Understanding the Role of Information Technology in the Development of Micro-Enterprises: Concepts to Study in Making a Better World

The concept of Development has alluded scholars and practitioners when information technology becomes prevalent. The majority of research in the Information Technology for Development (ICT4D) field is considered to be practice intended to make the world better with Information and Communications technologies (ICTs). In addition, a majority of wellintentioned ICT4D projects tend to fail, often due to unrealistic expectation set by development agencies responding to their political objectives. At the same time, Information Systems (IS) research is ripe with well-studied concepts that do little to make a better world. This paper investigates ICT interventions in three case studies of micro-enterprises operating in low resource environments. Two of the Native American micro-enterprises are taken through a set of technology and training interventions while one receives no interventions. The role of information technology in the development of micro-enterprises is analyzed to offer new concepts that can be studied to offer contributions to make a better world.