Information and communication technology and local governance: understanding the difference between cities in developed and emerging economies

The current literature on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and planning suggests that the use of Information Technology (IT) in local government can enhance the management and functioning of cities. Of particular interest is the phenomenon of e-government, where debates and information surrounding local government matters are conducted in cyberspace. Of relevance also, are the networking opportunities that the Internet can facilitate between city governments and the institutional learning that can emanate from that. The increasing use of web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications raises awareness of spatial issues that impact on defined municipal areas, whilst interactive mapping provides opportunities for addressing spatial concerns virtually. Most of the literature does, however, focus on the experience of developed countries where capacity and resources permit a sophisticated understanding of ICT. Yet, evidence suggests that these tools are also used in some developing countries, with India often cited as one of the leading countries in achieving ICT prominence, but little seems to be published about this experience in Southern Africa. There are a number of innovative initiatives underway in South African local governments but most of these interventions are in their infancy. In contrast, there are a number of examples in developed countries that may provide some guidance for developing cities. This paper examines the Smart City initiative in Brisbane in Australia, and compares it with moves currently underway in Durban, South Africa to incorporate ICT in local governance. The intention is to expose the differences in approach, understand the capacity and resource issues that may impact, and draw some conclusions with regards to future interventions in Durban. Overall, the paper provides an initial conceptual landscape that begins to determine the extent to which ICT in local government can provide opportunities for Durban by learning from the experience of Brisbane, Australia.     

What can be controlled: actionable ICT4D in the case of Palestine

ABSTRACT

A thriving information and communication technology (ICT) economy is an aspiration for developing countries. This research identifies the factors that can motivate or inhibit ICT opportunities in a developing country to grow a sustainable economy. We build an ICT4D decision framework that provides a three-dimensional view based on (1) key factors (e.g. infrastructure, policies), (2) the ICT supply chain, and (3) stakeholders (e.g. industry, government, academia). The framework is applied to the case of Palestine. We use secondary and primary data to understand how both controllable and non-controllable country characteristics have contributed to or inhibited the growth and development of an ICT sector. Results from extensive secondary data sources demonstrate the usability of the framework to analyze the current setting of the ICT sector, in addition to help investigate a range of possible opportunities for action. Then, via a targeted set of interviews with academic, industrial, and governmental sources who are experts in the Palestinian ICT arena, we perform an exploratory study that focuses on key controls and impacts for future development of the ICT economy. The outcomes of this research have the ability to frame and inform economic development decisions that could define the future of the Palestinian state.     

ICT adoption in Cameroon SME: application of Bass diffusion model*

ABSTRACT

In almost all low-income countries, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a primary engine for the country’s economic development. While many information and communications technology (ICT) diffusion studies exist, only few focus on low-income countries and even fewer employ Bass-based analysis to examine ICT diffusion in these countries. This study applies the Bass diffusion model to understand SME adoption of ICT in Cameroon, a low-income country. The Bass model was employed because of its predictive capacity. We find that diffusion of ICT among SMEs in the context of a low-income economy is largely driven by forces of imitation rather than forces of innovation. Contributing to practice, this study finds that SMEs with greater sizes, multiple plants, and whose owners have higher education have a greater tendency to adopt ICT early. The theoretical contribution of the paper is applying the well-recognized Bass model from marketing to the IT/IS field and applying it within a low-income country environment by evaluating diffusion of ICTs among SMEs in Cameroon.     

The impact of ICT development on the global digital divide

Information and communication technology (ICT) has accelerated the growth of the global economy and improved the quality life of the world’s inhabitants. ICT has brought new ways of creating livelihoods for people. The diffusion of ICT has also increased year by year and made it possible to reduce poverty. The opportunities created by ICT also may eventually decrease the “distance” between countries in many other ways. Because access to ICT plays a key role in defining the global digital divide, it is important to study how the ICT gaps among countries have changed. This study examines global ICT development in the last decade. We collected secondary data for 136 countries from 2000 to 2008. Four relevant variables are used as proxies for the ICT development status of a country. Because of this multivariate nature of the data, most previous studies have applied a composite index approach to represent the ICT status of a country. For this study, we developed a framework to reduce multivariate raw data into an ordinal number representing a country’s ICT development level. The methodology behind the framework involves data clustering and multi-dimensional data ranking. After applying this data reduction procedure, we explored ICT development paths of different countries, and also conducted panel data analysis based on gross national income and various fixed effects.     

The impact of information and communication technology on skilled labor and organization types

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) affects the global economy and the business world enormously. In particular, the impact of ICT on work organization has been in the spotlight since the widespread introduction of computerized systems two decades ago. However, the relationship between ICT and organizational factors has not been indentified clearly. This study aims to investigate possible complementary relationships between ICT diffusion and organizational factors such as: labor, firm organization, product differentiation and the demand for skilled labor. Utilizing detailed firm-level data in Korea, this research scrutinizes whether the relationship among the organizational factors in Korean firms is different from that of other technologically advanced countries. The results show that ICT demand is complementary to investment in human capital and product differentiation, but not to autonomous organizations. ICT is also found to contribute to productivity and profitability in addition to its effects on these relationships. The results do not show any synergic effect with other factors, however. Investment in ICT should be considered with other organizational factors with attention paid to synergistic effects. The implications could help practitioners as well as academicians in investing in ICT and in studying ICT investment respectively.     

Are ICT investments paying off in Africa? An analysis of total factor productivity in six West African countries from 1995 to 2002

In the past two decades, we have seen increasing debate about information and communication technology (ICT) as an engine of growth that could lift developing nations out of poverty. Many African nations have implemented market liberalization and invested huge sums of money into their ICT sectors. But few studies have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of these investments. Demonstrating ICT sector performance is especially important because of challenges of the development of ICT policy and the United Nations agencies inability to state firmly if there are benefits to these investments. In this article, we investigated the total factor productivity (TFP) of the ICT sectors in six West African countries from 1995 to 2002. While the findings demonstrate positive growth in TFP, there is cause for concern. TFP growth in the ICT sector has been declining, and these countries are not yet able to take advantage of scale efficiencies. Careful attention must be given to future ICT investment strategies and performance management of existing ICT infrastructure if continued growth is to be achieved. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What drives global ICT adoption? Analysis and research directions

Information and communication technology (ICT) adoption is increasing globally and offers unique opportunities for information systems (IS) and electronic commerce researchers to undertake research that will have an impact. The purpose of this article is to survey the academic literature on this topic and provide research directions for future work. We analyze economic, social and other factors that drive global ICT adoption and the individual, organizational, industry and economy impacts. We do this with respect to a set of relevant problems, technology opportunities, theories, research methods, and solutions. The integration of these areas enables us to establish a balanced picture of the current state of global ICT adoption research. It also offers a useful means to analyze the kinds of research that needs to be pursued to make additional progress in the related area of e-commerce research. With these ideas in mind, we present five emerging research directions in three different categories: new economic geography, rational expectations theory, and new empirical methods. We also analyze several topics in the global arena of emerging technologies.     

Smart sustainable cities – Exploring ICT solutions for reduced energy use in cities

This article explores the opportunities of using ICT as an enabling technology to reduce energy use in cities. An analytical framework is developed in which a typology of ICT opportunities is combined with a typology of household functions, i.e. all the activities that require energy. The energy used for household functions is calculated using a consumption-based lifecycle perspective. The analytical framework is intended to be of use to researchers, city and regional authorities and ICT companies interested in acquiring a better understanding of how ICT investments could contribute to reduce energy use in cities.     

Time series analysis in the assessment of ICT impact at the aggregate level – lessons and implications for the new economy

The major role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the new economy is well documented: countries worldwide are pouring resources into their ICT infrastructure despite the widely acknowledged “productivity paradox”. Evaluating the contribution of ICT investments has become an elusive but important goal of IS researchers and economists. But this area of research is fraught with complexity and we have used Solow's Residual together with time-series analysis tools to overcome some methodological inadequacies of previous studies. Using this approach, we conduct a study of 20 countries to determine if there was empirical evidence to support claims that ICT investments are worthwhile. The results show that ICT contributes to economic growth in many developed countries and newly industrialized economies (NIEs), but not in developing countries. We finally suggest ICT-complementary factors, in an attempt to rectify possible flaws in ICT policies as a contribution towards improvement in global productivity.     

Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision-making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision-making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e-mail, teleconferencing combined with e-Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media.     

Does information and communications technology affect economic growth? Empirical evidence from SAARC countries

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on economic growth (gross domestic product) for member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) using annual data for the period 1990–2014. The study has employed augmented Cobb–Douglas production function by incorporating ICT along with capital and labor. We have taken teledensity (number of fixed and mobile phones per 10,000 people) as the proxy of ICT. This study has included only four SAARC countries (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) due to data constraints. Our findings reveal a positive and statistically significant effect of ICT on economic growth using panel data techniques. However, the impact of ICT on economic growth is highest for India followed by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan respectively. This study has crucial policy implications for SAARC countries as they have started giving due significance to the issues related to ICT these years.     

ICT and learning: Lessons from Australian classrooms

Research into Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools is well into its third decade but there is still a pressing need to better understand how computer-based technologies are influencing learning opportunities, and how the local conditions of schooling impact on teachers’ attempts to integrate these technologies in their classrooms. In this article, we provide some insight into these questions through our research in six diverse public schools in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We observed classrooms and conducted interviews with teachers and other key stakeholders, such as principals and technology coordinators about the integration of ICT. Our goal was to describe and examine the ways in which teachers, in a range of settings, are utilising ICT in their classroom practices to mediate student’s learning experiences Our findings indicate that ICT is largely being integrated in ways that support and supplement existing classroom practices. From our observations, we believe that successful integration of ICT requires fundamental shifts in the core activities of schools. These shifts include new teaching. The cases described in this article suggest some ways in which these shifts may be initiated and sustained.     

Factors affecting ICT expansion in emerging economies: An analysis of ICT infrastructure expansion in five Latin American countries

High-quality information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is essential for developing countries to achieve rapid economic growth. International trade and the structure of the global economy require a level of integration that is achievable only with sophisticated infrastructure. Since the early 1990s, international institutions have been pushing developing nations to deregulate and heavily invest in ICT infrastructure as a strategy for accelerating socioeconomic development. After more than a decade of continued investments, some countries have still not achieved expected outcomes. Recently, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has called for empirical research to assess the performance and impact of ICT expansion in developing countries. In this article, we respond to this call by investigating factors affecting the efficiency of ICT expansion in five emerging economies in Latin America. Our findings demonstrate that deregulation is not enough to effect efficient ICT expansion, and we argue that existing conditions (economic factors, human capital, geography, and civil infrastructure factors) must also be considered. We conclude by asserting that policy makers can more easily realize socioeconomic development via ICTs if they consider these conditions while cultivating their technology strategies. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Information and communications technology use and income growth: evidence of the multiplier effect in very small island states

ABSTRACT

Very small island states face unique challenges, such as volatile economies, increasing vulnerability to natural disasters, particularly with raising seas, increases their dependence on the world economy. Despite their growing use of ICTs, the results are mixed in terms of the effect of growing ICT usage on income growth. This paper investigates how growth in ICT usage may enable growth in per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in very small island states by analyzing the effects of average ICT usage on GDP growth based on the most recent data available from the World Bank and from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Following an analysis of data over four years of 32 very small island states, this paper identifies an ICT multiplier effect that may explain and predict the relationship between average ICT usage and GDP growth. By showing how the ICT multiplier effects may be connected to GDP growth, this paper adds to what we know about the relationship between these two indicators in very small island states. This has implications for how government interventions can enable ICT capacity to bring about GDP growth.     

