The Role of Web and E-Commerce in Poverty Reduction: A Framework Based on Ecological Systems Theory

摘要

Web and eCommerce enabled by easy access to Internet on mobile devices have a great potential to reduce poverty by improving access to education, health, government, financial and other services, and by providing access to potential global markets for the products and services they can offer. However, the role of Web/eCommerce in poverty reduction has not been well studied in IS research; specifically no theoretical framework for such studies exist. The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework that can help identify causes of poverty and help examine how Web/eCommerce can intervene to reduce poverty. Our framework is based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. We apply the resulting framework to rural farming families.