Gender and the Performance of Informal Sector Enterprises

The objective of the study was to examine whether female and maleled informal businesses differ in terms of performance. Using a simple random sampling, 250 paper questionnaires were distributed by hand to small and micro enterprises, out of which 90 responses were gathered from owners and managers of informal enterprises. The Upper Echelon Theory (UET) serves as the main theory that underpins this study. Mann-Whitney test was employed to test the study's hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that there was a significantly equal relationship between gender and profit. Sales and gender performance however indicated a non-significant relationship. Female-led enterprises had a significantly higher employees' growth than male-led enterprises. Overall, female outperformed male in the informal sector based on employees' growth which is an indication of female's lenient, empathetic and good leadership style than male

ICT investment in Spanish SMEs of service and retail sectors. Is it determined by managers gender?

This study investigates the role of the entrepreneur’s gender on digitalization strategies undertaken by SMEs in the service and retail sectors. Specifically, we aim at testing how the gender of the entrepreneur may affect investment in software and equipment related to information and communication technologies (ICT). We use a sample of 1,041 Spanish businesses and estimate a bivariate probit model for these two decisions, controlling for other entrepreneurial and business characteristics. Results indicate a higher probability of male entrepreneurs to invest in software and ICT equipment, as compared to women. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurial risk-taking and business’ innovation capabilities are important drivers for engaging in these two digitalisation strategies, regardless of the gender of the entrepreneur, and that entrepreneurial proactiveness is especially important for women entrepreneurs, since the positive impact of entrepreneurial proactiveness on the probability to engage in digitalisation strategies is stronger in women-led businesses.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A Framework to Assess the Critical Success Factors for Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning Adoption in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a well-known business management system used for improving effectiveness in organisations. In the current digital era, cloud ERP systems have evolved which are taking precedence over the traditional ERP due to convenience of remote information access in real-time with benefits of cost saving, flexibility and scalability. These systems are especially helpful to SMEs which usually are constrained in resources. However, there have not been many studies that look at the critical success factors for cloud ERP adoption in SMEs. This paper develops an integrative framework using technology-organisation-environment (TOE) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) models to investigate the individual, environmental, technological and organisational levels of cloud ERP adoption in SMEs for identifying factors for success. The findings will provide new insights on cloud ERP adoption and will help both academia and practitioners increase understanding for future research and implementatio

DEVELOPING A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK RELATED TO MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING CAPABILITY FACTORS IN ADOPTING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION WITHIN MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION SMEs: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 The motivation for one’s organisation to adopt any new technologies might differ across size, fields and countries. The adoption of any technologies has been largely influenced by managerial decision making capability. Realizing the importance of having sound and agile decision making and its effects towards one’s organisation when deciding to adopt any new technology, the exploration of managerial decision making capability (e.g skills, attitude, behavior etc) has become a main concern of the researcher, especially within the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Malaysian construction industry. This paper aims to describe the research methodology in developing a conceptual framework related to managers’ decision making capability factors that could help them understanding the influencial factors that affects their behavioural decision making. Thus, to achieve this, this study need to fulfil the following objectives (i) to examine an appropriate research methodology that suits with this research context (ii) to critically justify the flow of research methodology as summarized in the methodological framework. The development of the framework adopts a qualitative methodology to gain better information from managers using a case study research design from multiple SMEs specifically within the Malaysian construction industry. The research techniques adopted will be further elaborated, including the process of triangulating the research findings with other various sources of evidences.This paper also describes the process in reviewing the data via cross case analysis before validating the framework that have been theorised based on technological innovation and managerial-based researches. It is hoped that the development of this framework would lead managers to understand their level of adoption capability with respect to technological innovation, so that they can improve their capability adoption decision by planning an appropriate strategy

Business sustainability: understanding the influence of managers and stakeholders on adopting sustainability practices in Nigerian SMEs

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in any economy must be balanced, yet hardly the sector attracts the needed attention for sustainability. This has led to unacceptable high mortality rates for the sector, especially in emerging contexts. Nevertheless, SMEs and sustainability agenda share significant melting pots of disrupting large-scale extreme poverty, among other benefits. Numerous literature supports this and acknowledges SMEs' potential for national employment, investment stimulation and gross domestic growth (GDP). This study aimed to unveil the impacts of managerial characteristics and stakeholders on Nigerian SME sustainability practices to understand SME business sustainability practices in developing countries. To fully investigate these impacts, three research questions enabled the navigation of this project. Firstly, to ascertain the current antecedents influencing SME sustainability practices. Secondly, we quizzed the relationship between the manager's characteristics and Nigerian SME sustainability practices. Furthermore, finally, we sort out how stakeholders influence SMEs' sustainability practices in Nigeria. A qualitative research approach was adopted within an interpretivist philosophical paradigm to construct participants narrated perspectives of sustainability practices. Data were collected from twenty-two (22) Nigerian SME owners/managers and nine (9) stakeholders in semi-structured interviews, virtually. Participants' information was inductively condensed, analysed and thematically framed using the Upper Echelon and Stakeholder concepts. The findings were dimensionally extracted using Gioia's step/order analysis to develop a data structure for each research question. The findings for the current antecedence include the political and governance dimension, the cultural and societal dimension, the economic dimension, and the business orientation dimension. In contrast, the findings for the relationship between managerial characteristics and sustainability practices include observable dimensions and cognitive values. The finding for stakeholder influence on sustainability practices includes the managerial alignment dimension and the dimension of stakeholders’ intervention. Asides from the contribution to knowledge, the result presented national, organisational and managerial practical implications. Diverse organisational and regulatory policy implications were also presented with future research directions

The roles of top management and users in strategic IS planning: a perspective of SMEs

Research on the strategic Information Systems (IS) planning is typically concentrated on large firms. However, the outcomes of this research may not be sufficient to adequately apply to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Responding to the limited body of work in SMEs with respect to strategic IS planning, this research aims to fill the gap in the body of literature. Having limited resources available, financially and technically, strategic IS planning is getting more crucial for SMEs. Prior work suggests that a high level of internal competencies such as IT leadership by the owner or the top management of the firm are important for progressive IT development to take place in SMEs. Having said that IS is getting paramount for firm’s survival to optimize IS effectively, it is incumbent to investigate the factors influencing strategic IS planning amongst the SMEs. This study contributes to research and practice by providing in-depth insights into the IS planning processes in SMEs with a particular focus on the roles of top management and users. Researchers can use these results, which are somewhat different from larger organizations, to revise IS planning phases

MODEL TAM DAN RISIKO PERSEPSIAN SEBAGAI ANTESENDEN NIAT PENGGUNAAN APLIKASI DAN PERMAINAN DARING FREEMIUM VERSI BERBAYAR PADA MAHASISWA DI INDONESIA

Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis pengaruh Technology Acceptence Model dan risiko persepsian pada niat beralih penguna aplikasi dan permainan daring freemium versi gratis ke versi berbayar. Ukuran sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah 200 responden yang merupakan mahasiswa pengguna aplikasi dan permainan daring freemium versi gratis. Dari hasil analisis menggunakan Structural Equation Modelling ditemukan bahwa kegunaan persepsian berpengaruh positif pada sikap, kemudahan penggunaan persepsian tidak berpengaruh positif pada sikap. Sedangkan, risiko finansial persepsian tidak berpengaruh positif pada sikap, risiko kinerja persepsian berpengaruh positif pada sikap, dan sikap berpengaruh positif pada niat beralih menggunakan aplikasi dan permainan daring freemium versi berbayar

A Multi-dimensional framework for adopting Physical Address System in a developing country

