An Empirical Examination of the Impact of ICT Investments on Future Levels of Institutionalized Democracy and Foreign Direct Investment in Emerging Societies

The macro-level impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) investments on institutionalized democracy and foreign direct investment (FDI) levels in emerging societies are examined within a multi-theoretic framework that considers societal structure, power, and globalization-driven societal change. Using multilevel change modeling and longitudinal data from 48 emerging societies across seven years, ICT investments are observed to produce positive direct impacts on future levels of institutionalized democracy and FDI. After controlling for several covariates, the direct impact of ICT investments on future levels of institutionalized democracy in emerging societies is shown to partially explain the observed relationship between ICT investments and future FDI in those societies. The implications of these results are discussed in light of an emerging and exemplary World Bank debate over the historical search for a simple recipe for emerging society development and the need for a new way of thinking represented by what has been referred to as “new structural economics”

ICT Infrastructure and It’s Impact on National Development: A Research Direction for Africa

Discussions on Development that encompasses how ICTs can make a difference in climate, political, health disturbances and business environment require a multidisciplinary approach which demand contributions from IS community, the private sector, development agencies, practitioner and other academia. This would enable the development community to identify the objectives of technology for empowerment and how they should be achieved in the practice of national development. This study serves as a response to the call for more macro/micro level policy research on the role of ICT on national development. The paper reviews the previous research in this domain and proposes a research direction for macro/micro level impact of ICT on national development on the Africa continent

The Role of ICT as a Double-Edged Sword in Fostering Societal Transformations

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have been central to economies seeking improvements in societal conditions. The impacts of ICT advancements manifest themselves in both socioeconomic and sociopolitical changes. While socioeconomic restructuring and, more recently, sociopolitical changes have often been attributed to ICT, research on its impacts and nuances in countries differentiated by economic levels remains sparse. The focus has been on the two ends of the strata for developing and developed economies and restricted to the impacts of ICT on economic metrics like GDP growth. In this study, we explore the pivotal role of ICT in societal transformations for countries categorized as developing, transition, and developed economies. Leveraging endogenous growth theory and social network theory, we hypothesize about the different impacts of ICT across the three economic classifications. Using panel data from 1995 to 2012 for 37 countries belonging to the three economic groups, we empirically investigate the associations between ICT investments and societal outcomes. Our results reveal that ICT has an impact on societal outcomes for transformations, but the nature of its contributions to social change varies with the stage of a country’s economic development. The analysis suggests that developing economies benefit the most from ICT investments with an overall improvement in socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions, while the ICT effects are either insignificant or negatively inclined for developed economies. Transition economies show mixed ICT effects in stimulating socioeconomic and sociopolitical transformations. These results provide insights for actionable policies and suggest directions for building an ICT-enabled Bright Society

The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Transition Economies

This research investigates the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in transition economies (TEs). We identify how ICT spending influences the transition process of TEs with respect to socioeconomic and sociopolitical changes in the three groups of TEs from 2004 to 2010. These groups include the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Latin America, and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Our results suggest that while ICT spending is positively correlated with overall economic freedom and job creation, such investments do not significantly improve the democratic values or mitigate the existing high wealth-inequality level. Furthermore, the results from individual regions show that the impacts of ICT spending on transition processes differ according to the intention of ICT uses. These findings have implications for theorizing about the role of ICT and harnessing the potential of ICT in the transition processes in new economies

Regulative institutions supporting entrepreneurship in emerging economies: A comparison of China and India

China and India are touted as new entrepreneurship powerhouses. The two countries’ different institutional history and characteristics have led to differences in environments related to entrepreneurship. There are some well-founded rationales as well as a number of misinformed and ill-guided viewpoints about the friendliness of the environment to support entrepreneurship in each country as well as the China–India differences concerning entrepreneurial environment. This article contributes to this debate by offering theoretical and empirical evidence regarding the differences in regulative institutions in the two economies. Specifically, we compare the state’s regulative, participative, and supportive roles from the standpoint of entrepreneurship in the two countries

Unravelling the role of parliament in developing network industries: comparative case of ICT sector reform in Kenya and South Africa

