Investigating the Effects of Micro-enterprise Access and Use of ICTs through a Capability Lens

Technology has been shown to effectively enable economic growth at the firm and national level. Yet ICT’s effects upon, and the process by which it is incorporated into, microenterprises, remain largely unknown. This paper explores, through two case studies, interventions that enabled micro-enterprises (businesses with low revenues and one to five employees) in underserved communities to connect to the Internet, obtain technical assistance, and take advantage of free and low cost software. The cases illustrate instances in which the introduction of ICTs increased microenterprise mobility, ability to organize customer information, and connected microenterprises to other microenterprises. The cases also depict a number of related (secondary) benefits arising out of the microentrepreneurs’ improved technology usage and literacy. The contribution of the paper is in illuminating patterns of access and use, concepts, and relationships that enable micro-enterprises to use ICTs to achieve what is valuable to them. The implications for global development lie in highlighting ideas, research techniques, and practices that are working ‘in the field’ in relation to ICT adoption by microenterprises, so that these techniques may be deployed and improved upon by others