E‐mentoring for small business: an examination of effectiveness

Purpose – While information and communications technology provides new opportunities for supporting mentoring, there is a need to explore how effectively these potential benefits are being realised. This paper seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of a program in the small business context as a basis for proposing determinants of e‐mentoring effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – Using qualitative inquiry, this study aims to establish patterns in the characteristics of effective and ineffective e‐mentoring partnerships using a model derived from information systems success field.Findings – The study establishes a basis for understanding how the potential benefits of structured e‐mentoring are being realised in the small business context.Research limitations/implications – The study empirically establishes a range of determinants of effective e‐mentoring in the small business context.Originality/value – The study provides a set of critical success factors and evaluation criteria for use by practitioners...