398 research outputs found

    ICT for development reconsidered: a critical realist approach to the strategic context in Kenya's transition to e-governance

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    This study contributes to critical information systems research understanding of the broader strategic context of information systems initiatives in developing countries. It investigates contextual influences with structural impacts that may lead to instabilities and discontinuities in the immediate project context using a critical realist paradigm. It was informed by literature on development as discourse, ICT4D policy and technology transfer, E-Government adoption, and information systems research paradigms and applications in developing countries. A disconnection was observed between ICT4D policy practice that favors positivist technology diffusion models and research findings that suggest interpretive and critical contextual approaches. A theoretical framework was developed to reconsider ICT4D from a postcolonial country perspective by integrating critiques of modernity from Critical realism and postcolonial theory. An empirical case study investigation of change in Kenya‘s transition to E-Governance was then conducted and analyzed using a critical realist research framework, the Morphogenetic approach, supplemented by Q-methodology to study subjectivity. Finally ICT change was interpreted using critical realist concepts for structure, culture, and agency, with an overriding direction towards greater freedom. The main research contribution is a new approach to ICT4D where change is conceived within a dialectical framework that assumes people are moral and ethical beings possessing values. Research findings have implications for understanding the strategic context of E-Governance and ICT4D, time and temporality in contextual integrative frameworks, and suggest an alternative approach to strategy analysis in situations of rapid political and institutional change. They highlight the importance of political leaders and development agencies as mediators and interpreters of the strategic context. Development was conceived as a dialectical process towards transformative praxis, which together with the suggested approach to the strategic context, may require us to rethink the meaning of IS project success or failure in postcolonial developing countries

    The Generative Capacity of Digital Artifacts: A Mapping of the Field

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    The concept of generativity as the capacity of a technology or a system to be malleable by diverse groups of actors in unanticipated ways has recently gained considerable traction in information systems research. We review a sample of the body of knowledge and identify that scholars commonly investigated generativity in conjunction with digital infrastructures and digital platforms, both of which are complex, networked, and evolving socio-technical systems. Interestingly, other types of digital artifacts have been neglected, despite our initial assumption that the distinct attributes (e.g., reprogrammability, distributedness) of any digital artifact match well with generativity. The literature review also reveals that innovation brought about heterogeneous groups of actors is universally regarded as the goal of generativity, discounting the possibility of exploiting generative systems towards other valuable ends such as organizational agility. Furthermore, scholars commonly discuss generativity in conjunction with the logic of modularity, leading to unresolved questions on how these two concepts might complement each other. Another important contribution of this paper is the systematization of various meanings of generativity, spanning from the philosophical–e.g., generative mechanisms in critical realist research–to a more literal understanding, for instance generativity as synonym to ‘creation of a particular solution’

    ICT for development reconsidered : a critical realist approach to the strategic context in Kenya's transition to e-governance

    Get PDF
    This study contributes to critical information systems research understanding of the broader strategic context of information systems initiatives in developing countries. It investigates contextual influences with structural impacts that may lead to instabilities and discontinuities in the immediate project context using a critical realist paradigm. It was informed by literature on development as discourse, ICT4D policy and technology transfer, E-Government adoption, and information systems research paradigms and applications in developing countries. A disconnection was observed between ICT4D policy practice that favors positivist technology diffusion models and research findings that suggest interpretive and critical contextual approaches. A theoretical framework was developed to reconsider ICT4D from a postcolonial country perspective by integrating critiques of modernity from Critical realism and postcolonial theory. An empirical case study investigation of change in Kenya‘s transition to E-Governance was then conducted and analyzed using a critical realist research framework, the Morphogenetic approach, supplemented by Q-methodology to study subjectivity. Finally ICT change was interpreted using critical realist concepts for structure, culture, and agency, with an overriding direction towards greater freedom. The main research contribution is a new approach to ICT4D where change is conceived within a dialectical framework that assumes people are moral and ethical beings possessing values. Research findings have implications for understanding the strategic context of E-Governance and ICT4D, time and temporality in contextual integrative frameworks, and suggest an alternative approach to strategy analysis in situations of rapid political and institutional change. They highlight the importance of political leaders and development agencies as mediators and interpreters of the strategic context. Development was conceived as a dialectical process towards transformative praxis, which together with the suggested approach to the strategic context, may require us to rethink the meaning of IS project success or failure in postcolonial developing countries.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceCommonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom (CSCUK)Warwick Business School (WBS)GBUnited Kingdo

