Critical factors influencing the adoption of digital marketing devices by service-oriented micro-businesses in Nigeria: A thematic analysis approach

Abstract This paper examines critical success factors shaping the adoption of digital marketing devices (DMD) by micro-businesses. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Both unstructured and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 26 micro-businesses drawn purposefully from the online database and underpinned by technology, organisation and environment (TOE) framework. This helped to unravel 14 critical success factors influencing the adoption of DMD by micro-businesses in Nigeria. These factors include functional capability, adaptive capacity and expandability which are related to technology context. Collective understanding, degree of partnership and diversity of information are linked to the organisation context while the level of training, quality of service delivery, customer fulfilment and intense competition are associated with environmental context. The study expanded the TOE framework by unravelling the impact expectancy context which is associated with factors, such as budget, business expansion, diversity and return on investment. This study will be of importance to academics and practitioners because it provides further awareness into DMD adoption framework, factors critical to the DMD adoption and may assist in reducing the number of resources spent in search of information aimed at helping DMD adoption by micro-businesses

Conditioning film deposition on ureteral stents after implantation

Background: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is one of the major urogenital infections for which women seek medicaltreatment or use self-prescribed antifungals. The objective of this study was to investigate whether probiotic lactobacilli canbe used as an adjunctive treatment in the management of VVC in Nigerian women. Patients and methods: Fifty-ninepremenopausal women attending health clinics were diagnosed with vaginal yeast infection by both clinical assessment and standard laboratory culture techniques. After informed consent, they were randomized blindly to receive a conventional single oral dose of fluconazole (150 mg) and a daily probiotic capsule containing Lactobacillus hamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 or placebo for 3 months (90 days). Results: At day 7, 47 of the 59 patients attended for follow-up.Seven of the 33 on probiotics (23%) and 2 of 14 on placebo (14%) had evidence of yeast infection by culture on day 7 ( p 0.1), indicating a cure rate of approximately 80% with single dose fluconazole. However, of the 26 subjects who reported at day 90, 79% who received probiotics were free of yeast infection compared with 43% on placebo ( p 0.1490). PCR confirmed this finding, as 75% in the probiotics group were negative for heat shock protein specific for Candida albicans at day 90. A PCR primer set specific for L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14 revealed the presence of the Lactobacillus strains on day 90 in 25% of the subjects who took probiotics. All the patients in the placebo group (100%) had two or three recurrences during the 90 day follow-up, while 53% of the probiotics group had one to two recurrences ( p 0.05). Conclusion: The study shows that adjunctive treatment of VVC with probiotic L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14 did not impact the cure rate at day 7, but did lead to fewer vulvovaginitis recurrences. Problems with patients returning for follow-up appointments suggest the need for a more active education programme in Nigeria on clinical trials per se and probiotics in particular. Clinical Trial Registration Number: