Rationalizing Effects of Mobile Applications: A Systematic Review of Literature

This paper adapts a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) process to investigate the influence of selected mobile applications on service delivery improvement and then categorizes their developmental contributions. Using conceptual categories from a framework for ICT-based development initiatives, we categorize descriptive perceptions for consequences of app implementations from literature. The two categories adopted are improved government services and enhanced internal economic activity; used in providing denoted contextual literature that relates selected apps to developmental contributions. Our literature findings provide an interpretive understanding of the significance of apps chosen towards service delivery and growth in particular sectors. The success of some apps manifested in development of new apps such as MomConnect, Mose and NurseConnect in South Africa. From the literature, we generated and tabulated themes or concepts related to the developmental contributions of the apps. However, the study was limited by inadequate theoretical literature associated with the service delivery influence of mobile apps on development - Mobile for Development (M4D). Future studies aim to develop an M4D framework for the analysis of mobile app developmental contributions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic €32.70 /Month

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (France)

eBook EUR 171.19 Price includes VAT (France)

Hardcover Book EUR 105.49 Price includes VAT (France)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

References

  1. Moore, J., Anderson, C.: mHealth in developing countries: progress toward global health. In: AMCIS 2022 Proceedings, Minneapolis: Association for Information Systems AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) (2022) Google Scholar
  2. Uwizeyimana, D.E.: Mobile phones as means for extending e-governance in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Afr. J. Public Aff. 8, 151–170 (2015) Google Scholar
  3. Al Dahdah, M.: Digital markets and the commercialization of healthcare in Africa: the case of Kenya. Globalizations (2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2022.2135422ArticleGoogle Scholar
  4. Hellström, J., Jacobson, M.: ‘You can’t cheat the community anymore’–using mobiles to improve water governance. In: Hellström (ed.) 4th International Conference on M4D Mobile Communication for Development, Dakar, Senegal, 2010, pp. 48–59 (2014) Google Scholar
  5. Kumpel, E., Peletz, R., Bonham, M., Fay, A., Cock-Esteb, A.: When are mobile phones useful for water quality data collection ? An analysis of data flows and ICT applications among regulated monitoring institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 12, 10846–10860 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120910846ArticleGoogle Scholar
  6. Chemisto, M., Amoako, G.: Framing M4D in the water sector: examining effects of mobile technology initiatives. In: Baguma, R., Pettersson, S. (eds.) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on M4D Mobile Communication Technology for Development (M4D) 2018, Kampala, Uganda, Karlstad University, pp. 31–43 (2018) Google Scholar
  7. Mensah, I.K.: Impact of power distance and uncertainty avoidance on the adoption of electronic government services. Int. J. E-Serv. Mob. Appl. 12, 1–17 (2020). https://doi.org/10.4018/IJESMA.2020070101ArticleGoogle Scholar
  8. Ekeng-Itua, R.-M.: Assessing the impact of cell phones on African societies: an investigation into the impact of cell phones on a community of practice of business women in Nigeria. In: Proceedings of Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), Las Vegas, NV, USA: IEEE Explore, pp. 880–890 (2018) Google Scholar
  9. Etzo, S., Collender, G.: The mobile phone ‘revolution’ in Africa: rhetoric or reality? Afr. Aff. 109, 659–668 (2010) ArticleGoogle Scholar
  10. Crow, J., Broussard, R., Dong, L., Finn, J., Wiley, B., Geisler, G.: A synthesis of research on ICT Adoption and use by Medical Professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGHIT Symposium on International Health Informatics, Miami: ACM International Conference Proceedings, pp. 161–170 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1145/2110363.2110384
  11. Duncombe, R.A.: Understanding the impact of mobile phones on livelihoods in developing countries. Dev. Policy Rev. 32, 567–588 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1111/DPR.12073ArticleGoogle Scholar
