Achieving state‐of‐the‐art ICT connectivity in developing countries: The Azerbaijan model of Technology Leapfrogging

Abstract

Technology Leapfrogging can allow developing countries to achieve an advanced state of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) connectivity rapidly and efficiently. And yet, despite its apparent value and benefits, there is currently a lack of research on how the process is enacted. In an attempt to fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a case study of Azerbaijan's national ICT infrastructure development journey. Azerbaijan is one of the top developing countries across the globe in terms of ICT connectivity, and with an in-depth exploration of how it planned for ICT development, and leveraged new and existing ICT capabilities toward the implementation of high-impact projects in the areas of infrastructure development, e-government, information management and security, business and entrepreneurship, and research and education, a process model of Technology Leapfrogging is derived and presented in this article. More specifically, our process model suggests that ICT development in Azerbaijan unfolded as a "stage-skipping" variant of Technology Leapfrogging that consists of 4 stages: (1) strategizing, (2) anchoring, (3) enacting, and (4) reinforcing.Traversing the 4 stages enabled Azerbaijan to achieve the state of the art in ICT connectivity quickly and cost-effectively, which served to generate a number of economic and social outcomes for the country in spite of its limited resources.

Improving Effectiveness of Rural Information and Communication Technology Offices: The Case of Qazvin Province in Iran

“…However, there are scarce literatures in the field of requirements to improve effectiveness of rural ICT offices in developing country, especially in the context of Iran. We have reviewed (Figure 1) available literature related to design and implementation of physical and technical structure (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations & International Telecommunication Union, 2016;Heeks, 2018;Heeks & Stanforth, 2015;Ng & Tan, 2018;World Bank, 2017), social, organisational and cultural studies related to ICT (e.g., Duncombe, 2006;Gaved & Anderson, 2006;Gigler, 2015;Gow, 2018;Grimshaw & Kala, 2011;Harris & Harris, 2011) and policy and management related ICT studies (e.g., Rosenberger, 2014;van der Velenden, 2018;World Bank, 2016).…”

“…Over the last decade, rural society in Asia have achieved significant economic, social and cultural growth by leveraging ICTs (Dubé et al, 2020;Min et al, 2020). With the rapid development of ICT in developing countries, the demand for ICT services such as access to high-speed Internet and broadband wireless networks has been rapidly increasing in rural communities than the urban areas (Ng & Tan, 2018;World Bank, 2017). About one-third of the population of Iran who live in the rural areas are less advantaged due to the constraints that they face in accessing ICT platforms and associated infrastructures.…”