Mobile Phone Adoption in Rural Ghana: Understanding How Technologies and Platforms Influence Farming Business Activities
Mobile phone technology and related platforms play an important role in developing economies, helping to bridge the gap between rural areas and cities. They are also used to support business activities, manage family relationships, and provide instructions and educational material for high school children. The technology is particularly important in rural Africa because many of these areas lack telecommunication landlines and infrastructure facilities, and therefore rely on the mobile technology to connect with the outside world. For developing economies like Ghana, which depend significantly on agricultural businesses in the rural areas, the freedom offered by mobile technology allows these businesses to connect with customers and suppliers in the cities and across the country. Farming small business entrepreneurships (FSBEs), upon which the study focuses, which are hard-to-reach for research purposes – are making increasing use of mobile phone technology. However, little extant literature addresses how these farmers adopt the mobile phone technology, how it influences their farming businesses and behaviour, the skills and knowledge they acquire in learning to use the technology, and how they integrate these into the farming businesses. This study aims to fill the knowledge gap by understanding why the farmers adopt the technology, how they learn to use it, and how the technology influence farming business activities. At the theoretical level, the study draws on the Resource-Based View, Kolb’s Experiential Learning (ExL) cycle, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Boundary Object theory. At the empirical level, it draws on two farming groups in the Kwahu district – a remote area of rural Ghana. For the study, 24 farmers were interviewed, 12 each from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) farmers groups and ESOKO farmers groups – the two main farming groups in the district. The interviews were backed up by participant observations of two farmers, during which a day was spent with each farmer to try to understand and to complement the in-depth interviews on how these rural farmers use the mobile phone technology beyond farming activities. The study shows that farmers in rural Ghana learn to adopt mobile phone technology as a resource and a boundary object and incorporate it into their farming business activities to achieve competitive advantage. Theoretically, the study contributes to knowledge by providing a framework that integrates the role of ICT and ICT4D with the four theories to understand mobile phone adoption by rural farmes in Ghana. Empirically, it confirms some aspects of the theories while refuting others. The study extends Barney’s VRIO theory, suggesting that farmers using the technology did not achieve a competitive advantage because of the VRIO criteria, as the mobile phone is not rare and its use can be copied. Rather, in rural Ghana, farmers achieved a competitive advantage because of the capabilities and the competencies they acquire in areas of financial resource mobilisation, use of social media platforms, research and communication and customer relationship management. These capabilities and competencies provide access to new local and international markets. Regarding TAM, the study contributes to the literature by suggesting that though the adoption of mobile technology by farmers in rural Ghana was influenced by the perceived ease of use (PEOU) of the technology and the perceived usefulness (PU), the PEOU and PU are themselves influenced by specific external factors such as family, friends, and community and network providers, topography, transportation challenges and weather issues. Other variables that influence adoption are a lack of confidence in traditional banks, perceived trust, security associated with the technology use, support from the media and telephony companies in educating farmers, a sense of pride for owning a mobile phone, self-belief and self-sufficiency and social status. The study contributes to Boundary Object theory by showing that farmers use the mobile phone technology to connect with farm workers, customers, suppliers, family and friends from any location that they find themselves. The domestication of the mobile phone technology also reduced gender, generational and demographic boundaries, allowing women and university graduates who had previously not been involved in farming to join the farming business community. It also helped to connect farmers to institutions that support farming. In terms of how Kolb’s Learning Cycle, the study contributes to the theory by showing that rural farmers combine concrete experience with experimentation simultaneously while learning. The study shows that while farmers do gain concrete experience in using the technology, it is done through self-learning, sometimes through trial and error. Farmers also used non-reflective observation methods as they seek support from the community or from children and family in the learning process, in contrast to the reflective observation premise of Kolb’s model. Furthermore, farmers did not use any scientific approach or follow any logical plan but instead used informal learning or non-abstract conceptualisation methods. The study has implications for practice and policy. Key words: Mobile Phones, Technology, Farming, Small Businesses Entrepreneurship, Platforms, Capabilities, Mobile Money, Kwahu District, Ghana
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