Abstract
South Africa often finds itself with a critically low blood stock, which could be detrimental to the country in terms of its daily therapy and trauma-related blood needs. The use of mobile applications (apps) in South Africa has become pervasive, and is set to significantly increase among the population of this country in the next three years. Apps have been proven as a valuable tool for organisations to interact with their customers, and in the case of blood donation organisations (BDOs), this technology should also be leveraged. Currently, the larger of two BDOs in South Africa does not use an app to engage with blood donors in this country, and therefore this research set out to determine which app features blood donors in South Africa would prefer from a blood donation app, to increase interaction with the BDOs, and to allow an app to act as a catalyst towards increased blood donation. Since the findings of this study were based on a rigorous sequential mixed method research design, these findings can be utilised by the BDOs in South Africa to further enhance their recruitment and retention strategies for South African blood donors. The three empirical data collection phases executed during this study included: 1) Phase 1, a qualitative analysis of international blood donation apps' app store reviews, 2) Phase 2, a qualitative asynchronous online interview, and 3) Phase 3, taking the form of a quantitative online questionnaire of existing and potential South African blood donors. Following a design science research (DSR) strategy, the main findings of this study culminated in an artefact of user-preferred app features for a blood donation app in South Africa. These features included: 1) the ability for donors to complete the blood donor questionnaire electronically, 2) the ability for donors to track details about their blood, such as iron levels, 3) a reminder feature that notifies donors when they can donate blood again, 4) alerts informing donors of blood shortages in the country, 5) the ability for users to track their blood donation history, 6) the ability for users to schedule blood donation appointments, 7) a feature allowing donors to track their blood from donation to transfusion, 8) a feature enabling donors to track their donations on a calendar, 9) a feature that allows donors to claim rewards – for donating blood – from rewards partners, and 10) a map-based location feature to find blood donation events. The value of this research lies in the contribution made to understanding the feature preferences of South African blood donors regarding a blood donation app. Considering the popularity of smartphone and app technology, it is important for South African BDOs to harness the power of mobile app engagement as part of a larger initiative to motivate increased and maintained blood donation in the country.
Ph.D. (Information Management)