Information and Communications Technology Development and the Digital Divide: A Global and Regional Assessment

The rapid development in information and communications technologies (ICTs) has created a wealth of opportunities for businesses and societies around the world. Yet, the disparity in the ICT adoption between developed and developing countries, often referred to as the Digital Divide, continues to widen. As a result, the digital divide has remained an issue of significant importance to policy-makers and scholars. In an effort to measure the magnitude of the digital divide and monitor how the disparity evolves over time, the United Nations commissioned the development of a comprehensive ICT Development Index (IDI) in 2009. The objective of this paper is to extend the methodology used in the IDI project and other scientific results presented in previous research to measure the digital divide. Using data mining techniques, we analyze ICT profiles from 154 countries to provide a rigorous quantitative assessment of the digital divide. In addition to analyzing the digital divide at the global level, we present our results at a regional level by identifying countries that are leaders and followers in their respective geographical area. Moreover, our analysis found that between 2002 and 2007, nine countries have made a significant progress in ICT adoption such that they have transitioned into a group previously consisting primarily of developed countries.     

“Breathing the thin air of cyberspace”: Global knowledge and the Nepal context *

Abstract

This article examines global and indigenous knowledge sharing with a focus on electronic information exchange in Nepal's development sector. Drawing on lessons from experience based on two local examples, a framework is presented of a strategy for realising the potential of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in countries where knowledge sharing and access is constrained in a variety of ways.

The “iCAPACITY framework” outlined for the South Asian context integrates the inter‐dependent themes of Content, Access, and Partnership, highlighting the critical components that require consideration when building the capacity for ICT usage and knowledge sharing in a developing country context. Practical initial steps are put forward, that recognise the primary concern for holistically addressing economic, social and environmental issues, with the overall priority of alleviating poverty using broad‐based participation.

The paper concludes that developing countries such as Nepal, currently occupy what may be metaphorically referred to as “the thin air of cyberspace”, where the essential knowledge needing to be shared locally or globally is not yet widely available or accessible. In this context, particular care has to be taken in formulating localised strategies and models that can improve the quality of this “air”, and lead to a situation where development efforts can truly be enhanced by the IT revolution.     

Examining the ICT access effect on socioeconomic development: the moderating role of ICT use and skills

This paper examines the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play in the socioeconomic development of countries. The proposed model analyzes the relationship between ICT access (available ICT infrastructure and individual’s access to ICT), ICT use (ICT intensity and usage, and ICT skills), and socioeconomic development. The methodology employed consists of a Structural Equation Model (SEM). To achieve this goal, country-level data across 163 countries for the year 2013 is used from developing to developed countries. Results obtained indicate the moderating role of ICT use and skills in the relationship between ICT access and the socioeconomic development. The ICT usage and ICT skills enhance the effect of ICT access on the socioeconomic development. The model is robust with respect to the development level.     

ICT in education policy and practice in developing countries: South Africa and Chile compared through SITES 2006

This paper presents a comparison between South African and Chilean results on SITES (Second Information Technology in Education Study) 2006 study, aiming to show and discuss both disparities and similarities, and trying to explain them through an analysis of their ICT in Education policies and national contexts. Firstly, these policies and contexts portray national backgrounds and initiatives. Secondly, methodological approach is described (a secondary analysis of the international data consisting in a two-way statistical analysis to calculate significant differences between South African and Chilean results, but also including some specific references to the northern hemisphere countries). Thirdly, main results are shown, organized in five sections: a) access to ICT resources; b) support to teachers; c) teachers professional development; d) principals’ pedagogical vision and e) teaching and learning practices.     

ICT diffusion as a determinant of human progress*

This research poses the question of whether the diffusion of information and communications technology (ICT) in countries can affect human progress. Human progress in this research is defined as progress that allows every member of a society to live in an environment with high economic, political, and civil liberties. To examine the posed question, the authors developed the following three hypotheses. First, ICT diffusion serves as a determinant in human progress. Second, the size of the impact of diffusion of ICT on human progress may differ depending on the income level of the economy. Lastly, the impact of ICT on human progress may differ depending on the type of technological medium. These hypotheses were tested with a sample of 102 countries panel for 14 years from 2000 to 2013 with data from the International Telecommunications Union to see the status of diffusion of ICT, the Heritage Foundation and the Freedom House in order to employ the measure of human progress by a year-lagged seemingly unrelated regression analysis with both pooled and grouped samples. The results suggest that the diffusion of ICT is a determinant of human progress at the global level and that the effects differ depending on the type of technology or the income level of the country.