Information and communication technology adoption and diffusion in micro-enterprises: the case of techno-savvy home-based businesses

Delwyn N. Clark and Heather Douglas

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2011, vol. 14, issue 3, 349-368

Abstract: The effective use of ICTs for business activities is of significant interest in a digital economy. This paper examines the adoption and diffusion of ICTs by micro home-based businesses (HBB) from an empirical study of 522 firms. Key findings include very high levels of internet, e-mail and cell phone usage for HBBs' business activities; and increasing website adoption levels with increasing geographic sales reach (from local, regional, national, to international). In spite of micro size and limited resources, many of these HBB were techno-savvy and capable of utilising the full range of ICTs to facilitate electronic business communications and online transactions. These findings are significant given the lack of prior research on the HBB sector and the scale of micro-enterprises in economies around the globe.

Keywords: micro enterprises; home based businesses; ICT adoption; ICT diffusion; information technology; communications technology; e-mail; electronic mail; internet; world wide web; techno savvy; electronic business; e-business; online transactions; sales reach; websites; cell phones; mobile phones; digital economies; local sales; regional sales; national sales; international sales; micro size; limited resources; New Zealand; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; entrepreneurs; entrepreneurship. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=42758 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:14:y:2011:i:3:p:349-368

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().