A Brief History of Mobile Telecommunication in Europe

Since the introduction of mobile telephony in the early fifties in Europe, US and Japan the demand for this service exploded. It seems that the latent demand for mobile telecommunication services for decade's continued to be very strong. Since the introduction of cellular technology the capacity of the services increasingly became able to meet the massive demand. Next and future generations of mobile telecommunication technologies bring increased transmission speed and more versatile services. This forces network operators to organise multi- sourced information flows supplied by service providers to increase the network effect of the system instead of providing the network infrastructure and leave the content to the users as in pure voice telephony. The drivers and inhibitors behind the emergence and recent developments of mobile telecommunications systems in Europe are highlighted in this paper. Liberalisation of the telecom markets in Europe drove new entrants to the market and curbed excessive pricing. However, in recent years the lack of challenging service is the main cause for the wavering development of newer generations of mobile telecommunication services.Telecommunications, Market Structure, Production, Pricing, Technological Change, Economic History, Europe

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategies in ICT SMEs in Enlarged Europe (EU25)

Innovation strategies of entrepreneurs are mapped with growth and performance of their firms in this study. Findings of the study are based on the data collected from 1238 small ICT firms located in 25 member states of European Union. The survey was conducted during October 2006 and March 2007. Results of Logit analysis suggest that firms that pursued continuous innovation strategies experienced more employment growth, higher profitability, and better sales dynamics than those that adopted occasional innovation approach. Market growth of continuous innovating firms realized faster pace than other type of firms. Another distinguishing characteristic of two types of firms emerged is market preference. Target market of continuous innovating firms has been European or global markets while innovative activities of other firms targeted domestic market. The study concludes that European innovation policies should be focused towards continuous innovation activities with due attention at human resource development policies.dynamic capabilities, continuous innovation, occasional innovation, competitiveness, human resources, internationalization

Accounting for the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Total Factor Productivity: Towards an Endogenous Growth Approach

Economists now broadly agree on the fact that technical progress and technology dissemination constitute the ultimate source of sustained economic growth. In particular, economic analysis in the context of the so-called endogenous-growth (often termed "new growth theories") approach has shifted towards elements such as human capital (education and training) and R&D which could be both used to increase knowledge accumulation and technical progress. This paper provides a review of the literature on the impact of ICT on Economic Growth and Productivity and provides elements of discussion for extending the neoclassical growth framework to incorporate elements of the endogenous growth theories in order to consider the impact of ICT diffusion on growth and productivity. This study provides an overview of the traditional growth accounting framework rooted on Sollow's contributions and its extension considering the cases where situations of under-investment in growth-promoting items such as R&D, can be detected. Similarly to the R&D case, the resulting aggregate use of ICT maybe too low for pushing productivity up in a given economy given that private agents may under-invest in ICT if the private economic returns from these investments are too low. The overall macroeconomic outcome may therefore result in a situation where the growth potential of ICT investment is far from being fully realised. This outcome in particular would allow explaining why still many EU countries are lagging behind in terms of ICT investment and ICT impact on economic growth, in particular compared to the US. This present study provides a number of theoretical caveats to understand the main issues at stake.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategies in ICT SMEs in Enlarged Europe (EU25)

The paper investigates the innovation behavior off entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises in the ICT sector of the European Union. In this study innovative strategies of entrepreneurs are mapped with growth and performance of their firms.Findings of the study are based on the data collected from 1238 small ICT firms located in 25 member states of European Union. The survey was conducted during October 2006 and March 2007. [EU-25]dynamic capabilities, continuous innovation, occasional innovation, competitiveness, human resources, internationalization, young entrepreneurs