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This paper relayed an important line of Mark Hepworth’s work, which engages with information technologies and development. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a subfield of library and information science (LIS) for development to reclaim the role of information services and systems for social change in rural areas. The paper looked at the extent of development gained with the advent of mobile phones.

Rather than undertaking traditional large-scale, quantitative, context-independent and survey-type research, the paper employed capability approach and semi-structured interviews to ascertain the experiences that mobile phone kiosk vendors in the rural Congo had of mobile phones.

It was found that mobile phones should be geared towards the liberation, and not utilization or commodification of humans and their needs and that mobile phones were not a catalyst of human basic capabilities.

Since the method employed is an in-depth qualitative analysis of mobile phone kiosk vendors, obtained results can be used to enrich or inform mobile phone experiences in other settings and groups.

This paper provided empirical evidence as to how an important group of mobile phone users could harness development with their mobiles.

Most LIS literature has presented mobile phones along the lines of information freedom or access, mass subscription, adoption rates, technological and entrepreneurial innovation, micro-credits, etc. However, the paper placed the topic development at the heart of LIS debates.

Mobile commerce (m‐commerce) represents a new area of business opportunity. Past research has often focused on customer acceptance and its antecedents, rather than factors that build trust in m‐commerce. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of factors influencing customer trust towards vendors on the mobile internet.

M‐commerce relies on mobile technology and well‐maintained service quality. This paper has applied the service quality model (SERVQUAL) and technology acceptance model (TAM), coupled with proposed quality factors in relation to m‐commerce that, according to the literature, influence customer trust, to empirically test the formation of trust. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using online survey data from 212 experienced m‐commerce customers.

The results showed that despite customisation, brand image and satisfaction all directly affecting customer trust towards the vendor in m‐commerce, customisation and brand image equally had a stronger direct effect on trust formation. In addition, interactivity and responsiveness had no direct impact, but had an indirect impact via satisfaction on trust towards the vendor.

This paper contributes a theoretical understanding of factors that activate the development of trust towards the vendor. For vendors in general the results enable them to better develop customer trust in m‐commerce.

The paper verifies the effects of satisfaction and proposed quality factors on customer confidence in m‐commerce. Moreover, this article validates the determinants of satisfaction.

This paper seeks to support and extend other scholars’ examinations of the evolution of technological modularity, vertical specialization and the concepts of the drivers of change in the basis of competition through an analysis of the evolution of the mobile phone industry.

A two‐year research project was undertaken and in‐depth interviews took place with managers at companies that were responsible for developing the value chain approaches of their firms. Companies were identified from the existing body of literature, observation and personal contact. Additionally, data were collected from developing case studies.

The paper finds that the mobile phone industry value chain is in the process of deconstructing towards more horizontally stratified structures for some device segments. But, unlike the PC industry, an industry which many analysts suggest provides a precedent for likely evolution of the mobile phone value chain, this trend will not be uniform or consistent across different product types. This will require mobile phone manufacturers to adapt their organizational structures and value chain approaches accordingly, and to rethink the basis for future competitive advantage.

As the research is based on interviews with a limited number of firms within the extended mobile handset industry value chain, it cannot be suggested that the impact of trends identified has equal impact for all firms.

Mobile handset vendors should learn from the PC industry and make sure that their future strategies are not made simply on the basis of cost optimization or speed to market.

The paper fulfils an identified need to understand how industry structures are evolving in one of the most dynamic sectors in the world.

This study aims to investigate the applicability of technology acceptance model in explaining technology adoption among street vendors in Thailand as a representation of emerging economies.

A pen-and-pencil survey was administered to 370 street vendors in Bangkok; 356 usable surveys were analyzed for a completed rate of 96.2 per cent. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

This study contributes to the existing technology acceptance literature as follows: First, the predictive power of the technology acceptance model is strong and holds true for street vendors. Second, it revealed that the relationship of entrepreneurial orientation and technology adoption is completely connected through the decision-making process (i.e. trust and system characteristics, otherwise known as usefulness and ease of use). Finally, the degree of product differentiation strengthens the positive relationship between perceived usefulness and the intention to use mobile commerce.

This study advances the previous research on e-commerce adoption in settings outside the formal sector. More specifically, this study developed and validated the extended technology acceptance model in the smallest-scale of entrepreneurs, street vendors, to increase the understanding of the adoption of m-commerce.

Today’s China has striven to exclude street vendors through political campaigns such as “National Sanitary City” and “National Civilized City.” Such campaigns pursue modernity and beautiful urban spaces by deeming street vendors to be disorderly, unsanitary, and obsolete. Taking a single Chinese city as a case study, this research analyzes why and how local bureaucratic apparatuses apply rapidly-changing and ambiguous political treatment to street vendors. This research also examines street vendors’ struggles and coping strategies with these ever-changing politics.

The data for this study were obtained during a total of ten months of fieldwork, beginning in 2013 and ending in 2016. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifty-one street vendors and six government officials; additionally, the researcher consulted newspaper reports, archives, and relevant official publications.

First, regarding the governance of street vendors, the local administration has shifted their stance between two distinct patterns – suppression and tolerance – depending on the timing of certain political campaigns. Second, the corruption and laziness of government officials has provided niches for the revival of street vending after campaigns are over, though with limitations. Third, street vendors in China tend to be passive recipients of government suppression, unable to forge effective resistance because of a lack of strong leadership and general organization.

