Social Informatics

Small and medium enterprises have gradually emerged as potential solutions to the myriad of challenges faced by the modern society and most especially, developing economies. Rising level of industrial sophistication and technical advancement has created a very stiff competition for survival. Nonetheless, the contributions of SME's to gross domestic product of many developing economies is still hampered by poor business-ICT integration. Survey data was collected from 80 SMEs in Oyo State across different sectors using stratified random sampling technique with the aid of a structured questionnaire. Analysis of regression showed that demographic variable (Staff Strength) significantly influences use of ICT among SMEs while SME service delivery had no influence on ICT use. Also, analysis of variance on the categories of SMEs was not a determinant factor on the use of ICT. The outcome of this study has implications for owners of SMEs, stakeholders, government and academic researchers in developing countries as it can provide patterns to help bridge the existing digital divide especially among Nigerian SMEs. Western economies realized long ago that small and medium enterprises are the main drivers for rapid and sustained economic development. Small and medium enterprises play very vital roles across different sectors in any nation. The experience of developed countries as regards SMEs buttresses the fact that their roles cannot be overemphasized especially among developing economies Oyediran and Omoshule (2016). A concerted effort towards industrialization in Nigeria has remained a daunting task. These may perhaps be due to disparities in government policies on trade and investment and also the perpetually irregular exchange rates which further reduces the purchasing power of the Nigerian entrepreneur. Globally, definitions of SME's abound and are often defined within a specified context. In Nigeria, SMIEIS and CBN (2001) define the micro/cottage industry as an industry with a total capital employed of not more than N1.5M excluding cost of land and working capital and labor employed of not more than 10 workers; small-scale industry as one with a total capital employed of over N1.5M but not more than N50M, excluding the cost of land and working capital with labor size of 10 to 100 workers.

The term digital transformation (DT) captures the changes in our personal, social, economic, political, cultural and academic life brought about by the rapid diffusion of information and communication technologies. With the increasing digital connectivity, the rise of platform economies and the cost reductions in artificial neural networks, the collection, processing and analysis of large amounts of Big Data have become feasible and widespread.

The combination of Big Data and artificial intelligence (BDAI) is exerting a great impact on the natural, life, physical and engineering sciences in which research has generally been conducted with a more positivist attitude. Here, BDAI reconfigures the scientific research process as it reduces the reliance on a priori theories: Making plausible, but not yet proven statements based on interpreting collected data (so-called “abductive reasoning”) now plays a prominent role in the formulation of new hypotheses and theory-building. As has been argued convincingly, this represents a significant epistemological change (Kitchin, 2014). In contrast, for the social sciences and humanities, representing areas of scholarship that are highly diverse in their philosophical underpinnings, it is less clear what the consequences of the digital transformation will be.

The contributions gathered in this collection shed light on this question. They are the outcome of the workshop “The Digital Transformation – Implications for the Social Sciences and the Humanities” that took place at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) on 24 and 25 September 2019. Co-organized by the Nippon Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA) and the German Centre for Research and Innovation Tokyo (DWIH), the workshop brought together scholars from Japan and from abroad, many of the latter being specialists on Japan. This is why the Japanese case is given special attention in many contributions. Even there, however, the insights are not limited to Japan, but address phenomena and implications of the DT of general relevance, even though they may manifest themselves elsewhere under different conditions.

Resumen: O artigo objetiva identificar se as percepções dos alunos sobre a aceitação eo uso de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem (AVA) são diferentes, segundo a variável gênero, na perspectiva do Modelo de Aceitação da Tecnologia (TAM). A pesquisa foi realizada com estudantes da graduação à distância em Administração, através de websurvey. A técnica estatística empregada foi o teste de independência Mann-Whitney.