  12. Aker, J.C., Ghosh, I., Burrell, J.: The promise (and Pitfalls) of ICT for agriculture initiatives. Agric. Econ. 47, 35–48 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12301ArticleGoogle Scholar
  13. Chemisto, M.: Optimizing perspectives: a classic grounded theory of stakeholder perceptions on WSDB influence in Uganda’s Water Sector. PhD, Information Systems, University of Cape Town (2022) Google Scholar
  14. Rashid, A.T., Elder, L.: Mobile phones and development: an analysis of IDRC-supported projects. Electron. J. Inform. Syst. Developing Countries 36, 1–16 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2009.tb00249.xArticleGoogle Scholar
  15. Donner, J.: Framing M4D: the utility of continuity and the dual heritage of “mobiles and development.” Electron. J. Inform. Syst. Developing Countries 44, 1–16 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1080/01442870902863828ArticleGoogle Scholar
  16. Perrier, T., Derenzi, B., Anderson, R.: USSD: The Third Universal App. In: ACM DEV-6 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computing for Development, pp. 13–21 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2830629.2830645
  17. Chemisto, M., Rivett, U., Jacobs, C.: Impact of co-design and design science on adoption of an ICT solution in rural South Africa. In AMCIS 2016: Surfing the IT Innovation Wave - 22nd Americas Conference on Information Systems, San Diego, CA, USA: Association for Information Systems, pp. 1–10 (2016). https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.23220.24966
  18. Malhotra, P., Ling, R.: Agency within contextual constraints: mobile phone use among female live-out domestic workers in Delhi. Inf. Technol. Int. Dev. 16, 32–46 (2020) Google Scholar
  19. Wolff-Piggott, B., Coleman, J., Rivett, U.: The clinic-level perspective on mHealth Implementation: a South African case study. Inf. Technol. Dev. 24, 532–553 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2016.1233858ArticleGoogle Scholar
  20. Rivett, U., et al.: An assessment of incentivizing community engagement in drinking water supply management, Cape Town, South Africa (2015) Google Scholar
  21. Uwamariya, M., Michalik, B., Loebbecke, C.: Spreading Kenya’s mobile payment success to neighboring countries – the case of Rwanda. In: SIG GlobDev Ninth Annual Workshop, Dublin, Ireland: AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) (2016) Google Scholar
  22. Wesselink, A., Hoppe, R., Lemmens, R.: Not Just a Tool. taking context into account in the development of a mobile app for rural water supply in Tanzania | enhanced reader. Water Alternatives 8, 57–76 (2016) Google Scholar
  23. Lönn, C.-M., Uppström, E., Nilsson, A.: Designing an m-Government Solution: Enabling Collaboration through Citizen Sourcing. In: 24th European Conference on Information Systems, Instanbul: Association for Information Systems (2016) Google Scholar
  24. Aker, J.C.: Information from markets near and far: mobile phones and agricultural markets in Niger. Am. Econ. J. Appl. Econ. 2, 46–59 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1257/APP.2.3.46ArticleGoogle Scholar
  25. Maumbe, B.M.: E-agriculture and E-government for global policy development: implications and future directions. IGI Global, pp. 1–342 (2010) Google Scholar
  26. Chemisto, M., Rivett, U.: A review of sector coordination and ICTs in Multi-stakeholder environs of Uganda’s rural water sector. In: Steyn, T.J.P., van Belle, J. Nungwi, E. (eds.) Proceedings of the 9th IDIA conference, IDIA2015, Zanziba, pp. 266–285 (2015) Google Scholar
  27. Mensah, I.K.: Impact of government capacity and e-government performance on the adoption of e-government services. Int. J. Public Adm. 43, 266–285 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1628059ArticleGoogle Scholar
  28. Wolff-Piggott, B., Rivett, U.: An Activity Theory Approach to Affordance Actualisation in mHealth: The Case of MomConnect, in European Conference on Information Systems, Instanbul: Association for Information Systems, pp. Paper 108-Paper 108. (2016) Google Scholar
  29. Rein, P., Champanis, M., Rivett, U.: Drop drop: prototyping a mobile application educating on the water system through private meter readings. In: Sixth International Conference on ICT and Development, Cape Town, vol. 2: ACM, December ed, pp. 124–127 (2013) Google Scholar
  30. Ssozi-mugarura, F., Rivett, U., Blake, E.: Using activity theory to understand technology use and perception among rural users in Uganda. In: The Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, Ann Arbor MI, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, June, pp. 1–10. (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2909609.2909650
