Understanding the Role of Information Technology for Sustainable Development in Small Businesses and Micro-Enterprises

Small businesses, including micro-enterprises, represent the majority of all firms in the world. This study investigates how Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) can impact the performance of small businesses, including micro-enterprises. This research introduces an updated Information Technology for Development (IT4D) framework to investigate the key factors that influence the adoption of technology in small businesses. Through structural equation modeling (SEM) and factor analysis of 118 microenterprises in China, facilitating conditions, attitude toward using technology, and anxiety is positively related to the behavior intention to use IT. Also, the usage of ICTs and human capital have a positive effect towards the development of small businesses. In order to understand why, in-depth case analysis of China and the United States based microenterprises was carried out using a qualitative research strategy. Case study data was gathered from 11 Chinese, Native American, African American, and Caucasian owned micro-enterprises and small businesses in the United States and China. In order to find out how the growth of those micro-enterprises varies, a comparative analysis was carried out. The results suggest that the characteristics of ICTs, the access to ICTs, and personal inequalities impact the process of economic development and empowerment of the small businesses. Contributions of the dissertation are as follows: the theoretical contribution of this dissertation is an updated framework for IT4D. The practical contribution is in the interventions that providing IT training opportunities are critical for the growth of small businesses. Finally, this research identifies gaps in the IT4D in small businesses and proposes a framework to guide future research

Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children: Where We Stand and Where We Go From Here

Examines the connection between access to technology and the health, economic opportunity, community involvement, and educational achievement of youth. Makes recommendations for addressing the opportunity gap for low-income and ethnic-minority children

Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Business Performance

The performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is of fundamental significance in emerging economies because of their contribution to economic development and growth. Amongst many factors that contribute to SME performance, different information and communication technology (ICT) resources are worth mentioning in this age of the 4th industrial revolution. However, debate persists in the literature on the real contribution of ICT to business performance. Of the two diametrically different schools of thought in the debate, one believes that ICT is still capable of contributing to business performance. On the other hand, the opposite school of thought believes that ICT is no longer effective at creating differentiation between firms in terms of business performance; it has already become a basic utility available to all firms. Hence, ICT tools have been categorised into general purpose technologies (GPTs) and enabling technologies (ETs) in this thesis to better understand this debate and, in turn, the separate contribution of these two types of ICT tools to business performance. In other words, this thesis intends to explain the role of GPT and ET-related ICT resources in business performance, especially in SMEs in an emerging economy, Bangladesh, where the empirical part of this research is examined. The ETs include less widely used, specialist tools. On the other hand, GPTs include widely used, simpler technologies. There are several interesting findings in this thesis that add new dimensions to existing knowledge. Firstly, that ETs add more value to SME performance compared to GPTs. Secondly, the results support that SMEs’ ICT collaboration capabilities as a mediator influence the business value of ICT (BVICT) more than the direct effect in the case of ETs. Thirdly, different networking dimensions by SME owner-managers as a mediator have more influence on BVICT (in the case of GPTs) compared to the direct effect

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Restyling museum role and activities: European best practices towards a new strategic fit

Challenged by market pressures and enduring funding constraints, museums are actually asked to reassess their traditional role of heritage custodians, rather becoming “more entrepreneurial”. The service orientation (Alcaraz et al, 2009) has become pivotal in the new museum management, by ensuring a kind of dictatorship of the consumer and the dominance of marketing oriented studies. Minor attention has been dedicated to the offer side as a determinant of museum innovation and competitiveness. By using a benchmarking approach, this paper aims at filling this gap, by unravelling museum functions into a set of value activities, in order to point out museum best practices at the activity level, ultimately attempting to reconstruct the picture of the museums today, in their struggle for survival.Di fronte alla sfida posta dall’ambiente competitivo e dalla scarsità di risorse finanziarie, i musei si trovano sempre più a dover fronteggiare l’esigenza di preservare il ruolo di “custodi” del patrimonio , pur diventando più imprenditoriali. . L’orientamento al servizio (Alcaraz and Gillian, 2009) è diventata la pietra miliare nella nuova era della gestione museale, assicurando una sorta di “dittatura” del consumatore e la dominanza di studi orientati al marketing. Una minore attenzione è stata dedicata al lato dell’offerta come determinante dell’innovaziopne e della competitività museale.Adottando un approccio dì benchmarking, questo articolo si propone di colmare tale lacuna, dipanando le funzioni museali in un set articolato di attività, al fine di individuare best practices a livello di attività, nel tentativo di ricostruire il volto dei musei oggi, colti in un momento cruciale della loro lotta per la sopravvivenza

New horizons for productive transformation in the Andina Region

En cubierta: Growth and productive transition agendaBibliografía: p. 118-129Las economías desarrolladas y emergentes, así como el contexto internacional dentro del cual interactúan, han enfrentado eventos que vienen transformando estructuralmente sus procesos de producción. El cambio climático, la digitalización y la pandemia del COVID-19 están generando grandes cambios en el mundo. La estructura productiva de los países andinos está siendo afectada por estas tendencias. Dada esta coyuntura, urge tomar decisiones sobre políticas para afrontar esta situación pues, de no hacerlo, habría serias consecuencias sobre el ingreso de los países andinos. Existen muchos sectores que han sido afectados y también beneficiados por la pandemia. Resulta fundamental atender los desafíos del sector agrícola, especialmente aquellos relacionados con su baja productividad. Cabe señalar que, a pesar del entorno, este sector ha crecido. El reposicionamiento de las cadenas globales de valor destaca las oportunidades no aprovechadas por la región andina. Además, el sector servicios, principal empleador de las economías andinas, fue impactado fuertemente por la pandemia. Por otro lado, el sector extractivo ya presentaba retos importantes, aun antes de este proceso de transformación. Esto ocurre en un contexto donde, pese a su crecimiento, la digitalización sigue teniendo grandes rezagos. Más aún, la región se ha caracterizado por presentar retos de desigualdad, que representan un desafío adicional de una transición que va a tener impactos sociales considerables. Este contexto abre oportunidades para la región, pero exige un importante esfuerzo de coordinación de políticas públicas. La región tiene la tarea de diversificarse. Esta publicación presenta recomendaciones al respecto. Al revisar los sectores antes mencionados, resulta fundamental atender los desafíos del sector agrícola, en particular los relacionados con su baja productividad. Existen oportunidades para integrarse a las cadenas globales de valor, pero los países andinos deberán hacer un mejor uso de los tratados comerciales existentes, buscando reducir costos para el comercio. Cabe mencionar que la región tiene espacio para aprovechar las transformaciones que están ocurriendo en el sector servicios. Finalmente, pese a existir desafíos importantes para el sector de industrias extractivas, también se presentan oportunidades para aprovechar este sector como palanca para la transformación productiva. Para lograrlo, es necesario promover la digitalización empresarial y facilitar a las empresas la decisión de qué tecnologías digitales implementar y cómo hacerlo. Cualquier estrategia de transformación productiva debe generar oportunidades para la población. Por tanto, es necesario considerar que el fomentar sectores de la economía más diversos e inclusivos no solo es más equitativo y justo, también es más rentable