Mobile Applications Usage and Awareness Among Sri Lankan Small Business Owners

Abstract

Many Sri Lankan small business owners (SBO) today use mobile applications to manage their businesses. The relatedness of the purpose of the mobile applications that the SBO communities commonly use to the objectives and nature of their business (i.e. specifically designed for small businesses), the awareness among the SBOs in finding applications that can serve their business purposes, or their awareness of the importance of using dedicated applications for small business’ purposes is an area that has not been investigated. This paper presents the findings of a pilot study on current trends and the nature of mobile application usage among Sri Lankan small business owners to understand the level of awareness they have on choosing mobile applications tailored for small businesses, and their expectations for features in such applications . It also investigates SBO demand for integrated, SBO-specific mobile solutions. The findings show that the Sri Lankan SBO community has either not considered these facts in their mobile applications usage or has found it difficult to manage their businesses using existing mobile applications because those applications are not designed to cater to their specific needs. This paper also summarizes the nature of mobile application usage among SBOs from several perspectives, providing meaningful insights for mobile application developers about this competitive community of users.