A qualitative enquiry into the appropriation of mobile telephony at the bottom of the pyramid

Abstract

Purpose – The paper aims to analyse bottom of the pyramid (BoP) customers’ (e.g. Bangladeshi farmers) use and appropriation of mobile telephony and to critically identify a suitable research strategy for such investigation. Design/methodology/approach – Concentrated ethnographic immersion was combined with both methodological and investigator triangulation during a four-month period of fieldwork conducted in Bangladeshi villages to obtain more robust findings. Concentrated immersion was required to achieve relatively speedier engagement owing to the difficulty in engaging with respondents on a long-term basis. Findings – The farmers’ use of mobile telephony went beyond the initial adoption, as they appropriated it through social and institutional support, inventive means and/or changes in their own lifestyle. The paper argues that technology appropriation, being a result of the mutual shaping of technology, human skills and abilities and macro-environmental factors, enables users to achieve desired outcomes which may not always be the ones envisaged by the original designers. Research limitations/implications – The paper contributes to two major areas: first, it identifies technology appropriation as an important and emerging concept in international marketing research; second, it suggests a concentrated form of ethnographic engagement for studying technology appropriation in a developing country context. Practical implications – A good understanding of the dynamic interplay between users’ skills and abilities, social contexts and technological artefacts/applications is required in order for businesses to serve BoP customers profitably. Originality/value – The paper presents a dynamic model of technology appropriation based on findings collected through a pragmatic approach by combining concentrated ethnographic immersion with methodological and investigator triangulation.

Young Entrepreneurs in the Mobile Telephony Sector in Ghana: From Necessities to Aspirations

“…Although there has been considerable research on the mobile telephony sector in recent times, the majority of these studies focus on the uses to which people put their phones, while others have looked at the impact of mobile phones on people's businesses and social relations (Boadi et al, 2007;Overå, 2008;Brouwer, 2010;Essegbey & Frempong 2011;Porter et al, 2012;Lal Dey et al, 2013). A few studies have also documented the activities of solo entrepreneurs who import mobile phones from Hong Kong to Africa (Yu & Kwan, 2015).…”

Disruption of Things: A Model to Facilitate Adoption of IoT-based Innovations by the Urban Poor

“…Any applications of IoT-based innovation would take into account existing social paradigms among the target consumers viz. social acceptance [22], technological awareness [23] and consumer need [24]. This co-operative design process would also aid in the distribution of the technology among the consumers [25].…”

ICTs for employability and empowerment : an analytical framework for addressing the digital divide in urban livelihoods

“…Most of the studies in this third group deploy qualitative research methods for assessing the digital divide. The utility of qualitative methods is in gleaning more incisive descriptions about the participants' behaviour, especially towards their use of ICTs (Dey, Binsardi, Prendergast, & Saren, 2013). By the early-2000s, the term appropriation was beginning to take on more complex meanings than just access or usage, because the usage of ICTs has become a key part of our everyday lives (Karnowski, 2009).…”

“…Different meanings for different participants. Specifically, the studies in this group found that using a computer and or the internet, hold varying connotations for different groups of users, and these meanings change with one's age, physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development (Dey et al, 2013;Dey, Newman, & Prendergast, 2011;Facer, Furlong, Furlong, & Sutherland, 2003;Mackay & Gillespie, 1992;Stewart, 2003). In presenting his digital divide model, Selwyn (2004) explained that appropriation is a "meaningful use of ICT…where the 'user' exerts a degree of control and choice over the technology and its content, thus leading to a meaning, significance and utility for the individual concerned."…”

“…For example, Dey et al 2013; Dey et al (2011) found that the Bangladeshi farmers' use of mobile phones extended beyond its initial device adoption stage, as these farmers appropriate the device with the support of their social and institutional networks, provide their own ideas on how to use the devices and further adapt them to their own lifestyle. In another example, in a more urban setting, researchers found that an e-mail account is more than a communication tool when its inbox is also used as a holding unit for flagged posts and key documents (Dey et al, 2013). Interestingly, such usage adaptation enables the participants to achieve more than their original purposes from the ICTs, which may not have been foreseen by the original ICT designers (Dey et al, 2013;Dey et al, 2011).…”