Micro and small enterprises play an important role in developing countries. Any improvement in their performance is likely to have a significant impact on the poor. Many studies have been conducted on the impact of ICTs on MSME performance. Research Fellow P. Vigneswara Ilavarasan, who has been conducting research on MSMEs for many years, led a team which conducted a systematic review of this research.
Here is the abstract of one publication.
There is criticism that information and communication technology and development research community contributes less to policy-making. The present article shares an attempt to fill this gap. Systematic review is a structured way to collate, review, summarize, and use the published research for policy-making. A systematic review on the impact of information and communication technologies on the growth of urban micro, small, and medium enterprises in the low- and middle-income countries indicates a tiny impact and a lack of rigorous causal studies in this focus area. Quantitative meta-analysis did not find statistical significance for the impact. From an initial result of 24,000 plus hits, a set of 10 research studies were finalized for data extraction and analysis. The article suggests areas for future research and calls for rigorous research and reporting.
The full publication is outside the paywall, here.
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