19th annual research workshop mobile phones and micro and small enterprises (mse) performance and transformation in dodoma, tanzania by Dr. V. Venkatakrishnan

Business related use of mobile phones by MSEs

Most of the MSEs surveyed for this study indicated that they were using the mobile phones for various business related purposes. They were not only making voice calls to their business contacts like suppliers of goods, customers and transporters, but also were receiving calls from these business contacts. It might be borne in mind that most of them were not familiar with the smart phones or their applications. They were using mostly ordinary mobile phones. About 61% of the respondents covered for this study indicated that they used to make between 6-10 calls per day to the suppliers of the goods and services related to their businesses.

Table 8: Business related voice calls traffic from and to the MSEs

Business contacts	Number of calls made to per day (outgoing)
	No calls	1-5	6-10	11-15
Suppliers	0	26 (34.7%)	46 (61.3%)	3 (4%)
Customers	2 (2.7%)	31 (41.3%)	36 (48%)	5 (6.7%)
Transporters	9 (12%)	54 (72%)	12 (16%)	0
	Number of calls received from per day (incoming)
Suppliers	0	37 (49.3%)	34 (45.3%)	4 (5.3%)
Customers	2 (2.7%)	38 (50.7%)	29 (38.7%)	6 (7.9%)
Transporters	9 (12%)	54 (72%)	12 (16%)	0

Source: Field Survey (2014)
Out of the remaining 34.7% indicated that they used to make 1-5 voice calls per day to their suppliers. These respondents were also making calls to their customers and 48% of them informed that they were making 6-10 voice calls per day to their customers. Transporters of goods were also contacted by a considerable number of respondents to track the goods and 72% of the respondents claimed that they used to make 1-5 voice calls per day to the transporters.
The respondents were also receiving calls from the suppliers, customers and transporters. The Table 8 indicates that 49.3% of the respondents were receiving 1-5 voice calls per day from the suppliers and 45.3% were receiving 6-10 calls per day. Customers were also making calls to these MSE respondents. It could be seen that 50.7% of the respondents used to receive 1-5 voice calls per day from their customers. Further queries were also raised to these respondents about the purposes and intensity of calls from the suppliers. The Table 9 provides the details.
Table 9: Purposes of calls to the suppliers and the intensity of use

Intensity Purposes	High	Moderate	Low	Not at all	Total
Searching for suppliers	5 (6.7)	49 (65.3)	21 (28)	0	75 (100)
Preliminary negotiation	0	26 (34.7)	49 (65.3)	0
Placing orders	32 (42.7)	37 (49.3)	6 (8)	0	75 (100)
Tracking transport of supplies	0	24 (32)	50 (66.7)	1 (1.3)	75 (100)
Making payment for supplies	33 (44)	29 (38.7)	13 (17.3)	0	75 (100)
Complaints about the supplies	0	10 (13.3)	56 (74.7)	9 (12)	75 (100)
others	0	0	2 (2.7)	73 (97.3)	75 (100)

Source: Field Survey (2014)
Placing orders (42.7%) and making payment for the supplies (44%) were the purposes which were ranked very highly by the respondents for contacting the suppliers. Searching for suppliers (65.3%), placing orders (49.3%), making payment for the supplies (38.7%) and tracking transport of supplies (32%) were considered as falling under moderate use category. It seems that tracking the transport of supplies (66.7%) and preliminary negotiation (65.3%) were considered by a considerable amount of respondents as low priority issues for making voice calls.
Similarly, the MSE respondents were requested to indicate the purposes for which the customers were contacted by them and the intensity of contacting them for these purposes. The Table 10 displays the details. Compared with the suppliers, the voice calls to the customers were less and even the purposes did not have high intensity of usage. Informing about the availability of goods (54.7%), receiving payment for the goods (41.3%) and tracking transport of goods (21.3%) were considered to the purposes that received moderate rating by the MSE respondents for contacting the customers. It could be concluded that contacting the customers was not a high priority for the MSE respondents compared to the suppliers.
Table 10: Purposes of calls to the customers and the intensity of use

Intensity Purposes	High	Moderate	Low	Not at all
Informing about availability of goods	10 (13.3)	41 (54.7)	23 (30.7)	1 (1.3)
Tracking transport of goods	0	16 (21.3)	58 (77.3)	1 (1.3)
Receiving payment for the goods	3 (4)	31 (41.3)	40 (53.3)	1 (1.3)
Complaints about the goods	0	6 (8)	60 (80)	9 (12)
Others	0	0	2 (2.7)	73 (97.3)

Source: Field Survey (2014)
With regard to the general benefits of using mobile phones for the business purposes, a significant number of the respondents (90.7%) indicated that they benefited due to (a) reduction of travel costs (b) early arrival of supplies / goods and (c) lessening of travel frequency.
Table 11: Contributions of mobile phones in facilitating the growth of business

Rank	1	2	3	4	5	6	Not applicable	Missing
Increased number of customers	19 (25.3)	16 (21.3)	35 (46.7)	4 (5.3)	-	-	-	1 (1.3)
Enlarged business operations	21 (28)	24 (32)	24 (32)	4 (5.3)	-	-	-	1 (1.3)
Better access to market information	35 (46.7)	32 (42.7)	7 (9.3)	-	-	-	-	1 (1.3)
Improved contact with suppliers	2 (2.7)	-	7 (9.3)	63 (84)	1 (1.3)	-	1 (1.3)	1 (1.3)
Superior customer services	1 (1.3)	-	-	1 (1.3)	53 (70.7)	-	19 (25.3)	1 (1.3)
Others	4 (5.3)	1 (1.3)	-	-	-	3 (4)	66 (88)	1 (1.3)

Source: Field Survey (2014)
They were also further queried about the specific benefits related to their business growth due to use of mobile phones. They ranked the contributions like increased number of customers, enlarged business operations, better access to market information, improved contact with the suppliers and superior customer services among many others.
Better access to market information (46.7%), enlarged business operations (28%) and increased number of customers (25.3%) were ranked as the most important contribution of the mobile phones. They were also ranked as the second most important contribution by 42.7%, 32% and 21.3% of the respondents of this study. Increased number of customers was mentioned as the third most important contribution of mobile phones by a considerable number of respondents (46.7%). Other contributions worth mentioning were improved contact with the suppliers (84%) as the fourth ranked benefit and superior customer services (70.7%) as the fifth ranked benefit. These details are provided in Table 11.