  31. VPUU, Cityspec+: A mobile inspection tool to improve service delivery in low income areas, Cape Town: violence prevention through urban upgrading (2017) Google Scholar
  32. Katule, N., Rivett, U., Densmore, M.: A family health app: engaging children to manage wellness of adults. In: 7th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development, Nairobi, Kenya: ACM (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/3001913.3001920
  33. Haji, H.A., Rivett, U., Suleman, H.: Improving compliance to tuberculosis treatment: supporting patients through mobile graphic-based reminders. J. Public Health Developing Countries 2, 235–247 (2016) Google Scholar
  34. Majoni, T., Zegye, Y., Tucker, W.: Mose: a mobile application for women street vendors in cape town. In: Cunningham, P. Cunningham, M. (eds.) IST-Africa Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, IST Africa, pp. 1–8 (2020) Google Scholar
  35. Health department. South Africa, What is MomConnect (2018) Google Scholar
  36. Ssozi-Mugarura, F., Blake, E., Rivett, U.: Codesigning with communities to support rural water management in Uganda. Int. J. CoCreation Des Arts 13, 110–126 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1310904ArticleGoogle Scholar
  37. Walsham, G.: ICTs for the broader development of India: an analysis of the literature. Electron. J. Inform. Syst. Dev. Countries 41, 1–20 (2010) ArticleGoogle Scholar
  38. Kitchenham, B., Charters, S.: Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering (2007) Google Scholar
  39. Grant, M.J., Booth, A.: A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Info. Libr. J. 26, 91–108 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.xArticleGoogle Scholar
  40. Hauge, Ø., Ayala, C., Conradi, R.: Adoption of open source software in software-intensive organizations - a systematic literature review. Inf. Softw. Technol. 52, 1133–1154 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2010.05.008ArticleGoogle Scholar
  41. Johnston, K.A., Jali, N., Kundaeli, F., Adeniran, T.: ICT for the broader development of South Africa: an analysis of literature. Electron. J. Inform. Syst. Developing Countries 70, 1–22 (2015) ArticleGoogle Scholar
  42. Dieste, O., Padua, A.G.: Developing search strategies for detecting relevant experiments for systematic reviews. In: First International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measure, Madrid, Spain: IEEE Explore, pp. 215–224 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/ESEM.2007.19
  43. Sen, A.: Development as Freedom, 1st edn. Random House Inc. (1999) Google Scholar
  44. Murugesan, S.: Mobile apps in Africa. IEEE Comput. Soc. 13, 8–11 (2013) Google Scholar
  45. Jack, W., Suri, T.: Risk sharing and transaction costs: evidence from Kenya’s mobile money revolution. Am. Econ. Rev. 104, 183–223 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.1.183ArticleGoogle Scholar
  46. Narasimhan, N., Leblois, A.: Making mobile phones and services accessible for persons with disabilities, Geneva (2012). http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/sis/PwDs/Documents/Mobile_Report.pdf
  47. Ndaw, M.F.: Unlocking the potential of information communications technology to improve water and sanitation services summary of findings and recommendations, Ouagadougou (2015). https://wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-Unlocking-the-Potential-ICT-Water-Sanitation-Services.pdf
  48. Hutchings, M.T., Dev, A., Palaniappan, M., Srinivasan, V., Ramanathan, N., Taylor, J.: mWASH: mobile phone applications for the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector 9781893790391, 1–115 (2012) Google Scholar
  49. Bakunzibake, P., Grönlund, Å., Klein, G.O.: E-government implementation in developing countries : enterprise content management in Rwanda. In: Electronic Government and Electronic Participation, pp. 251–259 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-670-5-251

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge that nearly all the articles were written whilst at the University of Cape Town. Nevertheless, three authors have completed their postgraduate studies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa Gordon Amoako & Neidy Tunzine
  2. FedEx Corporation, Collierville, TN, 38016, USA Joshua Ishaku Azaki
  3. Islamic University in Uganda, Mbale, Uganda Musa Chemisto
  1. Musa Chemisto