1,258 research outputs found
Mobile phones and development : the future in new hands?
More and more development workers tell stories of mobile surprises - not just who is using them, and where they are using them, but also how they are using them. Through mobiles, the first digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) have reached poor households and communities. In less than a generation, the majority of poor people will have access to mobile phones and services
The impact of mobile telephony on developing country micro-enterprises: a Nigerian case study
Informational challenges-absence, uncertainty, asymmetry-shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. For developing country micro-enterprises, which form the bulk of all enterprises worldwide, these challenges shape the characteristics of their supply chains. They reduce the chances that business and trade will emerge. They keep supply chains localised and intermediated. They make trade within those supply chains slow, costly, and risky. Mobile telephony may provide an opportunity to address the informational challenges and, hence, to alter the characteristics of trade within micro-enterprise supply chains. However, mobile telephony has only recently penetrated. This paper, therefore, presents one of the first case studies of the impact of mobile telephony on the numerically-dominant form of enterprise, based around a case study of the cloth-weaving sector in Nigeria. It finds that there are ways in which costs and risks are being reduced and time is saved, often by substitution of journeys. But it also finds a continuing need for journeys and physical meetings due to issues of trust, design intensity, physical inspection and exchange, and interaction complexity. As a result, there are few signs of the de-localisation or disintermediation predicted by some commentators. An economising effect of mobile phones on supply chain processes may therefore co-exist with the entrenchment of supply chain structures and a growing 'competitive divide' between those with and without access to telephony
eGovernment in Africa: Promise and Practice
The iGovernment working paper series discusses the broad issues surroundin
Recommended from our members
State policy, liberalisation and the development of the Indian software industry
This thesis investigates the relationship between industrial development and industrial policy in a developing country. The chosen industry - software - is of recent origin and of growing importance in many developing countries, for which it can present one of the best entry points into the information technology production complex. Yet this industry and, particularly, the role of state policy in its development have been relatively neglected within the literature.
The key policy issue of recent years has been policy liberalisation, and the thesis takes as its central theme the role that policy liberalisation plays in software industry development. A specific case study is made of the Indian software industry and Indian software policy because these have been long-standing, and because they combine high growth with liberalisation.
The conclusion reached is that certain policy liberalisations may have a role to play in software industry development but that liberalisation cannot be seen as a 'panacea' for such development. The impacts of some liberalisations run counter to some long-term development objectives while state intervention is seen to have played a positive and necessary role in assisting software industry growth. At the same time, certain liberalisations are found to be either politically or financially unfeasible. Software policy makers face a major decision on whether to orient their industry towards the domestic or export markets. It is argued that the Indian industry has shown an export bias which should be reduced by greater orientation to the domestic market. Other developing countries may need to focus even more on domestic-oriented production rather than exports.
Policy is not the only determinant of software industry development because technology, market entry barriers, input supply constraints, and producer-consumer relations also play a part. Nevertheless, policy has a very important role to play and should be applied in a non-dogmatic way that is responsive to the specific and changing circumstances of individual nations and industries
- …