ICT Investment Research Articles

Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Public Sector Productivity Growth in Nigeria

This paper examined the impact of information and communication technology on public sector productivity growth from 2000 to 2019 in Nigeria. It also explained the effects of past or lag productivity growth values on current productivity growth in Nigeria. The paper employed the autoregressive model and technique to estimate and analyze the data. The study reviewed relevant literature on the impact of ICT on productivity. The literature review suggests that ICT is positively related to productivity, but a large number of studies have not demonstrated that in Nigeria. The results revealed that ICT had a significant positive impact on public sector productivity growth in Nigeria. The result also indicated that past-period productivity growth significantly influences current-period public sector productivity growth in Nigeria. That explained the autoregressive nature of productivity growth. The paper also provided evidence that capital, labour, education output and foreign direct investment significantly influence public sector productivity growth in Nigeria. The policy recommendations of the paper include that the Public Sector should be provided with more ICT investments and infrastructures by the Government to optimize ICT potential in the country. The Government should upgrade the ICT skills deficiency among employees in the Public Sector to improve performance, to mention but few.

Leveraging ICT investments in financial institutions in Oman

Leveraging ICT investments in financial institutions in Oman

The impact of technological progress and digitization on Ghana’s economy

This study analyzed the impact of technological progress and digitization on Ghana’s economy using panel data for the period 2009–2019. Technological progress and economic growth inter-dependency was analyzed in two steps. First, the relation was tested using Augmented Dickey-Fuller method. Second, we estimated the long-run relation between the variables by using Engel Granger and Error Correction models. The results indicate that adopting technology or digitizing the economy has the potential to drive sustainable growth and development. In particular, it was noted that ICT investments drive high productivity rates and faster economic growth. In sum, technological progress and digitization have the potential to foster significant growth and therefore must be given high credence in the planning and designing of development programmes. This paper contributes to development theories on the role that ICT plays in economic growth and development.

TECHNOLOGY QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF THE INDUSTRY 4.0 AND CYBERSECURITY RISK MANAGEMENT ON CURRENT BANKING ACTIVITIES IN EMERGING MARKETS - THE CASE IN VIETNAM

Industry 4.0 and digital technology has been affecting banking activities in most of bank system in emerging markets, esp. in Vietnam, one of the countries having high economic growth in ASEAN nations;so, quality management of technology issues and cyber security management are rising. There are main technologies in 4.0 revolution to process information including: Big Data database technologies, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, IoT, AI, Business Intelligence, Data Mining and Blockchain Technologies. These technologies are successively implemented in developed and improved security procedures IT and cybersecurity risk management. Also changes to the operating environment IT can occur suddenly and without warning, such as under the COVID-19 international emergency. As the critical sector financial is adapting to expanded remote operations, there is the potential for increased vulnerabilities and potential amplification of the effect of cybersecurity threats. Therefore, organizations need to own the ability to make in new ICT and cybersecurity investments to quickly and effectively adapt to address unforeseen circumstances for better quality management of technology.

Technological diffusion, banking efficiency and Solow's paradox: A frontier-based parametric and non-parametric analysis

Technological innovation is critical to secure long-term productivity benefits in any section of society. Investment in ICT is often seen as an imperative for improving banking efficiency. However, the unexpected failure of ICT in enhancing efficiency has unearthed the dilemma observed by Solow, who remarked, “You can see the computer age everywhere, except in productivity statistics”. We analyze the impact of IT investments on the technical and cost efficiency of 72 Indian commercial banks across 2008–2019 using stochastic frontier analysis with exogeneous inefficiency effects and a slacks-based measure of data envelopment analysis. We conclude that the sector has been able to leverage IT investments towards improving efficiency, thereby invalidating the claims of a productivity paradox and providing evidence that supports the birth of a new economy where IT can be viewed as a dynamic force that brings about changes in organizational design, allowing banks to achieve better efficiency levels.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the level and distribution of intangibles investment in the UK

ABSTRACT This paper investigates trends in intangibles investment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Responses from an online survey show that investment in R&D has dropped substantially for many firms but that over 40% of firms increased their ICT investment, which is likely to reflect the need to facilitate remote working and customer engagement. Industry is a major predictor of the change in intangibles investment. This is consistent with expectations in light of the different effect that measures to contain the pandemic have had across industries.