    Investigating Cultural Values and Educational Technology Adoption in Central Asia: A Case Study

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    Although the adoption of new tools for communication and learning could reasonably be expected to influence culture, little is known about the relationship between cultural values and the adoption or diffusion of Web 2.0 technologies. This case study examines the way in which the cultural values of 59 teachers in four Central Asian countries influenced and were influenced by Web 2.0 technologies during five to eighteen months of online professional development. Data was collected through self-introductions, Likert-scale and open-ended prompts on initial and final surveys, online forum discussions, and capstone projects. This allows an examination of changes in the participants’ expressed attitudes toward and use of Web 2.0 educational technology as well as the identification of cultural values (Hofstede, 1980b) associated with these patterns of adoption and diffusion. The findings are especially beneficial to decision-makers who care about the way the use of Web 2.0 educational technologies could impact educational systems and cultures

    A framework for developing citizen-centric e-government applications in developing countries: The design-reality gap in Uganda

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    Philosophiae Doctor - PhDE-government should be at the heart of service delivery in developing countries if the life of citizens, especially the socially and economically marginalised, is to be improved. Often in developing contexts, citizens have been treated as recipients of such interventions, in a top-down approach from central governments, resulting in the non-use of such interventions. A situation of non-use of e-services results in wastage of the public fiscus. The extant literature points to a number of underlying causes of the problem. One such problem is the “Design-Reality Gap.

    Three Fundamental Trade-offs in Expanding Sustainable Distributions of Manufacturing

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    The background of the research is the trend towards more inclusive manufacturing. This includes all levels of technologies to enable more diverse geographic and demographic distributions of manufacturing, which can improve ecological and social sustainability. Expanding distributions of manufacturing is of interest to governments, companies, communities and individuals. Interest among government and companies relates to manufacturing being re-shored and redistributed. Interest among communities and individuals is in people having more involvement in the production of what they consume: i.e. prosumption. Expansion of geographic distributions has potential to increase ecological sustainability, for example, by reducing long-distance transportation. Expansion of demographic distributions has potential to increase social sustainability, for example, by increasing the diversity of people involved in manufacturing. The dissertation addresses three research gaps concerned with sustainable distributed manufacturing. In particular, the fundamental challenges of three manufacturing trade-offs are addressed as follows: product originality, product complexity, and product unsustainability versus sustainable distributed manufacturing. There are three main findings from the research. First, technological advances enable expansion of sustainable distributed manufacturing of original products, if the products are small simple original products rather than large complicated original products. Second, technological advances enable sustainable distributed manufacturing of products that are more complex than could otherwise be made far from manufacturing infrastructures, but which nonetheless are not the most complex products. Third, technological advances enable more sustainable distributed production of products with unsustainable features, if technological advances are applied also to some existing distributions of manufacturing. Consideration of these three main findings and three further findings, suggests two complementary strategies for expanding sustainable manufacturing distributions: trade-off reduction and trade-off avoidance. Overall, the research is novel through its inclusion of diverse technologies and distributions of manufacturing in order to determine their relative potential to improve the production of physical goods at more diverse locations by more diverse people

    Next Generation Access in a Rural Community Context: An Innovation Analysis

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    This thesis explores how to resolve the digital divide in Wales. This is important because access to advanced broadband is considered an essential requirement, particularly post-COVID19. UK Government is advocating next generation access (NGA) to capitalise on Industry 4.0. However, the financial costs and complexities of connecting the final few rural areas is a persisting problem area. Hence, this thesis explores new innovative approaches to provide NGA (product) to a final few (market). Studies revealed superfast broadband in remote rural communities has four-fold human, social, environmental and financial capital benefits. Analysis resulted in a new conceptual framework which combines neo-endogenous theories alongside a four-fold capital model to characterise the complex ecosystem. Previous literature focused on either supply or demand, but few studies had investigated both together at the local level. Human & social capital were identified as critical success factors in community-led initiatives, thus providing a theoretical underpinning for this thesis. This study employed a novel mutual business approach utilising the Hybrid Value System (HVS) as an ecosystem connecting the core assets of several stakeholders. Furthermore, the World Bank Social Capital Assessment Tool was modified to investigate social capital fertility to enhance investment. Henceforth, a qualitative multi-method and in-depth intrinsic case study was used to explore the ecosystem. The contribution to knowledge is how to engage multi-stakeholder and multi-capital analysis to resolve the problem area. The results identified human capital productivity, social capital collective action, and shared financial capital are required at the local level to reach the final few. The mutual business paradigm challenges all stakeholders to value non-financial capital alongside financial capital for problem area resolution. This thesis concludes that HVS methodology coupled with complex ecosystem-network visualisation techniques, provide academics, management and government policy makers with practical tools to value four-fold capital resources and bridge the digital divide

