| dc.description.abstract | The study was carried out to establish the impact of Computer adoption (ICT) and the performance of Selected SME’s in Kampala - Uganda particularly those in Kikuubo. The research was guided by three objectives (i) to establish the significant factors hindering effective ICT adoption into businesses By SMEs, (ii) to analyze the ICT adoption and its impact on profitability of SME businesses and (iii) to propose strategic interventions for effective adoptions of ICTs by SMEs. Related literature was reviewed which was in line with the objectives and research questions. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study and a total population of 50 was considered from whom only 45 were chosen as a sample. Data collected was analyzed using STATA version 15.0 software. Data collected was analyzed using a univariate and bivariate level of analysis. At univariate level, descriptive statistics using frequency tables were used for demographic characteristics. A bar graph and a pie chart were used to show the factors hindering ICT adoption to SMEs. To test for association between dependent and independent variable, cross tabulations were established and the association was tested using the chi-square test, set at p<0.05. Significance was attained given the p-value of less than 0.005. The chi-square statistical value depends on the discrepancies measured by the difference between the observed (𝑂𝑖𝑗) and expected (𝐸𝑖𝑗) frequencies in cells of the contingency table (𝑂𝑖𝑗 − 𝐸𝑖𝑗). From the study findings, majority of the respondents (66.8%) were aged between 20-25 years followed by (26.7%) of those aged between 31-50 years and the least number of respondents (6.7%) were aged between 26-30 years. More than half of the respondents (53.3%) were males while (46.7%) of the respondents were females. Additionally, majority of the respondents (57.8%) had attained higher level of education followed by (22.2%) that had attained secondary education. Also majority of the respondents (46.7%) were from catholic religion followed by (22.2%) that were protestants and (17.8%) who were muslims. Similarly, more than half of the respondents (73.3%) were never married followed by one third (22.2%) who were married. Identically, majority of the respondents (95.5%) were using ICT in their businesses. Majority of the businesses (40%) had used ICT for 1-4 years since their inception followed by (33%) that had adopted ICT usage for 1 years and the least number of businesses (11.1%) had adopted ICT usage for over 8 years. Also, majority of the businesses (51.1%) were using mobile phones for their businesses followed by (28.9%) that were using desktops and (20%) were using Laptops. Furthermore, more than half of the respondents (91.1%) reported that ICT is relevant to their businesses. Results from the Bivariate Analysis indicated that, E-marketing, increased sales, fast transfer and Easy to use were statistically associated with ICT adoption in business (P= 0.000, 0.006, 0.019, 0.045 respectively) since they were all less than 0.05significance level. Therefore, Adopting ICT in businesses results to E-marketing, increases sales, ensures fast transfer time and it’s easy to use. It was also revealed that backup of business documents, excellent security, availability, responsive (awareness) and accessibility were not statistically associated with ICT adoption to businesses thus not statistically proven to be advantages of adopting ICT in businesses.
Recommendations suggested government’s role to address more about ICT infrastructure investment and awareness aspects related to the benefits and adoption of ICT. | en_US |
