Browsing by Author "Ajunwa, Innocent Havery"

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    Evalutation of factors driving broadband demand gap among small and medium enterprises in Southeast Nigeria
    (Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria, 2018-09) Ajunwa, Innocent Havery
    High-speed, affordable broadband connectivity to the Internet is a foundation stone of modern society, offering widely recognized economic and social benefits. High-speed broadband is no longer just cutting-edge technology for an elite few; instead, the steady march of connectivity among the broader population is slowly but surely transforming our society with new ways of accessing services and information. Broadband does not just comprise infrastructure; today, widespread broadband connectivity offers the prospects of new services and an information revolution to change – and challenge – our very approach to development. This work, seeks to raise awareness and enhance understanding of the importance of broadband networks, services, applications and to evaluate factors that drive its demand gap at enterprise level in the South East Nigeria. The primary source of data used in this research work was questionnaire, while the secondary source of data includes data from; Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), as well as data from researchers in related topical issues. The main quantitative approach used was factor and regression analysis and for the ease of handling the volume of data, the use of statistical package for social sciences [SPSS] software was used. It was discovered that ten factors drive the demand gap among SMEs: Economic Barrier(X1), Limited technology Training(X2), Slow Assimilation of broadband(X3), Uneven distribution of Telecommunication Network Deployment(X4), Low Knowledge of Market Opportunity(X5), Customer Forces (X6), Lack of Content Relevance or Interest(X7), Epileptic Power Supply(X8), Vision and Prospect of Broadband(X9), Inefficient Access to Broadband( X10). A predictive model was derived as: �� = 19.165+2.912𝑋1 +0.271𝑋2 +0.216𝑋3 +0.148𝑋4 +0.243𝑋₅ -0.075𝑋₆ + 0.003𝑋7 +0.076𝑋8 +0.084𝑋9 −0.008𝑋10.