Determinants ICT Adoption by SMEs Owner Managers in Rural Kenya an Organizational Context Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the Business organizational factors that determine ICT adoption by SMEs owner managers in rural Kenya-A case of Nyeri County. A mixed method research design was used where both qualitative and quantitative data was concurrently collected and analyzed at the same time. A sample of 216 Small and Medium Enterprises owner/managers were drawn from the list of 5428 Small and medium Enterprises located in rural areas and licensed by the Nyeri County government. Both simple random sampling and stratified random sampling were used in picking both sub-counties and business categories respectively. In order to get the participants in Focus Group Discussion (FGD) purposive sampling method was used. This was to ensure that only those participants with relevant information participated in the discussions. An open ended and a closedended questionnaire, an observation schedule and a focus group discussion (FGD) guide were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software while the qualitative data was thematically analyzed. The study established that organizational factors influences ICT adoption by SMEs in rural areas of Nyeri County. This study can be used by the government, ICT consultants, and vendors in the development of ICT policies and ICT sales strategies respectively. Finally, the same results can be used by the government in the development of ICT training, strategies relevant in enhancing ICT adoption and usage in the SME sector in rural Kenya.