Utilising Online and Offline Information in Export: The Case of Firms Operating in Ghana’s Non-Traditional Export Sector

HinsonWeb.pdf

Dublin Core

Title

Utilising Online and Offline Information in Export: The Case of Firms Operating in Ghana’s Non-Traditional Export Sector

Creator

Robert Ebo Hinson

Description

Information is useful for enhancing the success of export firms operating on the advantaged and
disadvantaged end of the global digital divide; in developed and developing economy contexts. As part of
a larger e-readiness survey of Ghana’s non-traditional export sector, this study aims at identifying the
nature of information which players in Ghana’s export sector need to enhance export-competitiveness.
This study focuses on players in a horticultural export cluster comprising non-traditional export firms,
export logistics providers, financial institutions, export associations, government/regulatory agencies and
export-related NGOs. The type of information respondents found most essential are those related to
market and production. NTE firms regularly receive information on payment, demand trend and orders.
Overall, respondents do not often share market, technical and logistics information with representatives
of firms in the same line of business as theirs. At the micro-level of Ghana’s non-traditional export
sector, e-business could be used as a tool for better acquisition, storage, sharing and utilisation of
information. Strategies for enhancing the e-efficacies of export industry players are discussed in the
paper. This paper presents a modest contribution to the export firm-electronic business/information
management literature from a developing economy context.

Publisher

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness v

Date

2011

Source

http://www.na-businesspress.com/JMDC/HinsonWeb.pdf

Language

English