Adoption of information technology by micro-enterprises: Insights from a rural community

It appears that the growth of micro-enterprises is a key driver of economic development in underserved communities. However their growth is limited to only 20% of the economy even though they comprise 87% of businesses in Nebraska. Research has shown that IT adoption can increase their growth by 3.5% but the challenges to IT adoption by micro-enterprises are many. Current theoretical models on IT adoption focus on the intent to adopt IT in large organizations where employees' attitudes and perceptions are measured in terms of their objectives within the structures of accountability. Micro-enterprises are unique in that the intention to adopt is an individual cognitive decision made by the micro-entrepreneur. It is often the ways in which IT is used and can be used to grow their businesses that effect the adoption decisions made by the micro-entrepreneurs. This paper considers the adoption of IT by micro-enterprises through a focus group session. Following a qualitative analysis of the data using constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theory, this paper uncovers patterns that provide insight into the attitudes and perceptions that effect the adoption of IT by micro-entrepreneurs. The contribution of this paper is in the discovery of patterns and categories of micro-entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions that effect the adoption of IT.