Visualization of ICT-Enabled Interactions in Micro and Small Enterprises MetaNetwork Using Dynamic Social Network Analysis

摘要

Researchers have recently begun to examine Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) through the lens of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). The behaviour of small enterprises mimics that of a CAS with interactions playing an important role as a prerequisite for CAS. Complex systems always involve interactions among system components. The presence of many interacting components is a prominent feature of complex systems. There has to be a way therefore for analyzing and understanding the interactions and Dynamic Network Analysis (DNA) method can be used to capture the elements in a network and how they relate. DNA gives graphical representation that helps in understanding the relationships among the entities. The nature of the interactions is then explored through quantitative measures and graph measures. It also allows better understanding of the interdependence within the network structure .In this paper Dynamic Social Network Analysis (DSNA) is used to analyse the interactions in ziwani juakali association metanetwork. Special attention is given to ICTs present in the metanetwork and its impact on the metanetwork. The analysis reveals that ICT played a central role by acting as a broker of interconnections and a connector of disjointed groups in the association. It emerged that technical knowledge sourced over mobile phones formed a major source of knowledge used in the metanetwork.