A Doctoral thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems, Division of Information Systems School of Economic and Business Sciences Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management.Johannesburg, March 2017This thesis is about the adoption of an Information System (IS) at a country level. Information Systems literature addresses adoption of IS at an individual level, organisational level or national/country level. Each level of analysis has its own complexities. However, literature acknowledging these varied complexities has not been forth coming. That is, literature has more studies done at either individual or organisational, and hardly at national or country level. This thesis argues that the adoption of an information system (also referred to as an innovation) at country level is a multi-dimensional and multi-level phenomenon. Existing literature and previous studies have hardily addressed fully, this complexities and multi-dimensionalism, although it has been noted that countries experience and internalise the innovation adoption, as a social process, differently. The study was on a developing country adopting a Physical Address System (PAS), herein seen as an IS innovation. In this thesis, PAS is seen as a social system comprising of artefacts (digital and visual representations), physical world, residents and organisations as stakeholders. The goal of the study was to conceptualise a multi-dimensional framework for adopting a Physical Address System, in the context of a developing country. Since the thesis argument is that the adoption of IS at a country level is even more complex, varied theories were employed as lenses to tackle the various aspect of the study. These lenses are the Diffusion of Innovation, the Stakeholder Theory, Upper Echelon Theory and the Contextualist Approach. Following the interpretivist philosophy, a case study was employed as a research strategy, using Botswana as a developing country case. The research design included semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, observations, policy documents. The data was analysed, discussed, synthesised and interpreted using thematic framework analysis method. Informed by the empirical evidence and the existing literature, this thesis conceptualises that the adoption of the Physical Address System ought to be done sensitive to the developing country as a multi-dimensional social system. This multi-dimensional social system includes the roles of stakeholders, determinants of innovation and context. The contribution of the thesis is in four folds; theoretical, methodological, practical, and contextual. Theoretically, the thesis conceptualised a multi-dimensional framework for the adoption of the Physical Address System in a developing country. Methodologically, the thesis contributed by following an interpretive philosophy and a case study as appropriate for understanding the complexities of adopting an information system, employing a case. Practically, the thesis, through the framework, may inform practitioners with ways to adopt a physical address system. Contextually, the thesis gives insight into the uniqueness of a developing country adopting an information system. Keywords: Developing Country, Adoption, Physical Address System, Stakeholder Theory, Upper Echelon Theory, Diffusion of Innovation, ContextGR201

Antecedents and impact of AIS usage amongst Jordanian SMEs : moderating effects of environmental uncertainty and firm size

An effective use of the Accounting Information System (AIS) facilitates firms to sustain their competitiveness by providing timely, accurate and reliable financial information for more informed business decisions. Despite extensive government efforts, the usage of AIS amongst the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan is relatively low and thus limiting the impact on firms‘ effectiveness. Furthermore, previous studies regarding the antecedents and impact of AIS usage are somewhat inconsistent. Thus, the purpose of this study was to propose an integrated model utilizing the Technological, Organizational, and Environmental (TOE) framework and the Resource-based View (RBV) theory to better explain the antecedents affecting AIS usage and its impact on AIS effectiveness amongst Jordanian SMEs. This study hypothesized seven factors affecting AIS usage based on the TOE framework. Meanwhile, RBV explained the relationship between AIS usage and AIS effectiveness as well as the moderating effects of environmental uncertainty and firm size on such relationships. Using the quantitative approach, this study employed a self-administered questionnaire survey on 741 owners of SMEs listed in the Amman Chamber Industry, of which 186 responses were usable for analysis (25% response rate). The Partial Least Squares (PLS) results revealed significant influence of compatibility (technological factor), owner/manager commitment and organizational readiness (organizational factors), as well as competitive pressure and government support (environmental factors) on AIS usage. Furthermore, compatibility demonstrated the strongest influence on AIS usage followed by competitive pressure. The results further demonstrated a positive and significant effect of AIS usage on AIS effectiveness. Finally, the findings only ascertained considerable moderating effect of firm size. Apart from extending the body of knowledge by providing a comprehensive model to explain how several interrelated factors influence AIS usage and its impact on AIS effectiveness, the results offer insights on how firms could improve the use of AIS for better firms‘ performance