Can an Internet Adoption Framework be Developed for SMEs in South Africa

Abstract

Over two billion people across the globe are now connected to the Internet and the numbers are growing at approximately 200 million people per annum, attracting focus by businesses and governments especially pertaining to contributing to economic growth. Small and medium enterprises (SME) as engines of growth for South Africa, given that they have proved to provide over 50 per cent of employment in many economies, cannot be left out of the technology race. An adoption of Internet would leapfrog these SMEs to levels beyond survival but lead to sustainable businesses. This study 1 investigated the viability of the development of an Internet adoption framework that is appropriate to the needs of SMEs in South Africa. SMEs in South Africa have been slow to adopt Internet technologies owing to the development and implementation of an Internet framework could best serve the SME sector needs. In-depth interviews were conducted with SMEs to investigate the levels of adoption by SMEs and an analysis of the current Internet supply ecosystem was conducted. The research results reveal that SME are using what is available but not to full capacity to enable their business to thrive, given the benefits provided by Internet technologies. Their slow adoption is due to; lack of infrastructure and skills, lack of cyber laws, which will provide trust, slow Internet speed and high costs of connection. The results also provided a positive outlook towards ascertaining if an Internet framework can be developed to serve the needs of SMEs in South Africa, if government is to take the lead facilitator role.

Changing thoughts towards digital literacy interventions for South African entrepreneurs

“…Overall, Mavimbela and Dube (2016) found social media to be a useful tool for attracting more customers. However, it seems that the entrepreneurs in this study were still lagging behind on fully realising what social media can do for their businesses or they do not understand the platforms.…”

“…Interventions should target specific industry sectors and one should be careful to make statements such as those made by Mavimbela and Dube (2016) when they say that a framework that works in one province can be implemented and will be able to serve a larger SME focus. However, they also agree that certain industries, specifically labour-intensive industries, have not explored the benefits of ICT for their businesses, which correlates with the findings of Mavimbela and Dube (2016).…”

“…However, recent studies have proven that other factors, such as suppliers and IT consultants, can play a role in the adoption of ICT (Gono et al 2016). Mavimbela and Dube (2016) find that the low skills levels (low digital literacy capabilities) of owners could result in a low adoption rate. This is also listed as a barrier above, which is why it will be interesting to see who makes the decisions.…”

“…In South Africa, it is estimated that SMEs account for 90% of business establishments. Their contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) is between 52% and 57%, while their contribution to employment is 61% (Adeniran & Johnston 2016;Cant, Wiid & Hung 2016;Gono, Harindranath & Berna Ozcan 2016;Mavimbela & Dube, 2016). These numbers reflect a growth from 2005 when Antonites and Van Vuuren (2005) pointed out that small firms in South Africa contributed 47% to job creation.…”

The focus of marketing communication efforts of smes within south Africa

“…It is also estimated that SMEs contribute to about 61% of job creation in South Africa (Mavimbela and Dube, 2016). In South…”