Mobile remittances as sociotechnical networks : an Actor-Network Theory case study

Abstract

The use of formal remittance channels between developing countries is highly variable. In particular, take-up of digital retail payment channels to facilitate remittance formalisation is often sparse and subject to resistance. Through the case of an emergent mobile phone-based international money remittance channel, this study sought to understand how a service provider utilises legitimation strategies to create a stable channel (network) and enhance user uptake. Prior studies, mainly influenced by a cognitive tradition, tend to explain uptake of mobile payments, mobile banking and mobile money services either through features of the technology such as interface design or through individual motivational structures. There is a paucity of research on how such Information Communication Technology innovations are created and deployed in developing countries’ settings, which may shed light on why they may result in failure or success. Research that traces core processes involved in the formation of such emergent and complex sociotechnical networks including identifying primary actors and their relationships is sorely lacking. Thus, assuming Actor-Network as a theoretical base, this study sought to theorise about how a mobile remittance network was created along the South-Africa-to-Zimbabwe corridor; identify actors and their interests in that network; trace what associations exist in that network; how relationships evolve; how actors are enrolled in the network; how parts of the network form a whole network; and, how the network attained temporary stability or, conversely, why the network may be unstable. Interestingly, ANT assumes context to be emergent and that actors and their relations is all that is needed to understand phenomena. As a consequence of this radical ontological stance, the lens is criticised for overly focusing on micro- (individual) level actor interactions and neglecting the existence of context thus under-exploring how broader social structures, their role and interests influence local action and the stability of sociotechnical networks. Challenging this assumption emerged as an area of potential theoretical contribution. My contribution to theory was to demonstrate that sociotechnical network creation takes more than human and technological actors and their actions, as the ANT assumes. I argued for a pragmatic application of the ANT. This entails taking institutions seriously. I augmented ANT with institutional legitimation strategies from the Legitimacy Perspective to foreground the influence of social structures. I argue that social structures are active non-human actors in which interests have been inscribed that should not be obscured or downplayed. At the macro-level of analysis, the analysis reveals that a hybrid of argumentation, manipulation, selection and adaptation strategies helped to account for the concealed but important social, cultural, political and historical actors that facilitate or constrain the four stages of translation (Problematisation, Interessement, Enrolment and Mobilisation) during the network building process to achieve desired stability. My thesis demonstrates that if the focal actor (service provider) finds a way of communicating (such as using symbolic management) with heterogeneous actors (often with contradictory interests) that resonates with the target potential allies’ norms, values and standards, enrolment and stability of a sociotechnical network may be facilitated and enhanced. Working in combination, the findings of ANT and the Legitimacy Perspective offered some rich perspectives that deepen our current understanding of sociotechnical network. The study highlights that sociotechnical networks are also products of institutional settings in which they are immersed hence the need to foreground the highly contextualised character of network creation. Wider context in which sociotechnical networks are created and immersed consist of actors on a higher level of analysis which should be viewed as other parts of the network. In addition to their relational nature, networks are not only emergent but are also historically-shaped. Likewise, the study is also significant in that it brings to the fore the significance of politics and power at both the micro and macro-levels of analysis, which provides a basis for practitioners to understand why some sociotechnical networks stabilise (i.e. are eventually employed as remittance channels) while others fail to scale-up. I envisage this case study to provoke debate about the size of the opportunity for international remittance service providers and how far they should go to seize it using emergent digital mechanisms.