Paper published: A review of evidence on mobile use by micro and small enterprises in developing countries
July 6th, 2010
conferences, microenterprise, publications
Richard Heeks has edited a special section of the Journal of International Development, drawing on some papers from the 2009 ICTD Conference in Doha, Qatar. Thanks to helpful suggestions from Richard and from other anonymous reviewers, my paper with Marcela Escobari has been significantly updated since the conference version.
Here is a link to a pre-peer review version of the paper, which Wiley lets us host on a personal site like this. It is suitable for general reading. However, for citations, and particularly for direct quotations, please refer instead to the final and definitive version, available online from Wiley-Blackwell:
A review of evidence on mobile use by micro and small enterprises in developing countries
Jonathan Donner and Marcela X Escobari
The paper offers a systematic review of 14 studies of the use of mobile telephony by micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the developing world, detailing findings about changes to enterprises’ internal processes and external relationships, and findings about mobile use vs. traditional landline use. Results suggest that there is currently more evidence for the benefits of mobile use accruing mostly (but not exclusively) to existing MSEs rather than new MSEs, in ways that amplify existing material and informational flows rather than transform them. The review presents a more complete picture of mobile use by MSEs than was previously available, and indentifies priorities for future research, including comparisons of the impact of mobile use across subsectors of MSEs and assessments of use of advanced services such as mobile banking and mobile commerce.
Donner, Jonathan, & Escobari, Marcela X. (2010). A review of evidence on mobile use by micro and small enterprises in developing countries. Journal of International Development, 22:5, 641-658. doi: 10.1002/jid.1717, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123566679/abstract
