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"It's only when somebody says a tool worked for them that I believe it will work for me": Socio-tecture as a lens for Digital Transformation

Authors:

Melisa Achoko Allela,

Stephanie Nyairo,

Samuel C. Maina,

Jacki O'NeillAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 6, Issue CSCW2

Article No.: 483, Pages 1 - 24

https://doi.org/10.1145/3555584

Published: 11 November 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMBs) make up majority of employment in Africa (around 80%). Understanding the digital transformation that SMBs in Africa went through during the pandemic can play an important role in uncovering how to build solutions that better support the African business and African worker. In this paper we report on findings from a qualitative study with 40 SMBs in Kenya. The study aimed to understand the lived experience of digital transformation, the impacts of COVID-19 on their businesses, and how they responded to such impacts using technology. We found that COVID-prompted digital transformation was reactive and opportunistic, plus social and collective. Moreover, the socialness of business goes way beyond digital transformation, and influences how SMBs in Kenya start, develop and are sustained. In illustrating this, we offer a lens to understanding work and workers of SMBs in Kenya and similar contexts across the globe.

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Cited By

Arueyingho OLawrence DWebb H(2024)Navigating Afrocentric Human-Computer Interaction Research: A Scoping Review and Proposition of Afro-Postmodernism for Decolonial PraxisExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3644072(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3644072
Chacha PKirui BWiedemann V(2024)Supply Chains in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Kenya’s Production NetworkWorld Development10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106363173(106363)Online publication date: Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106363
Lotriet H(2024)Community and Large-Scale Digital Transformation for Poverty Eradication and Economic Growth in Africa: A Rapid Review of Existing Research for the Period 2013–2023Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development10.1007/978-3-031-66986-6_3(31-45)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66986-6_3
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Index Terms

"It's only when somebody says a tool worked for them that I believe it will work for me": Socio-tecture as a lens for Digital Transformation
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI theory, concepts and models

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 6, Issue CSCW2

CSCW

November 2022

8205 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3571154

Editor:
Jeff Nichols
Google

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Copyright © 2022 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Published: 11 November 2022

Published in PACMHCI Volume 6, Issue CSCW2

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Cited By

Arueyingho OLawrence DWebb H(2024)Navigating Afrocentric Human-Computer Interaction Research: A Scoping Review and Proposition of Afro-Postmodernism for Decolonial PraxisExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3644072(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3644072
Chacha PKirui BWiedemann V(2024)Supply Chains in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Kenya’s Production NetworkWorld Development10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106363173(106363)Online publication date: Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106363
Lotriet H(2024)Community and Large-Scale Digital Transformation for Poverty Eradication and Economic Growth in Africa: A Rapid Review of Existing Research for the Period 2013–2023Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development10.1007/978-3-031-66986-6_3(31-45)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66986-6_3
Razali SYahya NMohamad NJalil MAbu M(2024)Unveiling Amazon Go’s “Just Walk-Out Technology” in Empowering Small to Medium BusinessesTechnology-Driven Business Innovation: Unleashing the Digital Advantage10.1007/978-3-031-62656-2_37(417-430)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62656-2_37

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