Inclusive Digital Innovation in South Africa: Perspectives from Disadvantaged and Marginalized Communities

Inclusive digital innovation (IDI) entails rolling out policies and digital innovations to ensure equal access to services and new goods by previously excluded and marginalized societies. Digital commerce (d-commerce) has the potential to foster an inclusive community through IDI empowerment in emerging economies; however, the literature on inclusive digital innovation and citizen empowerment is limited on the effect of e-strategy policies and empowerment on d-commerce adoption, use, and recommendation propensity. Underpinned by three theories: the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the citizen empowerment theory, and the affective decision-making theory of optimism bias and risk, this study proposes a model to establish the determinants of use intention, use behavior, and propensity to recommend d-commerce in disadvantaged and marginalized communities in South Africa. Using survey data from 983 disadvantaged d-commerce users to test the proposed model and hypotheses using IBM Amos for Windows and structural equation modeling (SEM), this paper provides a unique narrative to the empowerment discourse of marginalized people. Results show that privacy, security, trust, and citizen empowerment positively influence use intention and optimism bias, use behavior, and citizen empowerment mediate the propensity to recommend. Factors that promote or hinder citizens’ choices to use and recommend d-commerce are pertinent to scholars, government agencies, and regulators seeking better policy implementations to eradicate socio-economic inequalities, sustainable societies, and the empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalized people.