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This paper argues that through information and communication technology (ICT) adoption, the youth will be engaged in all nodes of the agricultural value chains, thereby improving the level of employment and reducing post-harvest losses. The study examines the determinants of ICT adoption among the youth. In addition, it estimates the impact of ICT adoption on youth employment in agriculture towards the actualisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG-8, to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, productive employment and decent work for all.

The study engages data from Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The logit regression, the propensity score matching and the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment are used as the estimation techniques.

The study underscores that educational level, access to electricity, location, age and income are significant determinants of ICT adoption among the youth. The findings also show that the youth's average weekly engagement in agricultural activities is about 24 h. In addition, the result reveals that ICT adoption can increase youth agricultural employment by approximately 21%. The mean difference indicates that those with access to ICT participate in agricultural activities more than their counterparts without ICT access by 29.46%.

One of the limitations of the study is that some of the variables such as insecurity, social protection/safety nets, that may have a significant influence on youth agricultural participation where not included in the model due to data constraint. As a recommendation for further studies, given data availability, such variables should be considered when examining youth-agricultural employment nexus.

Since ICT adoption has a significant impact on agricultural employment, this study proposes improved infrastructure facilities such as reliable power supply, lowering the cost of mobile and data subscriptions and better education facilities should be prioritised at all localities. This will enable the youth to embrace agriculture and help improve their socioeconomic welfare and livelihood.

Using Wave 4 of the LSMS-ISA, logit regression, propensity score matching and the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment, makes this study one of the very few to examine the impact of ICT adoption on agricultural employment among the youth in Nigeria. It implies that this study has provided empirical evidence and expanded the frontiers of knowledge on the extent to which ICT adoption influences youth agricultural employment in Nigeria.

The purpose of this (qualitative, multiple-case) study is to determine how small-to medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders in Nigeria use information and communication technology (ICT) adoption as a business strategy to increase profitability and compete globally.

The participants for this study consisted of executive-level SME leaders who had the authority to approve ICT implementation within their respective organizations. Individual interviews were undertaken with participants to gain an understanding of their experience of determining the merits of and implementing ICT. The technology acceptance model, which specifies the relationship between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward computer use and intention to use technology, was applied as a framework to explain the Nigerian SME’s ICT adoption strategies.

Four major themes emerged from the data analysis: ICT adoption factors, ICT roles and benefits, role of government and SME success factors. The findings of this study may help SME leaders and government leaders address many of the factors inhibiting the adoption of ICT in SMEs in Nigeria.

This study may ensure that SMEs are successful and able to create jobs, which in turn may help to promote socioeconomic development through adoption of ICT.

The findings from this study contribute to the knowledge base regarding factors that affect ICT adoption by SME leaders as a business strategy to increase profitability and compete globally, particularly within SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria. It further addressed the gap in existing literature regarding other factors such as the influence of culture on ICT adoption, cost of ICT implementation, available ICT skills, infrastructure and ICT knowledge gap as the primary impeding factors of ICT adoption in Nigerian SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the innovative characteristics, benefits, and barriers influencing internet‐based information and communications technology (ICT) adoption among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

A questionnaire‐based survey was used to collect data from 406 managers or owners of SMEs in the southern region of Malaysia.

The results suggest that internet‐based ICT adoption provides a low cost yet effective communication tool for customers. However, security continues to be a major barrier. Finding on cost as a barrier is mixed. The inferential statistics reveal that relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability, and security are significant factors influencing internet‐based ICT adoption.

The study focuses only on the SMEs in the southern region of Malaysia.

The findings offer valuable insights to policy makers in general and to the SMEs in particular on the significance of the measured characteristics and the associated benefits and barriers of internet‐based ICT adoption.

The study is perhaps one of the first to comprehensively address internet‐based ICT adoption among the SMEs through the use of a wide range of variables.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivation, influences, and perceived effect of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in Botswana organizations. While a conceptual model of the adoption process in developed countries has been studied, not much empirical studies have been undertaken. This paper is an attempt to bridge this gap. Specifically, the paper addresses five questions: What motivated organizations in Botswana in their decision to adopt ICT in their operations? What factors, internal and external, influenced the adoption decision? Which sources did the organizations contact for information on the adoption of ICT? What is the relative importance of those influencing/motivating factors and information sources? What are the perceived effects of adoption?

The study was carried out using a survey method. The main instrument is a personally administered questionnaire that was based on items obtained and adapted from literature. Data were collected from a judgment sample of 29 business and public sector establishments, drawn from nine towns and cities of Botswana. The respondent in each organization was either the IT manager or the chief executive. The initial stage of the adoption process is examined by identifying, in the sample Botswana organizations, the internal and external proponents of the ICT adoption process, the sources from which organizations seek technical information, their perceived relative importance in the process, and the effect of adoption on organizations' activities.

The study found that ICT application in Botswana was still at an elementary stage, mainly communications and recordkeeping. In terms of motivation and influence, the competitive motive and internal sources of information and influence were dominant and that the overall effect of ICT adoption on several organizational activities was moderately positive.

The identification of the key sources of influence and information for the adoption of ICT helps ICT marketing companies to target their marketing efforts more specifically, and services offered limited to basic needs that are relevant to the use to which ICT is currently applied in Botswana. Widespread adoption of ICT has turned it into a kind of “hygiene” factor rather than a “motivator”. In spite of the positive effect adoption has on various activities of adopting organizations, adoption benefits are matched by similar benefits of competing organizations, thus conferring no competitive advantages. It is only in the absence of adoption that those organizations adopting enjoy such competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine how social augmented parameters impact on the effective adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by small‐scale agribusinesses operating in Southeast Nigeria. The relevance of incorporating social imperatives in scholarship focused on technology adoption is due to its role in sustaining the process of adoption and diffusion.

