ICT Empowerment in Rural China: Evaluating E-Commerce’s Impact

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Research Questions
Methodology
Results and Conclusions
Critical Analysis
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

The report is devoted to a critical evaluation of the article by Leong et al. (2016), “The Emergence of Self-Organizing E-Commerce Ecosystems in Remote Villages of China: A Tale of Digital Empowerment for Rural Development.” It is suggested that the quality of findings largely depends on the study methodology. Thus, the analysis of formulated research questions utilized methods and research results presented in the article will allow understanding of the selected study was successful.

Research Questions

The main research question is explicitly stated in the article. It is as follows: “how does ICT create and empower critical actors in a marginalized community?” (Leong et al., 2016, p. 476). Leong et al. (2016) state that ICTs can become a vital empowerment tool and may help villages thrive in the situation when economic and social inequality between urban and rural areas in China is enormous regardless of the government’s attempts to fix the problem.

Their theoretical framework combines two approaches to community empowerment: ICT-enabled development and community-driven development. It is proposed that only when community members actively participate in the development endeavors and are provided with necessary resources, can it be possible to achieve significant positive outcomes in addressing the issue.

Methodology

Leong et al. (2016) employed an exploratory, qualitative research design and implemented the case study methodology. According to Poulis, Poulis, and Plakoyiannaki (2013), the main advantage of qualitative studies is their sensitivity to broad contexts in which problems exist. Contextual factors explored by Leong et al. (2016) were related to community-driven developments with the help of ICT and included key enablers, facilitators of, and barriers to e-commerce infrastructure expansion in remote villages.

Notably, the context of the problem substantially drives the selection of sampling techniques, data collection methods, and analysis tools. Thus, the researchers utilized a purposeful and snowball sampling: they selected those villages where they could gather relevant data, approached community leaders first, and consequently interviewed individuals identified by those leaders. The snowball method is time-efficient and gives researchers a chance to communicate better with primary participants and their acquaintances (Naderifar, Goli & Ghaljaie, 2017). It facilitates access to people with target characteristics that may typically be difficult to access.

The total sample in the study comprised 63 villagers who were interviewed individually and in focus groups. Also, Leong et al. (2016) retrieved archival data from various credible sources, including government reports and scholarly articles. From them, the researchers obtained both qualitative and quantitative information that was consequently matched with villagers’ responses during the analysis stage. Major themes pertaining to the theoretical concepts of empowerment and community development were extracted from data sets by applying the inductive reasoning approach.

Results and Conclusions

ICT-enabled development in the villages selected for the study had multiple beneficial impacts. Firstly, it provided employment opportunities and drew an inflow of workers into rural areas. Secondly, it led to the diversification of produced goods and professional roles. What is more important, when community members became able to gain more profits, the local infrastructure commenced improving to foster further ecosystem growth. The improvements could be observed in telecommunications service, agricultural practices, supply chain processes, and so forth.

ICT-enabled development induced some risks as well, including environmental deterioration, worsened community relationships due to intense rivalry, and re-occurrence of out-migration due to limited village capacities to maintain and advance business. Overall, it is possible to conclude that ICTs can facilitate economic growth in rural communities and add value to them. However, positive outcomes can be achieved merely with the assistance of community leaders and institutional supporters who can provide the necessary resources and eliminate negative factors and risks inhibiting further enhancement.

Critical Analysis

The obtained results allowed answering the formulated research question directly, which indicates that appropriate research methods were used. Nevertheless, the issue of findings reliability is important when evaluating qualitative research studies because they are associated with increased risks of bias due to the subjective nature of qualitative methods and researchers’ opinions (Galdas, 2017).

Still, it is possible to say that the evidence provided by Leong et al. (2016) is reliable because they implemented the triangulation rules when analyzing data. This method implies the interpretation of information collected from multiple sources.

It leads to a more comprehensive depiction of a problem and the reduction of possible biases (Flick, 2018). For instance, not only did Leong et al. (2016) consider subjective perceptions of villagers but also backed them up with statistical data, such as income rates before and after involvement in e-commerce. Moreover, the researchers took into account the differences between e-commerce activities and approaches to infrastructure development applied in two villages, and it helped increase the reliability of conclusions as well. For this reason, research results can be generalized to distinct villages in China (and potentially other countries) regardless of the nature of their e-commerce businesses.

The validity of the findings could be increased by using some quantitative methods. Along with answering the “how” question, the researchers could use statistical data to measure what was achieved through local ICT-enabled developments. For example, they could estimate the rate of in- and out-migration in the villages during the birth, expansion, and renewal of e-commerce to support their qualitative observation of this issue.

A longitudinal study design could help answer such a question and establish links between events (migration and its impacts on the community) and factors (business digitalization) and also follow changes over time (Caruana et al., 2015). However, compared to case studies, this research type would be more difficult to administer because of high temporal and financial demands.

Conclusion

Analysis results reveal that qualitative methods are appropriate for describing dynamic relationships between variables: ICT and rural community environment. Leong et al. (2016) undertook measures to ensure that their findings are reliable, and the triangulation method was the most efficient one in the process of data validation. The case study design allowed an in-depth analysis of the context of the studied problem. Nevertheless, the inclusion of quantitative, statistical methods could benefit the investigation by bringing more objectivity.

Reference List

Caruana, E. J., Roman, M., Hernández-Sánchez, J., and Solli, P. (2015) ‘Longitudinal studies’, Journal of Thoracic Disease, 7(11), pp. E537-E540.

Flick, U. (2018) Doing triangulation and mixed methods. London: Sage, pp. 11-25.

Galdas, P. (2017) ‘Revisiting Bias in qualitative research: Reflections on its relationship with funding and impact,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), pp. 1-2.

Leong, C., Pan, S.L., Newell, S. and Cui, L. (2016) ‘The emergence of self-organizing e-commerce ecosystems in remote villages of China: A tale of digital empowerment for rural development’, MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, 40(2), pp. 475-484.

Naderifar, M., Goli,H. and Ghaljaie, F. (2017) ‘Snowball sampling: A purposeful method of sampling in qualitative research’, Strides in Development of Medical Education, 4(3), p. e67670.

Poulis, K., Poulis, E. and Plakoyiannaki, M.E. (2013) ‘The role of context in case study selection: An international business perspective’, International Business Review, 22(1), pp. 304-314.

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