Impact of ICT on Economic Growth: Case of Central Asian Countries

The Government of Uzbekistan declared the year of 2020 as “The Year of Science, Education and Development of the Digital Economy” and is implementing the State Program, aiming at to liberalize the economy, improve market related incentives, encourage private enterprises, to reduce the role of the public sector by introducing ICT and Internet, developing digital economy. In order to understand the causal relationship between ICT investment and economic growth researchers have exert many effort in the world. The results are different: in developed countries the impact of ICT on economic growth is more powerful than in developing countries. This paper aims at finding and measuring causality between Economic growth and ICT development in emerging economies of Central Asian Countries by using panel data over the period of 19 years from 2000 – 2018. The research findings revealed that inflation, trade openness, final consumption expenditure and unemployment impact significantly on GDP per capita in Central Asian countries. The econometric analysis showed that ICT affects to GDP per capita positively and significantly: one percent increase in ICT contributes to GDP per capita 0.1669 percent (fixed broadband subscriptions) and 0.2218 percent (internet usage). Thus we concluded that information and communication technology together with economic indicators are key part of economic development in Central Asian countries. Reduction of inflation and unemployment allow expanding businesses, to create new job places in the digital economy.

Impact of Demonetization on Employment in India: Issues and Challenges of Labour Market

Demonetization is a conventional practice in monetary policy to embark upon black money. However, it was meant to be suddenly implemented. Long-ago, demonetization has taken place twice but it failed because the idea is to tackle the black money existing in circulation. This wasn’t for tackling corruption that’s what Government is not saying that 100% corruption will be tackled and also if announcement and time would have been given, this step might not have been successful in controlling black money and counterfeit currency in circulation coming from Pakistan, Nepal or other countries. Demonetization is a course of extraction of an exacting form of currency from circulation. The existing form of money has chosen from transmission and retired, to be put back with new notes or coins. The newest demonetization measures taken by the Indian Government on November 8th 2016, in an attempt to hold back corruption and black money has resulted in a massive amount of involuntary consequences. While the key objective following this budge is commendable, the planning and implementation of the scheme left much to be required from a policy point of view. This step has caused rolling impact throughout the economy, departing the most sectors reasonably crippled owing to the unanticipated cash crisis. The labour market in India has been witnessing numerous uncertainties including the problem of world recession, and growing ‘automation’ particularly in the manufacturing sector. More precisely, in the last one and a half decade, India has emerged a global power in terms of the development or diffusion of new technology in the form of ICT. ICT intensity, defined as the ratio of ICT investment to non ICT investment, has increased significantly across industries led to ‘automation’ in most production (and distribution). Its impact on productivity led growth, and direct employment is well documented. However, its negative employment impact, particularly in the ICT using manufacturing sector has largely been ignored. So, in a situation, when the debate, whether the net employment impact of ICT on the economy as a whole is positive, is still un-conclusive; any major policy change like ‘demonetization’ is likely to make the employment scenario further volatile by causing uncertainties to rise in labour market, mainly the informal employment.

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC

Nowadays, the Republic of Azerbaijan is one of the most developed countries in the Caucasus region. The country’s development is associated with hydrocarbon production; but in recent years, the country’s authorities have taken a course towards the IT sector development. This is an extremely interesting phenomenon, especially considering the low base's effect and the high growth rate of the main indicators which characterize a digital society. Within the article, the authors identify the relationship between the indicators of the digital society development and IT and the growth rate of the country’s economy and then the authors characterize the trends which are characteristic for Azerbaijan’s IT sector. The major challenge of the article is the preparation of the statistics for research, as they are scarce and segmented. There are two main elements of the research novelty: first, the methodology proposed by the authors for assessing the investments' effectiveness in IT by comparing them with the ITU index and, second, the identifying the shortcomings of the IT development system with the use of the digitalization efficiency analysis (from the below). The major contribution of the article is the development of the econometric methods for the estimation of the ICT investments’ effectiveness on the example of the Azerbaijan economy and the proof of the high importance of the sphere for the future of the country economy.

IMPACT OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE ON DIGITAL LEARNING IN ASSAM: ECONOMIC CAUSES BEHIND IT.

Digital learning is one of the most influential alternatives for mitigating the effects of a pandemic on the teaching-learning process. Especially in the present COVID-19 crisis, digital learning has emerged as a great alternative for continuing academic activities where the physical gathering is completely prohibited. Academic institutions and other online learning platforms take initiatives to promote digital learning process during these days, but the digital divide has stood as the main barrier in the front of it. In this paper, we have found that the digital divide is the main factor responsible for the failure of digital learning in Assam. Though there are different causes of the digital divide existed, we have limited our discussion by focusing explicitly on economic causes of the digital divide in Assam. Illiteracy, lack of skills, inadequate investment in ICT, infrastructural gap, low PCI are the major factors responsible for the digital divide in Assam.

Развитие человеческого потенциала, социальная политика и электронное гражданское участие в российских регионах

Человеческий потенциал, социальная политика и электронное гражданское участие взаимообусловлены. С одной стороны, грамотное социальное инвестирование в человеческое развитие – важное условие появления спроса на механизмы участия со стороны граждан, что в свою очередь усиливает готовность органов власти к внедрению инноваций. С другой стороны, электронное участие само по себе является воплощением социального инвестирования, направленным на усиление «обратной связи» общества по вопросам реализации социально-экономической политики. В статье тестируется данная взаимосвязь применительно к российским регионам. За последние годы в России появилось большое количество площадок электронного участия. Однако исследователи часто отмечают их недостаточную эффективность, а также существенные диспропорции в их развитии на региональном уровне. С помощью авторской методики оценки нами были получены данные о представленности и функциональном развитии каналов электронного участия в субъектах РФ. Полученные показатели были использованы в количественном исследовании. Результаты корреляционного и регрессионного анализа свидетельствуют о значимости человеческого потенциала и социальной ориентированности бюджетов регионов для развития электронного участия по сравнению с другими потенциальными предикторами: развитием политических институтов, качеством государственного управления, а также расходами на ИКТ. Нельзя утверждать, что человеческое развитие с неизбежностью приводит к росту «спроса» на электронное участие со стороны граждан или «предложения» подобных механизмов со стороны органов власти. Однако наш анализ позволяет сделать вывод о важности социальной политики для его развития: помимо вложений в цифровую инфраструктуру, необходимо активное социальное инвестирование в человеческий потенциал. К возможным направлениям инвестиций здесь можно отнести выравнивание возможностей через повышение качества жизни незащищенных социальных групп, развитие социальных программ для активного населения, выравнивание региональных диспропорций, а также инвестирование в цифровые компетенции граждан и общественные инициативы.

Leadership influence on job satisfaction and communication satisfaction in SMEs under computer-mediated- communication environments

Organizational investments in ICTs have made computer-mediated communication an active agent in organizations that impact how employees perceive leadership’s influence on job satisfaction and communication satisfaction. This study aims to determine whether there is a significant and positive relationship between transactional, transformational, and level 5 leadership styles on job satisfaction and communication satisfaction. The sample included 103 employees from Colombian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tertiary sector. Linear regressions evidenced a significant and positive influence of the three leadership styles on job satisfaction and communication satisfaction. These regressions also showed a more substantial level 5 leadership effect on communication satisfaction when the three variables interact within the organization. Similarly, transformational leadership positively impacted job satisfaction. In conclusion, leadership has a positive impact on smes under computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments.

ICT and Economic Growth Nexus: Case of Central Asian Countries

The Government of Uzbekistan declared the year of 2020 as “The Year of Science, Education and Development of the Digital Economy” and is implementing the State Program, aiming at to liberalize the economy, improve market related incentives, encourage private enterprises, to reduce the role of the public sector by introducing ICT and Internet, developing digital economy. In order to understand the causal relationship between ICT investment and economic growth researchers have exert many effort in the world. The results are different: in developed countries the impact of ICT on economic growth is more powerful than in developing countries. This paper aims at finding and measuring causality between Economic growth and ICT development in emerging economies of Central Asian Countries by using panel data over the period of 19 years from 2000 – 2018. The research findings revealed that inflation, trade openness, final consumption expenditure and unemployment impact significantly on GDP per capita in Central Asian countries. The econometric analysis showed that ICT affects to GDP per capita positively and significantly: one percent increase in ICT contributes to GDP per capita 0.1669 percent (fixed broadband subscriptions) and 0.2218 percent (internet usage).Thus we concluded that information and communication technology together with economic indicators are key part of economic development in Central Asian countries. Reduction of inflation and unemployment allow expanding businesses, to create new job places in the digital economy.

The institutionalization of ICT and civic participation: Evidence from eight European nations

In the present study we examine the impact of information technology on civic participation in eight European nations. Drawing from the social welfare regimes, social origins and media ecology perspectives, we employ a merged Eurostat and OECD data set (2014) to show that (a) investments in ICT are associated with an increase in civic participation, and (b) ICT effects are higher than the effects observed following investments in social welfare and nonprofit activity. More specifically, the study shows that after controlling for social welfare and nonprofit activity, (a) mobile broadband investment increases civic participation in social democratic regimes; and (b) fixed broadband investment is associated with an increase in civic participation in liberal regimes. We conclude that ICT exerts an institutional-level effect on civic participation that finds expression in significant variations in civic participation among European nations, after controlling for the traditional effects of social welfare and nonprofit activity.

