From Digital Access to Strategic Discipline? Computer Use, Women’s Ownership, and Sales Targeting in Ghana’s Informal Economy

Digital technology is often presented as a route through which women entrepreneurs can overcome resource, information and mobility constraints. Less is known about whether basic computer use is connected to the internal management discipline of informal enterprises. This study examines whether computer or tablet use changes the relationship between women’s ownership and setting a sales target for the next year. It also distinguishes target adoption from target review and tests related written-management practices. We analyzed the Ghana World Bank Informal Sector Enterprise Survey 2022. The primary strict-eligibility sample contained 3,320 confirmed informal enterprises in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. Weighted logistic regression controlled for enterprise size, business age, owner age, owner experience, education, electricity requirements, machinery use, city and activity. Only 5.2% of represented enterprises used a computer or tablet, 65.8% were women-owned, and 11.2% set a sales target. Women-owned enterprises had a lower adjusted probability of computer use than man-owned enterprises (3.7% vs 7.5%), odds ratio = 0.41, p < .001. Without computer use, women-owned enterprises also had lower odds of sales targeting (odds ratio = 0.70, p = .014). Computer use was positively associated with sales targeting among man-owned enterprises (odds ratio = 3.01) and more strongly among women-owned enterprises (odds ratio = 9.68). The ownership-by-computer interaction was positive (odds ratio = 3.21; 95% confidence interval [1.58, 6.55]; p = .001). Adjusted target-setting probabilities were 11.4% for non-computer man-owned enterprises, 25.4% for computer-using man-owned enterprises, 8.6% for non-computer women-owned enterprises and 40.4% for computer-using women-owned enterprises. The probability difference-in-differences was 17.8 percentage points (p = .007). The interaction remained significant under all World Bank weights, unweighted and Firth models, Internet-use substitution, written-record controls, sales controls, weight trimming and most subsamples. A 1,000-replication stratified bootstrap produced a positive mean interaction but a percentile interval that narrowly included zero. Computer use also had a stronger association for women owners with written monthly budgets and annual profit-and-loss statements. However, among target-setting enterprises, computers did not improve target-review frequency for women; monthly review was uncommon in the small computer-using women-owned subgroup. The findings identify digital strategic activation with an important follow-through boundary. Computer use appears to help women-owned informal enterprises cross the threshold into explicit planning, but a device does not automatically create a complete data-driven management cycle. Cross-sectional associations cannot establish causality or distinguish whether strategic entrepreneurs adopt computers or computer use changes strategy. Policy should combine affordable devices and connectivity with practical training in target design, record integration, monthly review and corrective action.

women entrepreneurs, computer use, sales targets, management practices, informal enterprises, digitalization, Ghana

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