Development Communication and the Social Integration of the New Services and Techniques : Acceptance, Appropriation and the Role of the Perceived Value of Use. Multi-site Case Study Within the SME support in Central Asia

Certain researchers call to reconsider Communication for development and social change, as a problem of "Techniques and Society" (McArthur, 1982; Jouët, 1992; Bardini, 1993; Lohento, 2003; Kiyindou, 2004, 2006, 2008; Missé, 2006). Thus, the models of social integration of innovations are used here to study how the new development support systems are accepted and appropriated by their users in developing countries, would it be in Central Asia or in Africa. There is no need to prove anymore that users' reception and appropriation is critical to the development programs effectiveness. We synthesize these Anglo-Saxon and French models and distinguish the common determinant axes for the innovation reception: before its actual usage (acceptance models) and after it (appropriation models). It appears to be the mental construction of the sense of usage: the user mobilizes his representations "already there" (anchoring in existing representations, Moscovici, 1976, 1989; Jodelet, 1989; LeBlanc, 2007) and his imaginary (Flichy, 1995, 2001, Musso, 2007) to assess the associated usage benefits-costs, its anticipated and perceived experience. In the literature, this mental construction process appears as the formation of the Perceived Value of Use (PVU, Jouet, 1987; Mallein & Toussaint, 1992; Mallein, 1997, 2008, 2012; Soler, Geraud & Mallein, 2000; Hoffmann, Mallein & al, 2008; Hert, 1998; Toussaint, 2003; Boenisch, 2009; Assude & al, 2010; Nelson, 2012; Kim & al, 2006 and others). However, it is necessary to further explore this process. In our qualitative multi-site case study, we investigate the PVU concept in detail. As result, we model the mechanism of its formation, as well as its role for the social integration of the new development support systems by their users. We propose to test the results of our research, conducted in SME support in Central Asia, within the context of African countries.