CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
In today’s highly competitive global market place, the pressure on organization’s to find new ways to creating and delivering value to customers is growing stronger. ICT is today being applied in many organizations in a wide range and operations areas. It has provided new ways to store, process, distribute and exchange information both within companies and with customers and supplier in the supply chain (Somuyiwa and Oyesikun, 2010). Most SMEs in Nigeria use Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) to communicate their customers and by this build stronger relationship.
They realize that easy access to ICT and the delivery of their product or services are important drivers in developing and sustaining market competitiveness nationally and internationally. Business-to-Customer and electronicbusiness can help companies to achieve competitive advantages by providing customers with superior services. The source of competitive advantage is found in the ability of the organization to differentiate with eyes of the customer from its competition and again from operating at lower cost and hence at lower cost and greater profit. According to Haag et., al., (2002). For SMEs to address customer needs in this ever-changing environment and also to be winner in the market-place, timing and superior service are becoming the keys to attain competitive advantage. Customers nowadays are becoming more time sensitive and time oriented in terms of time and service delivery. Evidences from the literature like (Yang 2001;
Elegbeleye 2005; Ajiboye, et., al., (2007) showed that GSM has considerable impact on the economy being an emerging communication industry in Africa, with Nigeria rated as one of the fastest growing market in this field of communication. According to Ayo, et., al., (2007); Nigeria was the fastest growing telecoms nation in Africa and the third of the world. The country had experienced a phenomenal growth from a telecommunication density of 0.49 in 2000 to 25.22 in 2007. This trend had brought about a monumental development in the major sector of the economy, such as banking, telecoms and commerce in general. GSM is one of the most explosive developments ever to have taken place in the telecommunications industry (Wojuade (2005), Anyasi and Otubu (2009)).
Audile (2000) described GSM as part of evolution of wireless mobile telecommunication that includes high speed circuit, switched data, general packets radio system and universal mobile telecommunication service. The globalization of world economy has further amplified the importance of telecommunications to the economy. The Telecommunication Sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Nigeria as averred by Ajiboye et al. (2007). The phenomenal growth of GSM since it was introduced in Nigeria about ten years ago confirms this. GSM is indeed one of the major dividends of Nigeria’s transition to democracy. Since its invention, mobile phones have become a necessary product to many business owners and more users are expected and obviously the growing pace of worldwide mobile population will not slow down in the near future.