PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
| Status | Complete |
|---|---|
| Part Time | Yes |
| Years | 2016 |
| Project Title | An investigation into Digital Technology Adoption by Micro-business Owners in the Northwest of England and the Impact on Productivity |
| Project Description | Micro-businesses (MBs) are a vital segment of the UK economy, accounting for 95% of all UK businesses and employ 33% of the workforce (Hutton et al., 2022). MBs are defined as having 0-9 employees (OECD, 2021), which distinguishes them from the broader category of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have up to 249 employees. Despite their significance and diversity, MBs are often overlooked in the existing literature and policy, which tend to focus more on SMEs as a whole and neglect the specific needs and challenges of this sub-sector. This thesis aims to address this gap by exploring the impact of digital technology adoption on the productivity of MBs in the Northwest of England. The thesis will focus on SMAC technologies, which consists of social, mobility, analytics, and cloud technologies. It also considers the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in influencing technology adoption and productivity performance, as the data collection took place before and after the lockdown periods in 2019 and 2023. This thesis adopted cross-sectional mixed methods using an exploratory sequential research design that consisted of two phases: qualitative and quantitative data collection. By doing so the thesis was able to adopt an iterative approach that enabled triangulation of the findings. This thesis provides a critical review of the key topics: micro-businesses, approaches to management, technology adoption, factors for adoption, and challenges and barriers faced by this subsector. By doing so, the thesis contributes to the academic fields of business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and technology by proposing alternative theories on management approaches, developing a novel dataset, highlighting factors influencing the adoption of technology within this subsector and providing policy and practice recommendations. Thereby, contributing to the academic field, highlighting how the research addresses the gaps in the literature, advances the current theory, and proposes alternative perspectives and frameworks |
| Awarding Institution | Manchester Metropolitan University |