The extent of mobile commerce adoption by selected small and medium enterprises in the central business district of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The mobile commerce industry is a very vital sector in the development of ICT in Kenya in line with vision 2030. The industry has seen a high number of entrants of SMEs in the last five years within the CBD in Nairobi. The study sought to find out the adoption of m - commerce by SMEs in the CBD. The objective of this study was to determine the extent of m - commerce adoption by SMEs in the Central Business District in Nairobi. The study adopted a descriptive design in its methodology. The population of this study consisted of 50 small and medium businesses located in Moi Avenue and Kenyatta Avenue streets in Nairobi CBD Area. Out of this a sample of 20 SMEs was stratified to be sampled. 20 questionnaires were sent out and responded by top and middle level management of these organizations because they are most likely to be the ones who make the final decisions about technology adoption in the business. 16 SMEs responded and were used in this study. Primary data was collected by questionnaire method and out of the 20 SMEs, 4 declined hence left out in this study. The study found out that SMEs are adopters of mobile phone money transfer as an application of m - commerce. The results indicated that m - commerce is in its early adoption stage and SMEs have not fully adopted m - commerce as the single most technology to gain a competitive advantage. SMEs established in the last one year are more than those that have been in operational for over twenty years. This is because SMEs are virtually low revenue based and majority have been established to take advantage of a particular technology and results show that most SMEs use money transfer several times a day. Most SMEs established in the last five years are mobile money transfer agents to aid in money transfer which is a form of m - commerce. All SMEs studied portrayed an extent of m - commerce involvement and most of them are playing safe on adopting other forms of m - commerce. So majority are early adopters of m - commerce and trying out other mobile commerce applications lightly. SMEs find m - commerce cheaper as a form of making payments, convenient and time saving and are more inclined towards entering the market after the m- commerce industry is well established.