Alignment of human comptencies with mobile technology and business strategy in women-led SMEs

139 Pages·2014·1.86 MB·English

ALIGNMENT OF HUMAN COMPETENCIES
WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS
STRATEGY IN WOMEN-LED SMES
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN
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BY
AJUMOBI O. DEBORAH
Supervised By: Prof. Michael Kyobe
JULY 2014
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters in Information Systems
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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No
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quotation from it or information derived from it is to be

published without full acknowledgeement of the source.
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The thesis is to be used for private study or non-
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commercial research purposes only.

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Published by the Universit y of Cape Town (UCT) in terms
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of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author.
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
PLAGIARISM DECLARATION
I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own.
I have used the American Psychological Association (APA) convention for citation and referencing
throughout the dissertation. Each contribution to and quotation in this dissertation “Alignment of
Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs” from the
work(s) of other people has/have been attributed and has been cited and referenced.
This dissertation “Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business
Strategy in Women-led SMEs” is my own work.
I have not allowed and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as
his or her own work.
I acknowledge that copying someone else’s dissertation, or part of it, is wrong and declare that this is
my own work.
Signature………………………… Date:…30/…07/…2014
Full Name of Student: Ajumobi O. Deborah
Student Number: AJMOLU001
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
ABSTRACT
Studies show that women entrepreneurs are constrained and faced with challenges that
inhibit the growth and performance of their businesses. Such challenges include race and
gender differences, inadequate education, family responsibilities, lack of access to capital
and other socio-cultural factors. However, with their human competencies, mobile
technology and the appropriate business strategy, women-led small and medium-sized
Enterprises (SMEs) can steer their businesses to better performance.
While the need for SMEs to align these three elements (human competencies, mobile
technology and business strategy) has been suggested, there is limited knowledge on how
SMEs can achieve this; no studies, to the author’s knowledge, have examined this in
women-led SMEs. This study therefore sought to fill this gap by investigating how women-
led SMEs can best align these three elements to enhance their business performance. In
light of this, extensive literature review and theoretical work on the phenomenon was
conducted. Given the existence of the interplay between these three elements (human
competencies, mobile technology and business strategy), the study adopted the perspective
of alignment as Gestalts as the most appropriate method in determining the best way
women-led SMEs may align these three aspects.
Data was collected from 70 women in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Free
State; the data collected was analysed using cluster analysis in order to sieve out patterns
and configurations of human competencies, mobile technology and business strategy that
resulted in improved business performance. Two clusters of the four clusters of women-led
SMEs that emerged from the analysis performed highly in comparison to the other two
clusters which had low performances. The women-led SMEs with the highest performance
were able to reinforce their business strategies with the use of mobile technology
applications such as: instant messaging apps (such as Whatsapp), internet browsers to
access the internet; and memo application to keep information and take notes. They also
complemented their business strategies and use of mobile technology applications with
competencies such as the ability to effectively communicate with people, to use technology
and to plan effectively.
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
The findings asserted that indeed, human competencies, the use of mobile technology and
business strategy in women-led SMEs need to complement or reinforce each other in order
to achieve improved business performance. In instances where otherwise was the case; that
is; human competencies, mobile technology and business strategy did not complement or
reinforce each other; the business performance will be low.
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I give my utmost gratitude to my supervisor Prof Michael Kyobe for his unwavering support;
encouragement; constructive critiques; guidance; and distinguished teaching all through the
journey to the completion of this research.
My deepest gratitude I give to Runyararo for being there from the start of this journey, even
at times when I could not be there for myself, and for supporting me with her love and
prayers.
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the IS department, especially Oluyomi and
Samuel for their encouragement and academic mentorship.
I would like to thank the women entrepreneurs who participated in this research,
particularly Patti Graham who assisted with getting women of her network to participate.
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
DEDICATION
I dedicate this dissertation to God Almighty, His grace has been sufficient thus far. I would
also like to dedicate this dissertation to my grandmother, my mother, my brother and my
sister – I am very grateful for your endless love and support.
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
Table of Contents
PLAGIARISM DECLARATION .................................................................................................................... 1
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................................. 4
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................ 5
LIST OF COMMON ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................... 8
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ 9
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 10
1.1 Background and the problem statement .............................................................................. 10
1.2 Research objectives and questions ....................................................................................... 13
1.3 Importance of research ......................................................................................................... 14
1.4 Limitations of the research ................................................................................................... 15
1.5 Dissertation overview ........................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 17
2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 17
2.2 Women-led SMEs .................................................................................................................. 18
2.3 Human competencies ........................................................................................................... 21
2.4 Business strategy .................................................................................................................. 24
2.5 Women and ICT adoption ..................................................................................................... 28
2.6 Summary of relationships and interplays between human competencies, mobile
technology and business strategy as identified in literature ............................................................ 33
2.7 Business performance ........................................................................................................... 35
2.8 Alignment .............................................................................................................................. 37
2.9 Summary of literature review ............................................................................................... 44
2.10 Identified gaps in literature .................................................................................................. 44
2.11 Conceptual model ................................................................................................................. 46
2.12 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................... 49
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 50
3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 50
3.2 Research philosophy ............................................................................................................. 51
3.3 Research methodology ......................................................................................................... 53
3.4 Ethics and confidentiality ...................................................................................................... 65
3.5 Summary of the chapter ....................................................................................................... 65
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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................ 67
4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 67
4.2 Reliability testing ................................................................................................................... 68
4.3 Demographic analysis ........................................................................................................... 68
4.4 Open-ended question analysis .............................................................................................. 75
4.5 Cluster analysis...................................................................................................................... 84
4.6 Discussion of clusters ............................................................................................................ 89
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION ............................................................................. 102
5.1 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 102
5.2 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 104
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 106
Appendix A – Survey Introduction Letter ........................................................................................... 125
Appendix B – Questionnaire ............................................................................................................... 126
Appendix C – Summary of measurement and sources ....................................................................... 128
Appendix D – Table of Variables/Constructs, Measuring Items on Questionnaire, Relating
proposition(s) and Research question(s) ............................................................................................ 129
APPENDIX E – ETHICS FORM ............................................................................................................... 130
Commerce Faculty Ethics in Research Committee ........................................................... 130

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Alignment of Human Competencies with Mobile Technology and Business Strategy in Women-led SMEs
LIST OF COMMON ACRONYMS
ANOVA………………………………………….One-way Analysis of Variance
BWASA………………………………………….Business Women Association of South Africa
CEO……………………………………………….Chief Executive Officer
DTI………………………………………………..Department of Trade and Industry
GPS……………………………………………….Global Positioning System
IBM……………………………………………….International Business Machines
ICT…………………………………………………Information and Communication Technology
IFC…………………………………………………International Finance Corporation
IT……………………………………………………Information Technology
MIT………………………………………………..Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SME……………………………………………….Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
SMS……………………………………………….Short Message Service
TAM……………………………………………….Technology Acceptance Model
UCT………………………………………………..University of Cape Town
UK…………………………………………………..United Kingdom
US…………………………………………………..United States
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