Publication Type
Journal Article
Book Title/Conference/Journal
Information Technology for Development
Year
10-2015
Abstract
This article attempts to enrich our understanding of the role that mobile phones play in the empowerment of women in the developing world. We adapt and explicate an innovative social psychological concept, “mattering,” embed it in the literature that examines the impact of mobile phones on social development outcomes, and consider the utility of mattering for the ICT4D community. Mattering is the perception that others are aware of, interested in, and depend on us. Based on a sample of 335 female microentrepreneurs in Chennai, India, we created a valid and reliable measure of mattering and its three dimensions. Mattering was predicted by (1) entrepreneurial expectations, an element of an individual's mindset; (2) social use of mobile phones; and (3) the perceived benefits of mobile phones for maintaining business networks. Findings suggest that mobile phone use plays a significant role in contributing to female entrepreneurs' perception that they matter.
Keywords
empowerment, ICT4D, mattering, mobile phones, women
Disciplines
Asian Studies | Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations | Technology and Innovation | Work, Economy and Organizations
Subject(s)
Applied or Integration/Application Scholarship
ISSN/ISBN
0268-1102
Publisher
Association for Information Systems
DOI
10.1080/02681102.2013.839437
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2013.839437
Version
publishedVersion
Language
eng
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Format
application/PDF
Citation
CHEW, Han Ei; Ilavarasan, Vigneswara P.; and Levy, Mark R..
Mattering matters: Agency, empowerment, and mobile phone use by female microentrepreneurs. (2015). Information Technology for Development. 21, (4), 523.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/oi_research/3
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons, Technology and Innovation Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons