Showing papers by "John Effah published in 2012"

Mobilizing culture for e-business in developing countries: an actor network theory account

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to understand how developing country cultures can be mobilized for e-business. Within the developing country e-business literature, culture has been highlighted as a barrier. Less is however known about culture as an enabler. Despite calls for cultural fit, empirical evidence on how to achieve the fit remains limited. This study follows actor-network theory (ANT) as a lens and interpretive case study as a methodology to understand how funeral culture in the developing country context of Ghana was mobilized for an e-business venture. The findings demonstrate an enabling perspective of developing country culture, complementing the dominant constraining view in the literature. The paper argues that although e-business emerged from the developed world, it could be malleable to varied contexts. The paper encourages developing country entrepreneurs and researchers to seek ways to align e-business to local contexts.

An e-support firm's response to local e-readiness and the global e-business environment

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to understand a small e-support firm’s response to the local e-readiness and the global e-business environment in a developing context. E-Support firms provide Web development and consultancy services to user organizations, assisting them in their uptake and maintenance of their Internet applications. Within the e-readiness research area, little is known about e-support firms, particularly in connection with their interaction with their local and the global e-business environment. As yet the emphasis on e-readiness studies has been at the national level. Nevertheless, the e-support sector is very significant in the successful adoption and diffusion of the Internet and related applications in any economy. It is thus important to understand how such firms relate to their e-business environments.That said, this study draws on the interpretive case study of a small e-support firm in Ghana, a developing context, to investigate the firm’s response to the e-readiness level of the local and the global e-business environment. Findings show that the firm could employ resources from the global environment to address most of the infrastructural challenges posed by a relatively poor local e-readiness context. However, its attempt to transfer advanced e-business technologies from the global e-business environment to the local e-business context did not succeed. This chapter offers implications for practice and research concerning the notion of reconciling local and global e-business environments in the small e-support sector.