The present study aims to evaluate the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the economic growth of selected developing countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region by using a panel Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) growth model over the period 2007-2016. The results extracted from the econometric model show that except fixed telephone, other information and communication technologies such as mobile phone, Internet usage, and broadband adoption are the main drivers of economic growth in MENA and SSA developing countries over the recent period 2007-2016.In addition, our findings confirm the superiority of MENA countries over SSA countries in the areas of Internet usage and broadband adoption. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that authorities in MENA and SSA countries should increase investments in ICT infrastructure. To benefit from the ICT drivers of economic growth, policymakers should enact several important policies that permit the development of financial sectors, provide a more convenient regulatory and institutional environment, increase economy openness, prioritize the allocation of resources to the development of ICT infrastructure, and contain the negative effects of inflation and government consumption.

PurposeIn today's business setting, the business analytic capability, data-driven culture and product development features are highly pronounced in light of the firm's competitive advantage. Though widespread attention has been given to the above concepts, there hasn't been much research done on how it could support achieving competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachThis research strongly lies on the theoretical background and empirically tests the hypothesized relationships. The primary survey of 272 responses was analysed by using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe findings of this study show a significant relationship for the constructs in the research model except for the third hypothesis. Accordingly, the firm's data-driven culture does not have a significant impact on new product newness.Originality/valueThis study empirically tests the business analytics capability, data-driven culture, and new product development features in the context of a firm's competitive advantage. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical, practical and managerial aspects of this field.

Several successful initiatives have resulted from the OER movement. One of them is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which is a popular learning mode as it offers an affordable and flexible way to learn. However, the evolution of the MOOCs has some challenges. One of the major problems of MOOCs is the diversity of learners and the need to personalize the content as well as the way of delivering it. The origin of this problem is the one size does not fit all. In fact, learners have different characteristics such as their learning styles, levels of knowledge, and so on. The selection of the most suitable parameters (set of complementary learners’ characteristics) to be considered in learner’s profile is not easy in the presence of a considerable number of learners in MOOCs. One reason is because a course can be attended by many learners with varied profiles from different regions of the world. This plurality of learner profiles makes it important to develop content that can meet the needs and objectives of each learner in MOOCS. Our solution to solve this problem consists of personalizing the content of MOOC for each learner. We propose a new approach which allows to optimize the selection of the personalization parameters and to apply the appropriate personalization strategy, based on a classification algorithm. The proposed approach aims to improve the retention rate and the quality of learning in MOOCs. This approach is validated by experiments which test its success when applied to many combinations of strategies and learner profiles.

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Abstract. This paper briefly introduces Topolor, a social personalized adaptive e-learning system, which aims at improving fine-grained social interaction in the learning process in addition to applying classical adaptation based on user modeling. Here, we present the main features of Topolor and its preliminary evaluation that showed high system usability from a student's perspective. The intention is to demonstrate Topolor hands-on at the conference.