Data were gathered from a focus group made up of 27 agribusiness proprietors affiliated with a state cooperative based in the south‐eastern Nigerian state of Ebonyi.

This paper puts forward an argument that to ensure successful diffusion of innovation, a balance must be maintained between the amount of effort expended in the design of ICT and social factors such as language and traditional life. The paper finds that a willingness of indigenous ICT users is particularly influenced by the recognition and incorporation of visible social imperatives during the adoption process.

The outcome of this study highlights important issues for ICT adoption. One particular area that must be taken into consideration is the adoption channel. Perceptions of ICT adoption will differ significantly among adopters. For this reason, the need for developing an appropriate adoption channel that ensures successful diffusion of the innovation should be recognised.

This study contributes to ongoing research in ICT innovation adoption in small agribusinesses operating in indigenous societies. The theoretical implications of this paper are the development of a conceptual ICT adoption framework that emphasises social imperatives. The paper also demonstrates that agricultural enterprises should be treated as ‘normal’ firms in their own right.

This paper aims to examine information and communications technology (ICT) adoption among small hotel businesses in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

This qualitative research is based on seven case studies that fall within the South African and European Union small and medium enterprises (SMEs) definitions. The case studies are constructed on the basis of 60 semi‐structured interviews and supporting secondary data. The authors adopt the Gibbs et al. model which identifies and brings together ICT adoption factors that include government role, environmental attributes, owner/manager attributes, organisational attributes and social networks. Archer's epistemological bootstrapping technique is applied for analysing the data. In addition, Zappala and Gray's stage model is used to gauge the level of ICT uptake reached by each case study. In this way, the authors incorporate an important additional element for examining ICT adoption.

Apart from providing rich insights into the ICT adoption process, the results highlight the individual distinctive behavioural characteristics as well as the stage of ICT adoption reached by each case study. The paper finds that case studies that operated in a stable business environment; with organisational readiness; financial and owner manager support seemed readily engaged in ICT adoption. Social networks played a crucial role, especially among those small businesses with resource constraints.

The findings from seven individual cases in the three South African Development Community (SADC) countries have limited cross‐case and cross‐national comparisons owing to the distinctive organisational characteristics of the SMEs. Furthermore, the selection of case studies from a single sector of small hotel businesses results in data which only reflect the experiences of SMEs in typical urban locations of Johannesburg, Gaborone and Harare. The implications of these limitations mean that further data are needed from other small firm sectors and more SADC countries in order to gain a better understanding of ICT adoption among SMEs in the region.

The findings contribute to the literature on ICT adoption among SMEs in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The results bring new insights from small hotel businesses and help to explain ICT adoption, which is relatively under‐researched in these SADC countries.

This paper aims to assess information and communication technologies (ICT) policies for digital transformation in Colombia to determine their effectiveness in technology readiness for Internet of Things (IoT) adoption in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the trading sector.

The authors conducted a longitudinal study using the ICT module of the Annual Trade Survey (2017–2018) to determine the relationship between SMEs in the trading sector adopting ICT applications and ICT policy enforcement. In this sense, this study applied a chi-square test for independence and addressed a descriptive analysis to determine SMEs’ causes for adopting or rejecting ICT applications.

This study presents the state of ICT adoption in Colombian SMEs in the trading sector between 2017 and 2018, highlighting that technology readiness is crucial for adopting technological trends.

The data source used for the study is only available for analysis one year after implementing ICT policies focused on digital transformation.

The results support the need for the National Government to formulate IoT policies that favor the adoption of e-commerce based on IoT technologies in SMEs in the trading sector.

IoT adoption can mitigate e-commerce problems strengthening SMEs’ competitiveness in the trading sector leading the digital transformation in Colombia.

This study presents the need to formulate IoT policies in Colombia focused on deploying IoT applications to strengthen e-Commerce in SMEs in the trading sector.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the information society research by examining and better understanding the impact of the adoption information and communication technologies (ICT) within households on improving sustainability.

The survey questionnaire was used and data collected from 679 Polish households were statistically analyzed to understand the phenomena of ICT adoption and sustainability as well as identify correlations between them.

The research findings reveal that the ICT adoption is well described by the ICT outlay, information culture, ICT management and ICT quality, whereas sustainability is composed of ecological, economic, socio-cultural and political sustainability. Furthermore, the ICT quality, ICT management and information culture have a significant impact on sustainability, whereas the ICT outlay does not have such an impact.

The research sample included Polish households only. Researchers may use the proposed approach and methodology to do similar analyses with different sample groups in other countries.

Households may find the results appealing and useful in enhancing the adoption of ICT, experiencing the full potential of ICT and deriving various benefits from the ICT adoption. The findings can help governments develop sound ICT adoption plans for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The paper provides and verifies a new theoretical model of sustainable information society to depict various dimensions shaping the ICT adoption and their impact on different types of sustainability in the context of households.

The aim of this paper is to find out: why some organizations adopt ICT later than the others, and whether organizations have different adoption strategies based on the type of ICT.

This paper is an empirical study of the ICT diffusion process between the early and late adopters of relational database and local area network.

The results of the study indicate that there are significant differences between early and late adoption organizations with regard to management characteristics such as the age and interests of the CEO and CIO, and also the adoption process such as the evaluation period and initiation time. However, no significant differences were found in organization resource or corporate strategy factors. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that there are significant differences in organizational characteristics such as sales volume, organization slack and rewards between the two types of ICT.

The sample size is relatively small. Replication of this study with additional organizations in the sample will allow stronger validation of diffusion theory.

It is believed that the results of the study will provide useful guidelines in strategy development for managing ICT diffusion by organizations and IT vendors.