https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

The Rise of the Creative Class

/pdf/social-capital-a-theory-of-social-structure-and-action-4m7poq6byy.pdf

Social capital: a theory of social structure and action

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide

The standard of living

Purpose – Information and communication technologies (ICTs) open new opportunities for micro‐enterprises to improve their businesses. However, challenges to using ICTs impede these businesses from growing into drivers for development. This paper seeks to investigate the adoption of ICTs in 11 micro‐enterprises in an underserved community of Omaha, Nebraska.Design/methodology/approach – Following an action research study, this research provides insight into the key challenges and opportunities facing micro‐enterprises in their use of ICTs to create value for their businesses.Findings – The process of “IT therapy” provides individualized technology‐related assistance, with an emphasis on relationship‐building, customized training, context sensitivity, and solutions that target strongly‐perceived needs of the businesses studied.Originality/value – The paper's contribution is in the methodology for facilitating the adoption of ICTs in micro‐enterprises.

Meeting the challenges of ICT adoption by micro‐enterprises

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) have the potential to enable these businesses to grow through access to new markets and administrative efficiencies. However, the growth of the smallest of these SMEs which are micro-enterprises is hindered by their inability to adopt ICTs. This paper investigates how micro-enterprises can adopt ICTs to grow and achieve competitiveness. It investigates a set of seven micro-enterprises through an interpretive field study in which action research was used to diagnose and treat the micro-enterprises. This was done using interventions through a process called â€œInformation Technology (IT) Therapyâ€ . This process involved providing individualized IT solutions to pressing problems and opportunities. The increase in competitiveness of these micro-enterprises was assessed using the Focus Dominance Model and their growth through a modified model of micro-enterprise growth. This research contributes to assisting micro-enterprises achieve sustained growth and competitive advantage.

Information Technology Interventions for Growth and Competitiveness in Micro-Enterprises

In Lee is a professor in the School of Computer Sciences at the College of Business and Technology at Western Illinois University in the US. He is a two-time winner of the Research Excellence Award in the College of Business and Technology at WIU. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of E-Business Research. He has published his research in such journals as Communications of the ACM, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, International Journal of Production Research, Decision Support Systems, Computers and Operations Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Business Horizons, Knowledge and Process Management, Journal of Small Business Management, Management Decision, Computers and Education, International Small Business Journal, Computers in Human Behavior, Business Process Management Journal, Computers and Industrial Engineering and others. Prior to his academic career, he worked for a number of multinational corporations. He has also served as a consultant for various government agencies and private organizations. His current research interests include web technology development and management, investment strategies for computing technologies and mobile services. He received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In Lee (Western Illinois University, USA)

E-Business Applications for Product Development and Competitive Growth: Emerging Technologies

The advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has opened up new opportunities for micro-enterprises to improve their businesses. However the challenges to using ICTs are impeding these businesses from growing into the drivers for development that they can be. This suggests that a potentially important driver of development needs to be supported. This paper investigates the adoption of ICTs in eight micro-enterprises in an underserved community of Omaha, Nebraska. Following an action research study, this research provides insight into the key challenges and opportunities facing micro-enterprises in their use of ICTs to create value for their businesses. Its contribution is in the methodology for implementing ICTs in micro-enterprises.

/pdf/an-information-technology-therapy-approach-to-micro-2xxyq7bbqz.pdf

An Information Technology Therapy Approach to Micro-enterprise Adoption of ICTs

As the dependencies between developed and developing countries increase with the globalization of the world economy, the need to access and use dispersed knowledge and skills are at a premium. As the costs of skill sets increase in the developed world, organizations are turning to the developing world to cater for their knowledge resources. The sharing and use of diverse and disparate knowledge has become a key engine for development. This paper investigates how knowledge networking can enable the digital divide to be overcome. Following a phenomenological analysis of knowledge activation through information and communication technologies, this paper provides insight into the development processes that are driven by knowledge networking. The contribution of this paper is in the discovery of the ways knowledge networking can be used to bridge the digital divide

/pdf/knowledge-networking-for-development-building-bridges-across-27ikvn5yl8.pdf

Mehruz Kamal

Papers

Meeting the challenges of ICT adoption by micro‐enterprises

Information Technology Interventions for Growth and Competitiveness in Micro-Enterprises

E-Business Applications for Product Development and Competitive Growth: Emerging Technologies

An Information Technology Therapy Approach to Micro-enterprise Adoption of ICTs

Knowledge Networking for Development: Building Bridges across the Digital Divide