasons and to have a place for their many contact numbers. Apart from marketing/sales purposes, the managers/entrepreneurs used phone for the gathering of information, for product delivery/procurement and managing internal affairs among others. A Chi square test confirmed that mobile phone has helped businesses improve customer services, improve communication with suppliers/customers, open up new branch, keep up with competitors and help increase profit. However, the respondents identified a number of occasional challenges such as no reception, poor sound/breaking up of sound and calls ending unexpectedly.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Adjei Kwakwa, 2012. "Mobile Phone Usage by Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Semi-Rural Ghana," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 2(3), pages 156-164.
    • Handle: RePEc:eco:journ3:2012-02-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econjournals.com/index.php/irmm/article/download/202/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.econjournals.com/index.php/irmm/article/view/202/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steve Esselaar & Christoph Stork & Ali Ndiwalana & Mariama Deen-Swarray, 2007. "ICT Usage and Its Impact on Profitability of SMEs in 13 African Countries," Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press, vol. 4(1), pages 87-100, October.
    2. Jenny C. Aker & Isaac M. Mbiti, 2010. "Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 207-232, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amos Nkrumah, 2018. "Immigrants’ Transnational Entrepreneurial Activities: the Case of Ghanaian Immigrants in Canada," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 195-211, February.
    2. Malm, Meagan K. & Toyama, Kentaro, 2021. "The burdens and the benefits: Socio-economic impacts of mobile phone ownership in Tanzania," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Islam, Md. Mazharul & Habes, Essam M. & Alam, Md. Mahmudul, 2018. "The usage and social capital of mobile phones and their effect on the performance of microenterprise: An empirical study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 156-164.
    2. Jean-Philippe Berrou & François Combarnous & Thomas Eekhout, 2017. "Les TIC : une réponse au défi du développement des micro et petites entreprises informelles en Afrique sub-saharienne ?," Working Papers hal-02148324, HAL.
    3. Paunov, Caroline & Rollo, Valentina, 2016. "Has the Internet Fostered Inclusive Innovation in the Developing World?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 587-609.
    4. Eivor Oborn & Michael Barrett & Wanda Orlikowski & Anna Kim, 2019. "Trajectory Dynamics in Innovation: Developing and Transforming a Mobile Money Service Across Time and Place," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 1097-1123, September.
    5. Gutiérrez-Romero, Roxana & Ahamed, Mostak, 2021. "COVID-19 response needs to broaden financial inclusion to curb the rise in poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    6. Olayinka David-West & Oluwasola Oni & Folajimi Ashiru, 2022. "Diffusion of Innovations: Mobile Money Utility and Financial Inclusion in Nigeria. Insights from Agents and Unbanked Poor End Users," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 1753-1773, December.
    7. Simplice A. Asongu, 2014. "Knowledge Economy and Financial Sector Competition in African Countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 333-346, June.
    8. Sulaiman, H. & Malec, K. & Maitah, Mansoor, 2014. "Appropriate tools of Marketing Information System for Citrus Crop in the Lattakia Region, R. A. SYRIA," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 6(3), pages 1-10, September.
    9. Chen,Rong - DECIG, 2021. "A Demand-Side View of Mobile Internet Adoption in the Global South," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9590, The World Bank.
    10. Katharina Michaelowa & Franziska Spörri, 2012. "ICT als Beschäftigungsmotor in den Entwicklungsländern?," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 81(3), pages 85-97.
    11. Maude Hasbi & Antoine Dubus, 2019. "Determinants of Mobile Broadband Use in Developing Economies: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers hal-02264651, HAL.
    12. Grégoire Rota-Graziosi & Fayçal Sawadogo, 2020. "The tax burden on mobile network operators in Africa," Working Papers hal-03109370, HAL.
    13. Aimable Nsabimana & Patricia Funjika, 2019. "Mobile phone use, productivity and labour market in Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-71, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Freyburg, Tina & Garbe, Lisa & Wavre, Véronique, 2022. "The political power of internet business: A comprehensive dataset of Telecommunications Ownership and Control (TOSCO)," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Online fi, pages 1-1.
    15. Marco Manacorda & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 533-567, March.
    16. Hamza El Guili, 2018. "Internationalization of African SMEs: Context, Trends and Challenges," Proceedings of the 11th International RAIS Conference, November 19-20, 2018 020HG, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies.
    17. repec:ags:mididp:152396 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Christian-Lambert Nguena, 2019. "On financial innovation in developing countries: The determinants of mobile banking and financial development in Africa," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 69-94.
    19. Elizabeth Lwanga Nanzir, 2017. "Financial Inclusion and Welfare in Post-Apartheid South Africa," Working Papers 323, African Economic Research Consortium, Research Department.
    20. Abdulqadir, Idris A. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2022. "The asymmetric effect of internet access on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 44-61.
    21. Cariolle, Joël, 2021. "International connectivity and the digital divide in Sub-Saharan Africa," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mobile phones; Semi-rural; Ghana; MSEs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eco:journ3:2012-02-16. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ilhan Ozturk (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econjournals.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.