An ongoing project of the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India
Businesses with five or fewer employees, called micro-enterprises, support many rural and urban households in developing nations. Microsoft Research India is conducting qualitative and quantitative research to explore the overall information and communication behaviors of micro-enterprises.
The main research in India has included a photo-intensive qualitative analysis of 49 small and informal businesses in Bangalore (April 2006), a survey of 347 similar businesses in Hyderabad (January 2007), and interviews with more businesses in Bangalore about m-banking (August 2007)
Jonathan Donner (link to Jonathan's main MSR page and personal blog), Camilo Tellez
Presentation summarizing qualitative and quantitative research on the use of ICTs by small and informal businesses
Donner, Jonathan. (2007). Customer acquisition among small and informal businesses in urban India: Comparing face to face, interpersonal, and mediated channels. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 32(3) 1-16. (Related Presentation here)
Donner, Jonathan. (2007, July 2-4). Perspectives on mobiles and PCs: Attitudinal convergence and divergence among small businesses in urban India. Paper presented at the Mobile Media: An international conference on social and cultural aspects of mobile phones, convergent media, and wireless technologies, Sydney, Australia.
Donner, Jonathan. (2006) Internet use (and non-use) among urban microenterprises in the developing world: An update from India. Paper presented at the Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), September 28-30, Brisbane, Australia.
Donner, Jonathan. 2006. The use of mobile phones by microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to social and business networks Information Technologies and International Development 3 (2): 3-19.
Donner, Jonathan. (2005). The social and economic implications of mobile telephony in Rwanda: An ownership/access typology. In P. Glotz, S. Bertschi & C. Locke (Eds.), Thumb culture: The meaning of mobile phones for society (pp. 37-52). Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag.
Donner, Jonathan (2005). The mobile behaviors of Kigali's microentrepreneurs: whom they call - and why. In Kristof Nyiri, ed., A Sense of Place: The Global and the Local in Mobile Communication. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.
Donner, Jonathan (2004). Microentrepreneurs and mobiles: an exploration of the uses of mobile phones by small business owners in Rwanda. Information Technologies and International Development 2(1), 1-22.
Donner, Jonathan (2003). What mobile phones mean to Rwandan entrepreneurs. In Kristof Nyiri, ed., Mobile Democracy: Essays on Society, Self and Politics. Vienna: Passagen Verlag: 393-410.
