1,530 research outputs found

    Traditional and Information Technology Anti-Corruption Strategies for Curbing the Public Sector Corruption in Developing Economies of Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Literature Review

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    The pervasiveness of public sector corruption has been a major concern by successive governments and their citizenry. In order to curb such corruption, previous studies have focused on the anti-corruption strategies adopted by governments in isolation, but little or no study has focused on the interactions of the anti-corruption strategies. Using the concept-centric approach, we reviewed 91 studies systematically to understand the trends of government anti-corruption strategies. From the synthesized studies, we identified three dominant themes of anti-corruption strategies and their associated concepts. In addition, we also identified one dimension that captures information technology (IT) as a vehicle that enhances corrupt practices in the public sector. The identified themes include traditional, technological, transparency, and accountability anti-corruption strategies. We leveraged the identified themes and their associated concepts to develop a conceptual model that could explain the trends of anti-corruption strategies for curbing the public sector corruption. Our findings suggest that there are things we still need to know, particularly in the case of IT anti-corruption strategies that have been misused for corrupt purposes, especially in the context of e-government systems’ adoption in the public sectors as a new stream of IS research

    Governance Impact on Public-Private Partnerships for Member Countries of the World Bank Group

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    Member countries of the World Bank Group (WBG) increasingly turn to public-private partnerships (PPPs) to finance their transportation infrastructure projects due to the financial burden of undertaking big projects on their own. The World Bank coordinates the PPPs between investors and recipient countries. PPPs are expected to produce positive outcomes that respond to policy objectives. However, the outcomes and benefits of PPPs not only depend on several factors, but more importantly on how those factors interact with one another to yield the expected outcomes. This dissertation has identified good governance, PPP governance, and PPP outcome as the key concepts in the examination of the value that PPPs bring to countries that receive transportation PPP contracts. Using secondary data, the study explores the relationships between the three major concepts and assesses the possible mediating role of the internationally recognized PPP practices on the relationship between good governance and PPP outcome. The relationships are also examined for groups of countries based on their income level. The dissertation uses the overarching theory of good governance to explore these relationships. The dissertation analyzes the relationships using multivariate regression in the generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) in the STATA package. Most of the hypotheses set in the study were supported. Recommendations are made to the World Bank and member countries to conduct effective transportation PPP contracts. The contribution to theory and practice is discussed. A framework for examining the relationships is provided

    Off and Online Journalism and Corruption

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    This book provides a new theoretical framework of determinants that interact together in five hierarchical levels to restrain or produce corruption. The theory suggests a multilevel analysis that tests hypotheses regarding the relations of journalism and corruption within each level and across levels in international comparative research designs. Corruption as the abuse of power for private gain is built into the journalistic, economic, political, and cultural structures of any society and is affected by its interaction within the international system. The important questions of how differences in corruption across countries can be explained or what makes it more or less in a particular society and how press freedom and social media contribute to the fight against corruption are still unanswered. This book represents a significant contribution on the way to answer these critical questions. It discusses a variety of journalism-corruption experiences that provide a wealth of results and analyses. The cases it examines extend from Cuba to Algeria, India, Saudi Arabia, Sub-Saharan African, Gulf Cooperation Countries, Arab World, and Japan. The primary contribution of this book is both theoretical and empirical. Its details as well as the general theoretical frameworks make it a useful book for scholars, academics, undergraduate and graduate students, journalists, and policy makers

    Social Media as a Source of Citizens\u27 Communicative Power: Relating Social Media Diffusion, E-participation, and Corruption

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    The utility of social media as an anti-corruption mechanism, although widely acknowledged, is less investigated, both empirically and theoretically. Accordingly, in this study, through a cross-country panel analysis and grounding our arguments on Habermas\u27s theory of democracy, we explore the relationships among social media diffusion, e-participation, and corruption, in addition to the evolution of these relationships over time. Our results indicate that social media diffusion has a positive relationship with e-participation, which, in turn, has a negative relationship with corruption. Further, results show that the strength of these relationships wanes over time. These findings can help policymakers make informed decisions regarding the strategies for controlling corruption by increasing social media diffusion and e-participation

    Institutional quality and economic performance in the Caribbean and Latin America

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    Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Development Policy,2016This study employed panel data analysis for the period between 1996 and 2010, to ascertain the overarching institutional constituent in explaining output per capita differences across the Caribbean and Latin America. It was inferred from the regression results that of all the investigated institutional components, the control of corruption index was not only the most robust in all the specified empirical models, but it was invariably positive and statistically significant. More so, a combination of corruption control plus the voice and accountability indices, elicited a robust and statistically significant correlation between it and real GDP Per Capita. Akin to Gaskins and Kock (2013), the latter results manifest the role voice and accountability plays, in not only aiding instituted corruption control measures, but also to attenuate and eradicate the adverse effects of the vice. In consequence, a telling case is made for strengthening the institutions that control corruption, in order to improve the Caribbean and Latin America`s living standards. The latter not only lends empirical credence to Mario Vargas (2015) contention that corruption is Latin America`s top problem, but it also shows that reining it in, among other things is vitally important. Also, this underscores Brunt (2007)`s overarching question regarding “which particular institutions matter for economic growth.” Policy wise, efforts expended in either reducing or eradicating corruption can benefit from increased levels of voice and accountability, akin to Kock and Gaskins (2014). Finally, a proxy of collective institutional quality, constructed and invoked as a composite index, also exerted benign effects on living standards, hence accentuating the significance of strengthening institutional quality, especially when purging the markets of functional inefficiencies.Chapter I: Introduction Chapter II : Literature Review Chapter III: Econometric model specification and data Chapter IV: Empirical Results Chapter V: Regression results Chapter VI: Policy implications and conclusionmasterpublishedJose Emilio VEGA CENTENO GAMARRA

