Government Policies and ICT Growth in Developing Countries: An Extended Design-Actuality Framework

The issue of gaps between ICT policy design and their outcomes is the subject of debate in academic research on information systems in developing countries. This paper extends the design-actuality gaps (Heeks, 2002) framework to provide a theoretical foundation for the evaluation and analyses of the gaps between government policy design and actual outcomes of the implementation of these policies. The design-actuality framework has traditionally been used in understanding success, failure and local improvisations of information systems in developing countries (Pozzebon and Heck, 2006; Gerhan and Mutula, 2007, Best and Kumar, 2008). This framework has also been used to explain success and failure of specific government projects (Gichoya, Hepworth, and Dawson, 2006). This research extends the framework to develop a theoretical foundation for government ICT policies evaluation and analysis

DEFINING ICT AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

There is a widespread belief that information and communication technologies (ICT) canplay a significant role in the socio-economic development of a nation. ICT has the potential toaffect many aspects of economic and societal activity such as GDP growth, employment,productivity, poverty alleviation, quality of life, education, and healthcare. While the literaturefrom various disciplines provides a myriad of definitions and elements of socio-economicdevelopment, the fundamental question of what constitutes socio-economic development,specifically one that is ICT-driven, from the perspective of ordinary citizens, remainsunanswered. This study focuses on the citizens’ view in describing ICT-driven socio-economicdevelopment is a developing country. The paper also makes a methodological contribution tothe IS field by its use of the narrative research method, one which is very appropriate for thistype of research. Narratives allow deeper and profound insights into participants\u27 beliefs aboutthe role of ICT in their socio-economic development. Using the narrative research method, amodel of the dimensions of socio-economic development is formulated. Furthermore, theresearch introduces several innovations in qualitative research