Measuring Mobile Phone Technology Adoption in SMEs: Analysis of Metrics

Abstract

Mobile technology has experienced a huge acceptance by many users in the current generation. This is due to the benefits offered through its use by individuals and organisations. Similarly, technology adoption studies have widely been used to uncover factors which determine their adoption in different contexts. Some of the scenarios in technology adoption differ due to the specific technology which is under study. For instance, mobile phone technology differs from other computing technologies in several aspects due to its nature i.e. mobility. These differences come along with some different insights concerning the adoption of mobile phones in a particular context. Highlighting important issues on studying the adoption of mobile technology is necessary, especially in developing countries where SMEs are engaging in the usage of mobile phones to accomplish business processes. Thus, this paper provides set of metrics for measuring adoption of mobile phone technology in SMEs. This qualitative study uses a combination of critical literature reviews and interviews conducted by involving key stakeholders of SMEs in Tanzania. This paper shows that among the existing metrics which are used in measuring adoption of other computing technologies, only value creation metric has more realistic grounds to explain the extent of mobile phones adoption in the context of SMEs. KEywoRdS Acceptance, ICT, Metrics, Mobile Phone Technology, SME, Technology Adoption