    Is Media Assistance Obsolete? A Practice-Based Perspective on the Potential for Digital Technologies to Achieve Media Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa

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    The area of media assistance is not a widely known part of the Development Aid sector, even though it has been in existence since after World War II and has grown significantly since then as part of the development agenda. Media Assistance has been included in the strategies of Western and non Western donors as part of their overseas Aid programmes in many regions, supporting journalism and media with the objectives of contributing to accountability, transparency, governance and ultimately, democracy. This thesis examines the impact on the Media Assistance sector of the arrival of digital technologies into the ‘information ecosystems’ in which it operates. Whereas historically in Media Assistance, broadcast media and the press have been the preferred (or available) media for achieving development objectives, digital technologies such as mobile phones and social media are radically altering the landscape of Media Assistance. In Africa, where mobile phones are heralded as a “gift to development”, donors have been exploring the potential of these tools to achieve their development objective. As a consequence, the area of ICTs for Development (ICT4D) has flourished. At a time when the narrative in the western media has been of an “Africa Rising” and of techno-determinism, this research asks whether these digital technologies are indeed being used to achieve Media Assistance objectives in practice. If they are being integrated into media development programmes – or even replacing media development programmes - to what level of success? To answer this question, the thesis focuses on two countries in East Africa – Kenya and Tanzania – and interviews 40 stakeholders working in media assistance in these countries. The research finds that in fact many projects continue to use traditional methods. This is due to issues such as the digital divide, technical literacy, and continuing preference for traditional media by wider populations in these countries. Furthermore, the study notes that the virtual public sphere facilitated by the internet is not accessible to all, nor is it an ideal public sphere. Finally, citizens of these countries, the research finds, do not necessarily use these technologies for participation or accountability ends. Thus, despite widespread diffusion of technologies such as mobile phones in both these countries, there is still an important role for traditional media development approaches to achieve donor objectives in the new information ecosystem

    Assessing the Quality of Democracy: A Practical Guide

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    The Effect of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Diffusion on Corruption and Transparency (A Global Study)

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    Is the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) the “magic bullet” for effectively reducing corruption? Can government transparency be increased by ICT diffusion? Does ICT diffusion increase governmental transparency, thereby reducing corruption? A few previous studies have measured the relationship between ICTs, transparency, and corruption. Generally, such studies focus on the role of electronic governance (e-governance) in facilitating state-citizen interactions and how e-governance acts as a corruption deterrent. This study digresses from past literature by directly exploring the effects of the ICT environment, using the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), and diffusion of two specific ICTs (e.g. the number of Internet users per 100 people and mobile cellular phone users per 100 people) on corruption and transparency through structural equation modeling. This study also examines how macroeconomic and national sociocultural variables mediate and moderate the relationships of ICTs on transparency and corruption. The results show that for each increase unit in NRI, transparency increased by 9.423% and corruption decreased by 14.017%. Furthermore, increasing access to the Internet by 27 people per 100 persons increased transparency by 17.581% and reduced corruption by 15.239%. Additionally, each unit increase in per capita GDP results in an increase in transparency by 7.068% and a decrease in corruption by 10.507%. Conversely, increases in FDI and mobile cellular diffusion demonstrated marginal results on increasing transparency and reducing corruption. Implications of these findings as well as avenues for further research are discussed

    Innovation-ICT-cybersecurity: The triad relationship and its impact on growth competitiveness

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    This study examines the global growth competitiveness of countries using the dynamics of growth, ICT, and innovation. It also introduces a new dynamic, cybersecurity, and argues that within a growth competitiveness framework, ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity mechanisms allow some countries to achieve higher ranks on the competitiveness ladder than others. Based on a theoretical framework that encompasses the economic growth model, the complementarity theory, and the international law theory, a model that integrates ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity, depicts the relationships amongst them and with growth competitiveness, and incorporates complementary factors with possible moderating effect is presented. The model proposed relationships are then tested using PLS-PM. The model proves to have adequate goodness-of-fit as well as predictive validity. Results support most hypotheses showing: (1) a positive relationship between ICT and innovation; (2) a positive relationship between each of innovation and ICT with growth competitiveness; (3) a mediating effect of innovation has in the ICT – growth competitiveness relationship; (4) a positive relationship between ICT and innovation on one hand and cybersecurity on the other; (5) a mediating role of cybersecurity in the ICT – growth as well as the innovation – growth relationships; and the (6) moderating effect that human capital has in the above relationships. Cyber threats, however, do not have a moderator role in these relationships. These findings are interpreted in relation to the extant body of knowledge related to ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity. Moreover, the theoretical and the practical implications are discussed and the practical significance is shown. Finally, the study limitations are listed, the recommendations are presented, and the direction for future work is discussed
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