Internet Adoption among Ghana's SME Non-Traditional Exporters: Expectations, Realities and Barriers to Use.

Internet awareness, usage, and problems encountered in Internet use among Ghanaian non-traditional small and medium exporters in Ghana, formed the focus of this research. Study revealed that SME non-traditional exporters are fully aware of the use of the Internet, and that the predominant usage was...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Africa Insight Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 20 - 28
Main Author: Hinson, Robert E.
Format: Article
Published: Africa Institute of South Africa April 2005
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:Internet awareness, usage, and problems encountered in Internet use among Ghanaian non-traditional small and medium exporters in Ghana, formed the focus of this research. Study revealed that SME non-traditional exporters are fully aware of the use of the Internet, and that the predominant usage was for e-mail. This finding is consistent with the findings of other recent studies. Promoting of the NTE businesses and information retrieval also emerged as important uses of the Internet. Macro and micro barriers to Internet use were also investigated; 11 macro barriers were found as well as 11 micro barriers. Macro barriers included power failures, while micro problems included a general lack of knowledge about usage. Recommendations for addressing both sets of Internet use barriers are proffered in the article. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.