Several scholars have identified institutional and regulatory conditions under which Information Communication Technologies (ICT) reforms can accomplish positive public policy outcomes. This literature pays little attention, however, to the role of parliaments in these reforms. The institutional factors determining the degree and nature of parliamentary participation in ICT sector reforms in Africa is what this thesis examines. Drawing from the political economy tradition, this thesis explores the interplay between the executive, the parliament and the various sectoral interests that determine ICT sector reforms in developing countries. It does so by placing parliament in a conceptual framework that combines the concept of ICT as a complex ecosystem with that of a constellation of institutions. The gathered empirical evidence is studied through this conceptual lens to build the cases of parliamentary participation in Kenya and South Africa - two of the most dynamic ICT markets in sub-Saharan Africa - which are then analysed comparatively. Some of the information is gathered through a self-assessment survey by members of the ICT parliamentary committees and complemented by high-level interviews with the main sector players. The findings are triangulated with those from an extensive document analysis. This thesis contextualises institutional analysis in specific political circumstances of the two countries in order to understand the relevance of parliament in sector reforms. The findings have important implications for our understanding of structural and institutional constraints on parliaments in developing countries and nascent democracies. Parliaments lack capacity to simply fulfill their legislative and oversight roles, let alone creating an enabling environment for innovative public policy, sector investment and public interest outcomes as required by this dynamic sector in any modern, globalised economy. Systematic coding of the data revealed national governance and institutional arrangements as key determinants of an ICT ecosystem that adapts to local and international conditions, confirming parliament as not simply a neutral legal structure but a significant power broker, reflecting competing interests at play. The formal legal system in both countries is uneven and underutilized, ineffective in achieving robustly-contested public interest outcomes. In order to manage political interests, parliament structures and serves principal agent-relationships, vetoes ICT policy and decision-making processes, links interest groups to government and party agendas, resolves conflicts and, sometimes, builds consensus among key players. The examination of institutional designs of both parliaments identifies critical capacity deficits that are at the heart of the negative outcomes in national legislative and oversight processes. In South Africa, the reason for these deficits is primarily that the parliamentary system promotes political party and executive dominance, which undermine multi-party and participatory structure of parliamentary processes to achieve party preferences and control outcomes. In Kenya, whilst the combination of distinct separation of powers and a constituency-based electoral system provides a legal basis for greater parliamentary accountability, the highly fragmented sector arrangements compounded by lack of internal capacity to utilize parliamentary instruments and mechanisms constrain parliament's participation. These weak institutional arrangements and designs, in both Kenya and South Africa, limit independence of parliament from the executive and sometimes industry, compromising the parliamentary oversight and visionary leadership expected from specialized portfolio committees. This calls for a transformation of arrangements to uphold and reinforce constitutional mandates that give parliament the power and ability to fulfill its role in policy reforms

Public value of e-Government investments in the developing countries: empirical exploration of the public sector in Kenya

In private and public sectors, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become a phenomenal asset of resource in strategic management. In developed countries, ICTs are critical tools in the public sector strategy. In specific, Electronic Government has been identified as one of the major competencies required to re-invigorate governance, enhance performance and reduce red-tape bureaucracies in the public sector, e-Government being the use of ICTs in the transformation of public organizations towards efficient service delivery. Though information systems as a discipline has offered some research outputs on the value and the effects of ICTs in the private sector, similar focus on the public sector or e-Government is relatively thin. While the few existing researches have had a relatively weightier focus on developed countries, the evidence-based empirical studies in information systems that have focused on developing countries have produced contradictory results, hence the need for further research to attempt a re-alignment in this sub domain of e-Government. Therefore, this pursuit departs from most past researches by delving into the effects of e- Government investments using theoretical lenses drawn upon disciplines that are outside the mainstream information systems domain. These include public administration, political sciences and public economics. Using a mixed methods approach, a balanced panel data of Kenya's key ministries for a 10-year period of 2004 to 2014 following the launch of e-Government strategy of 2004, audited national government ministries' expenditures, census data, e-Government spending, consumer price indices, gross domestic products, parameters on governance and other data on public services, this research sought to examine the nature and dimensions of public values that the developing countries derive as a consequence of investment in e-Government