Assessing the Influence of Self-Efficacy on the Acceptance of Mobile Phone Technology within the SMEs

Abstract

Mobile phone technologies have proved to provide a significant transformation in performing various activities within companies, especially in the least developed regions. Mobile phones provide opportunities for employees of organisations to work at anytime and anywhere. SMEs comprise of employees who perform multitasking job roles due to their small in size and low financial capabilities and most cases, some of them work remotely from their main offices. Self-Efficacy is a belief that the user has enough skills to use technology to perform a task at hand. This is one of the factors influencing of acceptance of technologies at the workplaces such as SMEs. However, while the majority of studies have explored the influence of self-efficacy in desktop-based computing, it is unclear on the context of mobile phone usage, especially when individuals perform their work obligations within SMEs. This study involves a survey of 459 people who work with their small businesses in Tanzania. Among others, the Mobile Phone Self-Efficacy was found to be among the factors which directly influence the Perceived Ease of Use of mobile phone technology as they perform their duties.