The rise of Africa’s digital economy

The rise of an African digital economy is improving millions of lives and rapidly transforming societies. Africa has a unique opportunity to become more sustainable and create economic growth through the better use of data, instead of using old technologies that consume fossil fuels. Digitalisation has many benefits: It speeds up the spread of information, brings people closer together, creates jobs and makes societies more efficient. Digitalisation is a key part of the European Union’s work in Africa. The European Commission and the African Union say digital technology is a priority for economic and social development in Africa. The European Investment Bank will keep playing a central role in Africa's future by providing targeted digital expertise and finance to the public and private sectors

ICT for growth and equality: renewing strategies for the information society. Summary

Includes bibliographyIn this new phase of post-financial-crisis economic recovery, the countries of the region are meeting considerable challenges and opportunities involving the information society, an economic and social system in which knowledge and information are vital sources of wellbeing and progress. It has been said that the countries of the region will be able to achieve greater and better growth only if they renew their strategies for development with equality and lay a sounder foundation for growth and greater social inclusion in a new technological era based on information and communications technology (ICT), whose transformational potential can be used to add value to economic activity, to public services and to social organization

WiMax technology adoption by SMEs in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research focuses on developing a framework for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) technology adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). WiMax has emerged as a technology to overcome the limitations of traditional and existing broadband technologies and support a great number of organisations and consumers/citizens in providing a higher speed over substantial distances i.e. in areas that are difficult for wired infrastructure to reach. Despite all the interest in the types of broadband adoption as demonstrated by SMEs in several countries, there seems to be slow progress and lack of information supporting the decision making process for WiMax technology adoption by SMEs specifically in the context of KSA. This may illustrate that SMEs adopt WiMax technology solutions at a slower pace and make them characterised as laggards in terms of new technologies adoption. This research takes into consideration this literature gap and makes a step forward and investigates on WiMax technology adoption by SMEs in KSA with an organisational cultural view, vendors’ commercialisation strategies and government policies by analysing the normative literature related to this research. The data collection of this study was carried out in two phases including quantitative and qualitative approaches. The first phase of the research provided results indicated that, the Saudi SMEs who participated in this research are strongly dominated by clan culture and adhocracy culture. These cultures also have a positive impact on the Internet technologies adoption such as WiMax by SMEs. It is found that, the combination of clan and adhocracy cultures in Saudi SMEs is making them more likely to adopt latest Internet technologies. In the second phase, the results showed a wide difference in views among SMEs, WiMax vendors and government agencies involved in WiMax technology diffusion to SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Although WiMax technology started as an innovation that has the potential to be disruptive and could replace the widely diffused fixed wire line Internet connection, the research findings showed an interesting deviation from this path. In particular, the WiMax technology market analysis in Saudi Arabia highlighted the vendors’ tendency to treat WiMax technology as a sustaining innovation. Research findings also indicated that, the Saudi government provided funds for Information and Communications Technology‘s diffusion in the country. However, the level of awareness displayed by SMEs is persistently low. Knowledge deployment, mobilisation, innovation directive and subsidy have been emphasised by SMEs as the most important government interventions that might have an impact on WiMax adoption by them. Finally, further important issues have been uncovered by the research such as taxation, experience exchange, herd culture/bandwagon, consumer right protection and customer service in relation to the adoption of WiMax by SMEs. The perceived future prospect of these additional issues has been considered as an influence on adoption of WiMax technology by SMEs. The findings of this research can be useful to guide analysts and researchers in determining critical aspects of the complex issues involved in technologies adoption, and lead to suggestions for further valid research

P2P STREAMING MEDIA INDUSTRY IN CHINA

The peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming media industry opened up a new era for the cyber age, has had a significant effect on many people?s leisure time, and has changed the way many people use entertainment. Over the past few years, this industry has developed dramatically in China, and it is thriving. In terms of the current situation, the P2P streaming media industry holds typical Chinese features that both enrich the audience?s cultural life, and have some impact on other kinds of mass media. This paper analyzes the P2P streaming media industry in China in order to recommend solutions to the challenges faced by the industry. It introduces various technical terms related to P2P and describes the overall industrial situation of P2P streaming media in China. It utilizes Porter?s Five Forces model for an analysis of the entire industry and assesses key success factors (KSFs). Concurrently, this article identifies the competitive advantages of P2P steaming media over other forms of media delivery, and examines its influence on other industries. It is important to note that P2P streaming media does face various obstacles in its developmental stages, and it is developing, but this paper makes strategic recommendations for solutions to the challenges that P2P streaming media faces

The development of information and communication technology: An empirical study

Information and communication technology (ICT) can be regarded as a universal technological system, which is closely linked to all of the previous systems and creates new, more complex technological systems. ICT’s main characterizing function is to assure acquiring, storing, processing, delivering, distributing, handling, controlling, transforming, retrieving and using information. The rich literature of the information society discusses its diversified functions in detail. During my analysis, I have taken the information society as a normative future plan for Hungary, and I have also been looking for the answer of what progress has been made in building the information society in the studied Hungarian economic sectors. In this paper I examine the following issues to what extent we can speak about the information society in Hungary nowadays; what is the development level of the information society in several economic sectors and company sizes compared to each other and to the member states of the European Union; how this development level can be measured and calculated; how the development level of information and communication technology increases in certain company sizes; what trends can be observed in the development process of the individual economic sectors and various company sizes. I extend my examination to the static, momentary state of the development level of ICT devices used in various economic sectors as well as to their dynamic analysis, expected pace of growth and their qualification

