ICITD's Research Abstracts

With the increasing globalization of the world economy, there has been a growing interest in the potential contributions of good governance to accelerating the rate of economic and social development in the developing countries, and enhance their smooth integration into the emerging global economy. Simultaneously, developed economies are experiencing increasing proportion in the contribution of knowledge, information and telecommunication sectors to their overall gross domestic product. This is placing increasing focus on the role and contribution of national information infrastructure to economic productivity, and in extension, to the economic and social development of nations.

This paper explores the link between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), governance, and social economic development in the developing countries. It empirically concludes that contributions of ICTs to social economic development are influenced by socio-political governance – leading to national development through more prudent and egalitarian application and use of the ICTs portfolio. The contingent role of governance on ICTs and national development paves the path towards recognizing the importance of socio-political moderators.

Meso, P., Datta, P., Mbarika, V. (2006). Moderating information infrastructure’s effects on national development with good governance: a study of developing countries. Journal of the American Society for Information Sciences and Technology, 57(2), 186-197.

The governance problems that most African countries have experienced since independence is nothing new and has received intensive coverage in the press worldwide.  A fundamental cause of governance problems in Africa may have been the disinformation of a vast majority of the region’s population owing to inadequate and poor information infrastructure. This research presents a growing ICT application domain —TeleDemocracy—in Sub-Saharan Africa.  We present several successful TeleDemocracy initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, the obstacles they face, and possible strategies to address them.  The research culminates with a discussion on implications for businesses, practice, teaching, and suggests salient areas that warrant future research.

LeBlanc, P., Mbarika, V., McCoy, S., & Meso, P. (2004). TeleDemocracy in developing countries: a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Proceedings of the 2004 Information Resource Management Association (IRMA 2004) International Conference, New Orleans, LA.