The Adoption of Digital Technologies by Women-owned Tourism Micro-enterprise

Abstract

Digital technologies have become increasingly prevalent in the tourism sector. However, limited attention has been given to their adoption by women-owned tourism micro-enterprises. This study explores the enabling and limiting conditions of adopting digital technologies by women-owned tourism micro-enterprises in a South African context. Grounded within an integrated framework combining the Technology Acceptance Model and the Technology-Organisation-Environment model, the study adopted a qualitative grounded theory approach and used in-depth interviews to collect data from 20 female owner-managers of tourism micro-enterprises. The key findings of the study show that the enabling and limiting conditions of adopting digital technologies by these enterprises are influenced by a set of factors, including compatibility, firm size, financial resources, government support, information communication and technology infrastructure, security concerns, COVID-19, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness of digital technologies. As such, these enterprises require support tailored to their digitalisation maturity level and access to key resources such as finance and human capital. Overall, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex and dynamic process of adopting digital technologies by women-owned tourism micro-enterprises.

Keywords

• technology acceptance model
• technology-organisation-environment model
• tourism digitalisation
• micro-enterprises
• women entrepreneurs