The role of digital technologies in increasing performance of small-scale businesses in rural areas

Abstract

Small businesses are regarded as tools for economic development in Lesotho. This is because small businesses aid in reducing the high levels of poverty in the country through offering people the means of income; as a result, they serve as a form of employment creation. However, many small-scale businesses are not performing very well due to the different factors such as financial mismanagement and poor research. In this case, the digital technologies are nowadays used by small business owners to increase the performance of their businesses. In addition to that, there are some factors that contribute to performance of small businesses such as the demographic characteristics of the entrepreneur. Therefore, this study investigated the role of digital technologies in the performance of small businesses in rural areas. The findings of the study revealed that there are different factors that propel small business owners to adopt digital technologies such as marketing and production. Entrepreneurs use digital technologies for business registration, tax filling process, tax payment and many others. The performance of small retail businesses is also determined by the market. The findings showed that many retail businesses in the Roma Valley depend largely on university students; hence they are affected negatively when students are not around.