This research will add to the general understanding of the government-vendor relationship by revealing the complexity, uncertainty, and flexibility inherent in interactions between these two groups.

This paper aims to report on research aimed at determining the nature of business strategies employed by micro small and medium-sized street vendors in a local market area in Bangkok.

The research consisted of a longitudinal study of the defined research site, involving ethnographic interaction and observation mediated by the use of a research diary.

The research found that the use of business strategies was quite limited and varied in line with the street vendor's relationships with other actors and business practitioners.

The research was deliberately limited in terms of space and is ongoing in terms of time. Additional areas of Bangkok will also be studied for comparative purposes.

Street vending and markets offer valuable opportunities for informal employment and for part-time employment to provide additional income generation for the working poor. Vendors also help sustain a decent standard of living for migrant workers.

Street vending of this sort reflects the nature of underlying changes in urban life: the building of new mass transit routes, the opening of condominiums in place of shop houses and the flourishing of the frozen food industry. Many street vendors are mobile and flexible but not all of them.

This paper contributes to the literature on street vending and urban micro-entrepreneurs and will be of interest not just to scholars of business but also in planning for social policy and urban management.

Traditionally, urban informality has been discussed in terms of housing and markets, usually along the periphery of urban areas where there is disinvestment and decline. This article looks at urban informality through the lens of informal fresh food retail throughout the city of Mumbai, India. In India, fresh produce has traditionally been sold in informal street markets comprising vendors that operate through carts and make-shift stalls set-up on the streets. This article aims to assess the conditions surrounding fresh produce retail that fuel its informality.

This study uses a mixed methods approach by spatially analyzing the location of informal fresh food vendors in ArcGIS, developing a qualitative analysis of the level of proliferation of this network through interviews conducted with vendors and conducting surveys of residents' access patterns and purchasing habits for fresh produce in the city.

Results from this study indicate that the role of density, transportation systems, domestic/household structure, cultural traditions and a bureaucratic system rife with its own challenges have resulted in a distinct infrastructure of food retail networks that has harvested forms of inequalities and injustices that inherently fuel this informal economy.

There is no published study to date that has been done to spatially assess the informal food network in any dense city in India, let alone Mumbai to date. Urban informality, by its nature, is hard to capture, and yet this study takes a holistic view of the food systems in Mumbai, by addressing the location, supply (through vendor interviews) and demand factors (through resident surveys).

The purpose of this study is to review the critical success factors (CSFs) of street food destinations, given the limited attention awarded to such research in the food and beverage sector.

An interpretivist approach was used to merge CSFs from street vending and culinary tourism perspectives, to develop a draft framework for analysing CSFs for street food destinations. In total, 64 cities that appeared in the first 20 webpage results of a Google search, using 4 keywords, formed the population. A purposive sample of seven destinations (Bangkok, Marrakesh, Mexico City, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Portland and Singapore City) was used. A content analysis method was used to review webpages, journal articles and government reports of the destinations, based on the modified list of CSFs.

The availability of diverse street food resources and cultures, coupled with rich historic city cores that sustain street food vending, in some destinations, are very important CSFs. The presence and extent of regulatory enforcement were also key in others. Empirical research is, however, required to corroborate the draft framework to create a body of knowledge for further research in the field.

The study examines how leading street food destinations have instituted the CSFs required for street food provision.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate established information systems theories (post-acceptance model (PAM) and task-technology fit (TTF)) to model and test determinants of user continuance intention within Kenya toward a proliferated mobile money service called M-pesa.

A positivist method informed the design of the study. A survey instrument was developed and administered amongst M-pesa users in Kenya, yielding 618 responses. Selection of users followed a systematic sampling technique. Afterwards, structural equation modelling (SEM)-partial least squares (“SEM-PLS”) was used to examine the measurement and structural model of the study.

The results revealed an unexpected finding that TTF’s utilization has a stronger path coefficient than PAM’s satisfaction in predicting user continuance intention toward M-pesa. This is contrary to most extant literature reports that satisfaction is the dominant predictor of usage continuance. Also, unexpected, the results revealed a lack of significant influence between the PAM’s post-usage usefulness (PUU) and satisfaction. Again, the relationship between PUU and satisfaction in most extant studies is reported as significant.

The study suggests that saliency order of determinants of user continuance intention could differ within the developing world and developed world.

Corona has been used as a mask for the deepening crisis of the capitalist system. It deepened the damage of those who suffered the most from the system. It deepened the harm of precarious street workers even more, making living conditions difficult. Not enough resources were allocated to street workers, only pocket money and food packages. At the same time, the Corona crisis strengthened the streets, making the street more visible. Street workers prevented inflation by providing goods and food at low prices in poor neighbourhoods throughout the stay period. Many products with scarcity supplied by street workers. Millions of unemployed people became entrepreneurs in the form of new simple street jobs. Increasing number of street entrepreneurs attracted local governments. Local governments developed projects to regulate the sales by street vendors. Very small-scale street entrepreneurs also developed a sense of solidarity by establishing cooperatives among themselves. The surveys showed that the poor were in solidarity with street vendors. Even street vendors bought products directly from producers who could not sell their products, distributed for free in poor neighbourhoods or sold at half the price of markets. Street economy is the most important component of the social economy. It was once again understood that the streets are not a problem but, the system created the problem. Street economy is not a problem. It is a spontaneous solution to the problems and crises of capitalism.