    Barack Obama's Post-American Foreign Policy

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    This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. After one of the most controversial and divisive periods in the history of American foreign policy under President George W. Bush, the Obama administration was expected to make changes for the better in US relations with the wider world. Now, international problems confronting Obama appear more intractable, and there seems to be a marked continuity in policies between Obama and his predecessor. Robert Singh argues that Obama's approach of 'strategic engagement' was appropriate for a new era of constrained internationalism, but it has yielded modest results. Obama's search for the pragmatic middle has cost him political support at home and abroad, whilst failing to make decisive gains. Singh suggests by calibrating his foreign policies to the emergence of a 'post-American'world, the president has yet to preside over a renaissance of US global leadership. Ironically,Obama's policies have instead hastened the arrival of a post-American world

    A framework for enhancing government service delivery using mobile technologies: an African countries context

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    Electronic government (e-government) is how the providers of public services interact with the citizen and business via electronic means. The internet is the most commonly used electronic channel. E-government can provide major benefits to citizens and businesses by making the delivery of public services more efficient and effective. However, recent advances in mobile technology have offered the potential to support government services at various levels. This has made it possible to deliver services to the citizens who have no convenient physical access to government services, for example, people living in rural areas and those who are continually on the move, such as business professionals. This study explores the possibilities of effectiveness, resistance, opportunities and issues related to supporting government services delivery through using mobile cellular technologies. This research study focused on the South African and Nigerian contexts. The focus was to explore various ways that the government can use mobile technologies to improve the provision of government services. A major output of this research work is a conceptual framework to guide mobile government implementation as a vehicle for delivery of government services. Literature from both academic and professional domains were consulted throughout the study. Furthermore, a case study research was conducted in two organisations, which are different in terms of cultural and transformative settings (one in South Africa and another in Nigeria). The study followed an interpretive research approach, and collected data through semi-structured interviews in the two organizations. The data gathered were relevant to the implementation of m-government systems. The study relied on two underpinning theoretical frameworks, namely Structuration Theory and Actor Network Theory to understand the socio-technical factors affecting the implementation of m-government systems in government organisations. The perspective of duality of structure and moments of translation from both Structuration Theory and Actor Network Theory were adopted to analyse the data collected in the case study organisations

    THE ROLE OF UNDERLYING MECHANISMS IN ACHIEVING CONSISTENT HYBRID COMBINATIONS OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

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    This thesis takes a step beyond the current discussion on hybrid competitive strategies (HS) by identifying the underlying mechanisms and common elements of successful hybrid strategies. Reviewing empirical and theoretical literature revealed a significant gap in this respect. Therefore, the activity-based view of strategy is introduced to the discussion on HS. In a first step, four consistent and sustainable HS concepts are developed providing the basis for deriving specific HS models. A second step identifies commonalities among these HS types and theoretically derives a synthesized, common HS model. Thirdly, the critical realist stance was selected for answering this thesis’ research questions addressing consistent HS concepts, implementations, common activities achieving external and internal fit, as well as common capabilities and resources supporting these activities. In a case study approach, semi-structured, open ended interviews combining appreciative and laddering methods are conducted with twelve interviewees from five firms. The separate analysis of ladder elements and ladders allowed distinguishing constitutional from relational elements. Based on this, fourth, an empirically revised research construct is substantiated. This research finds HS firms applying intended and consistent, but mixed strategy concepts based on generating high customer benefits through combining competitive weapons of differentiation and price or total customer cost. Moreover, HS concepts centre on three strategic building blocks: customer centricity, fulfilment of customer needs and employee orientation. Additionally, the research indicates that firms apply activities primarily for achieving fit. While all firms combine both views, no activities are directed to both fit types simultaneously. Activities deploy capabilities and resources in general on two adaptive and two absorptive mechanisms. Several practical implications derive from this thesis. First, firms can apply the synthesized model as a kind of ‘blueprint’ providing orientation for how to combine competitive advantages. Second, policy makers can apply the outcomes as principles steering firms or industries to ‘higher’ levels of performance. Last, firm managers can adapt their own as well as their firm’s behaviour accordingly
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