Investigating Women Employers Usage of Information Technology forAccessing Market Information in Iran

Women Employers’ usage of information technology such a cellphone has been increasing intensely in Iran. However thereis limited knowledge on the extent and precise usage of cell phones by women Employers for accessing market information. Hence toaddress this gap, the goal of this paper is to investigate the usage of information technology for accessing market information by womenEmployers in Iran. The study employs a mixed research approach characterized by quantitative and qualitative methods in order toobtain a holistic view on the issues, shortcomings and advantage that the usage of cell phone for accessing market information canrepresent to the women Employers of the region. Interviews were conducted using semi-structured questionnaires to collect quantitativedata, while in-depth interviews were used for qualitative data collection. Convergent parallel mixed method was used as a technique forsummarizing objective evaluation and interpretation of findings. Results indicate that, contrary to prior research reports, cell phones arenot used as enablers by the women Employers of our study in accessing market information that is relevant to their business. Our workputs forward a plausible solution of designing a specialized virtual platform for accessing market information and expand businessnetworks of the target user.