E-Learning in the workplace: an annotated bibliography

Provides an overview of the literature relating to e-learning in workplaces in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Summary The key findings of this annotated bibliography are: E-learning can provide flexible learning options for employees and allow them to upskill more rapidly. E-learning in the workplace can decrease the costs of upskilling a workforce through reducing travel and employee time away from work. E-learning is particularly useful for a geographically-dispersed workforce because it can deliver a consistent training experience. The uptake of e-learning in the workplace is increasing. Many New Zealand firms have the systems and infrastructure to support e-learning, but often lack the capability to implement it successfully. To overcome design inadequacies in e-learning courses, new skills and personnel are required in the teams charged with developing and delivering it. Firms need to have strategies and plans in place to support their e-learning which integrate or align with their overall plans and strategies. Support by managers for  e-learning in the workplace (including allocating sufficient time for it) is critical to success. Large organisations are more likely to adopt e-learning than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they have better infrastructure and systems and can more readily achieve economies of scale and return on investment. SMEs can form collaborative networks to share knowledge, resources, and expertise to overcome the cost and relevance barriers they face when implementing e-learning. E-learning is most often used in workplaces to supplement traditional delivery (blended learning). Blended learning can contribute to significant gains in learner achievement. The focus in workplace e-learning has moved from ‘courses’ to learning content that is available to employees as and when needed. E-learning is more effective when people can access it in small ‘chunks’, reflect on it, and then apply it immediately. E-learning supports informal learning in the workplace because it makes it easier to codify information and knowledge and make this available to the organisation and its external stakeholders. The most common technologies and systems used to support workplace e-learning are learning management systems, video, mobile devices, social networking tools, wikis, weblogs, simulations/virtual reality, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. Some of the main barriers to implementing e-learning in the workplace are: high up-front costs that include new and/or upgraded systems, training the trainers, and developing interactive and/or personalised content employee resistance to e-learning organisations not having an appropriate learning culture in place lack of management support adopting technologies and systems that are difficult to use and access, are unreliable, and/or lack technical support employees and trainers lacking the skills and capabilities to teach and learn in e-learning environments irrelevance to real-time work tasks and not integrated with business processes

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

Social Capital in Action: From Nought to Xero

Typically internet start-ups (e-ventures) are innovative, independent, original companies that focus on information as their competitive factor. They are characterised by enormous growth potential, giving rise to technical and market risk. Resourcing these ventures can be daunting usually requiring significant financial and human capital and once the venture is formed they are subject to a liability of newness with no track record, legitimacy or endorsement for the product/service. Whilst entrepreneurs bring their own resources and skills to the business it is necessary to seek additional complementary resources through sustainable exchange relationships to ensure the ventures success. This report has used a case study of a New Zealand e-venture to provide qualitative evidence of how resources were secured to start and initially grow the business. Using Napahiet and Ghoshal's (1998) three dimensional model of social capital it has analysed the evidence against scholarly theory to determine how social capital assisted the founders and the company to fulfil resource requirements and overcome the liability of newness. Napahiet and Ghoshal define social capital as "the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by individuals or social unit" (p.243). The report found that the high level of social capital the founders brought to the venture assisted in gaining quick access to finances, skilled staff, competitive information and potential customers. The social capital used to develop personal business relationships for the venture has been transferred into the company's organisational relationships that will provide future growth opportunities. The founders have benefited from having a diverse range of strong and weak contacts that provided referrals to new contacts and assisted in establishing a good reputation and trust, thus facilitating the exchange and combination of resources. Social capital has given the e-venture a uniqueness resulting in a competitive advantage that competitors would find difficult to imitate

Knowledge-based trade, technical change and location environment: the case of small and medium sized enterprises engaged in advanced producer software services in the South East region

Technical change is the driving force behind modern economic competitiveness and the evolution of enterprise and industry. The process, however, is not insular; in particular the location environment is regarded as a key component of how technical change is derived, implemented and diffused. This research study explores this assumption in relation to knowledge-based trade via small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in the development of advanced producer service (APS) software in the South East Region (SER), a region that has been identified as being post-industrial in character and knowledge-based. As a result of the intangible nature of technical change associated with knowledge-based trade, the research objective is not only to understand the supply architecture, i.e. the location environment in the context of operation and trade, but also interaction including tacit knowledge transfer. This research study employs an interdisciplinary set of approaches including geography, economics, sociology and organisational management. It also takes a bottom-up research approach via use of a qualitative format to analyse the interrelationship between location environment and technical change. Whilst the evidence gathered suggests that agglomeration economies are important both in terms of demand and supply hierarchy, this also inhibits wider opportunities for technical change within the region. Established firms within the survey knew in general where and how to get appropriate knowledge and skills advice. In fact they were in a far better position than public referral entities because of their involvement and awareness of their own specific technologies and markets. Rather than attempt to go against the entrepreneurial nature found within SER (which is a key driver of endogenous growth and competitiveness), what emerges is the need to facilitate greater knowledge interaction, but in a way that does not seek to directly intervene, to impose unsustainable network or partnership structures. Further, the study suggests that development bodies should take a greater interest in the process of knowledge translations and incorporations, particularly using the ‘actor-network’ theory approach to map regional knowledge dynamics