Browsing by Author "Macharia, Mary"

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    Mobile Communication and Use Behavior of the Urban Poor in a Developing Country: A Field Study in Malaysia
    Vaithilingam, Santha; Nair, Mahendhiran; Macharia, Mary; Venkatesh, Viswanath (Elsevier, 2022-04-01)
    We developed a contextualized model to predict the use of technology among the urban poor. Based on the core idea that, in developing countries, the urban poor face different challenges from those of the rural poor, we argued that five key facilitating conditions (FC)—namely, infrastructure, technical and support services, legal and regulatory framework, financial factors and affordability, and self-efficacy—are the central drivers of both non-instrumental and instrumental use of mobile devices. Situated in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), these FC were found to be important drivers in our study conducted among 396 mobile phone users in a poor urban area in Malaysia. In addition to extending a key UTAUT construct to an important context, our results have important practical implications, in that, to increase non-instrumental and instrumental use, careful attention should be given to co-development of mobile phone friendly policies pertaining to FC in developing countries.
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    Networks, Technology, and Entrepreneurship: A Field Quasi-Experiment Among Women in Rural India
    Venkatesh, Viswanath; Shaw, Jason D.; Sykes, Tracy Ann; Wamba, Samuel Fosso; Macharia, Mary (Academy of Management, 2017-10-01)
    We address a grand economic challenge faced by women in rural India. We consider the interplay of women's social networks (ties to family, to community, and to men in power), information and communication technology (ICT) use, and time in relating to the initiation and success of women's entrepreneurial ventures. Results from a sevenyear field quasi-experiment in 20 rural villages in India support the model. Ties to family and community positively, and to men in power negatively, relate to ICT use, entrepreneurial activity, and entrepreneurial profit. ICT intervention also strongly impacts entrepreneurship, with 160 new businesses in the 10 intervention villages compared to 40 in the controls. Results also demonstrate the dynamic interplay of social networks and ICT use. For ties to family and community, the amplification effect is such that the highest levels of entrepreneurial activity and success are observed among women with high centrality and ICT use-effects that increase over time. For ties to men in power, ICT use is associated with increased entrepreneurial activity only when these ties are low, but these interactive temporary temporal patterns do not emerge for profit. We address implications for the grand challenges of empowering women in less developed countries.