Critical success factors for mobile application deployment in Africa

Abstract

At the time of writing, mobile applications had arguably redefined how most people interact with their mobile phones. The platform from which these applications were marketed and sold, created a $34.2 billion industry by 2015 (Jackson, 2016) world-wide. With the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) market continuously searching for disruptive innovation (Ojoma, 2016) and with the continent's mobile application related revenue only contributing a small fraction to the international market, led to the research question for this dissertation: What could be done to increase the success rate (disruptive innovation) of mobile application development and deployment (MAD) in SSA? Deployment of a mobile application (in the context if this research) referred to a business driven by the revenue stream of a mobile application. This meant that the primary objective of this research was to identify (from literature, surveys and interviews), understand and rank the critical success factors required for successful MAD in SSA, as a business. The second objective of this research was to prove or disprove the research hypothesis. It was hypothesised that the Lean Start-up (LSU) business model approach could increase the success rate of MAD in SSA. The research made use of questionnaires distributed to representatives of innovation hubs and the information technology (IT) sector, to rank the factors that influence mobile application development and deployment in SSA. The research problem and research hypothesis were also tested with the questionnaire. Follow-up interviews were used to supplement and verify the factors ranked in the questionnaire. From the questionnaire and follow-up interviews, it was evident that the factors identified from literature were a high priority for MAD in SSA. The research findings also concluded that the LSU model could increase the success rate of MAD in SSA.