Economic Implications of Digital Transformation

In a firm perspective the simply availability of digital systems does not necessarily lead to success. On the contrary, it requires that firms accompany digital resources with the development of best organizational practices which implicates a transformation in term of e.g. organizational changes and innovation. Digital technologies allow companies to improve productivity in two ways: by making hard improvements that dramatically increase the efficiency of intelligent machine and processes, and by making soft improvements that increase the efficiency of people working together. The paper highlights various discussions on the relationship between ICT investment and productivity. However, this framework has outlined a relatively more cohesive body of thought which, by seeking to overcome the controversial concept of the productivity paradox, highlights the existence of a significant relationship, not just between ICT and productivity, but also between certain multiplying variables which represent ICT and other complementary factors.

The Smart Village Approach, a Solid Approach for the Development of the Albanian Agriculture

This paper focuses on the issues facing Albania as a country aiming the membership to the European family. First, European policies for rural areas revitalization are presented and then, the challenges Albania has to overcome to become a EU member and second, to revitalize the rural areas. Small holding size is a major concern as it does not stimulate cooperation amongst farmers. Land legal issues is another problem that needs to be addressed. The revitalization of Albanian rural areas demands investments in ICT and a collaboration between the public and the private sectors.

Development of a smart city information system

This paper is centred around the development of a smart city information system. Smart cities use the framework of information and communications technologies to create, deploy and promote practices that address urban challenges and create, connect and enable sustainable infrastructure. This definition focuses on network deployment, transport, ICT investment, human and social capital to support sustainable community goals and quality of life by involving users of certain technologies and community-based applications in social participation. In this paper, we show that a multi-disciplinary approach is needed to address these issues, combining expertise from distributed systems, software and services engineering, network and data management and processing, crowdsourcing, sensor and update methods, social computing, as well as the collective intelligence.

Financial technology revolution and banks' information and communication technology investment: evidence from an emerging economy

The main objective of this study is to investigate banks' perception of Fintech growth in Nigeria and how such growth affects their ICT investment decisions. Fintech has brought to the forefront th...

Strategic Directions of Digitalization for the Development of Employment in Small and Medium-sized Businesses

Purpose: this article identifies strategic directions for the development of digital infrastructure that affect the level of employment in the segments of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation, including identifying opportunities and threats for their implementation.Methods: the research involves the use of a complex of scientific methods – general (analysis, analysis, synthesis, comparison, comparison); econometric (tools of linear regression using the least squares method); elements of the strategy methodology of Professor V.L. Kvint (OTSWanalysis).Results: the study examines China's experience in developing and integrating digital infrastructure into the economy. The impact of these system-forming transformations on employment in various business segments is considered. The current policy of the Russian Federation in the aspects of digital transformation and digitalization is analyzed. The results of the implementation of this policy and the consequences of its implementation in the Russian economy are studied. By constructing an econometric model, the strategic directions of digitalization have been identified, which determine employment in the segments of small and medium-sized businesses in the conditions of economic and technological realities. Based on the OTSW-analysis, the opportunities and threats posed by the digitalization process were considered in terms of their impact on small and medium-sized businesses and employment in these segments of the economy.Conclusions and Relevance: the authors found that the most important strategic aspects of digitalization processes that directly affect the development of employment in the Russian segments of small and medium-sized businesses are: internal costs for research and development of digital solutions; the share of the population with access to the Internet; the absolute volume of investment in ICT. A clear understanding of the potential opportunities and threats of the planned strategic priorities will contribute to the effectiveness of the further development of the Russian digital infrastructure.

Patterns of conduct of Argentine SMEs with respect to ICT investments

Various authors have concluded that there are different groupings that make it possible to explain the differences between companies in terms of their size, composition of capital or the degree of their evolution in terms of ICT and that within medium and small companies there are special dynamics that are necessary understand. This work is focused on this type of firms and a mixed methodology has been used to obtain data, which included the preparation of a field work supported by consultations with relevant personalities from academia, industry and consulting services in the area. It is proposed to draw an empirical scheme of the SME sector in Argentina, and results are presented in relation to the investment and adoption of ICT in these type of firms.