Developing Sustainable IT Market Information Services: The Case of Esoko

Abstract

This chapter introduces Esoko, an IT system offering market information services (MIS) from which sustainability factors relevant to emerging economies are derived. Using the case study method and a research design formulated by the inclusive markets team of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), qualitative data was acquired through semi-structured interviews and company documents and subsequently analysed using coding techniques. The resultant 14-factor model illustrates three distinct dimensions of sustainable MIS -- consumer, organisational, and institutional. The findings demonstrate that unlike static enterprise or governmental IT systems, MIS are dynamic and require continuous information services and hence cannot be bound by time.