Digital Shift in Educational Retail: Drivers and Barriers to Technology Adoption in Nepal's Educational Supermarkets

Abstract

In this study, the factors that facilitate and deter the adoption of technology in the emerging digital education ecosystem (the educational supermarkets in Nepal) are studied. The primary data have been collected from 110 respondents (company owners, retail shop managers, IT persons, frontline persons, etc.) and clustering of the respondents has been done based on the frequency and adoption trends were determined with the help of methods—correlation analysis and regression modeling as well as variance testing. A high level of adoption was achieved by the ePOS, as 83.64% maximum and QR/development of a system, as 86.36%, for all the shops. However, when it came to the implementation of ERP (55.45%) and e-commerce (37.27%), this level was low. Correlation and regression studies revealed the elements that influenced positively the adoption of the solution, such as inventory complexity management, customer demand and competitiveness; and the elements that influenced negatively, such as financial costs, gaps in literacy of the labor and unstable infrastructure. Results show there is a difference between the index of retailers' adoption between the retailers of Kathmandu Valley and other retailers. A reliability test was carried out and the value received in both the indices (i.e., drivers and obstacles) showed the values > 0.70, indicating the level of high reliability. Firstly, it takes the discussion towards getting access to the above-mentioned ICTs and to find a way to educate with the help of this situation and secondly, it also highlights the need for moderating the named educational learning resources by using the educational supermarkets with the help of ICT. The outputs emphasize the necessary work on strategic investments, infrastructure and capacity building of different staff necessary for the digitalization of the education retail sector from an equitable point of view in Nepal.