Building Knowledge Economies in Africa: An Introduction

Abstract

Knowledge has emerged as a fundamental driver of economic growth and development by inter alia improving the effectiveness and efficiency of economic projects and boosting the process of finding new avenues of addressing developmental policy syndromes. Recent evidence suggests that Africa is on the threshold of significant and sustainable economic growth if its human and material resources can be effectively mobilised to support the process (Kuada & Mensah, 2017; Asongu & Tchamyou, 2019). Consequently, the World Bank's Knowledge Economy Framework aims to explore and support the extent to which current policies in African countries affect the knowledge development process (and thereby competitiveness) on the continent. A knowledge economy is an economy in which economic prosperity largely depends on the accessibility, quality and quantity of information available, instead of the means of production (Asongu, 2017a, 2017b). This themed issue of Contemporary Social Science-'Building Knowledge Economies in Africa'-consists of papers that focus on, but are not limited to, the four dimensions of the World Bank's Knowledge Economy Index. These are: information and communication technology, education, economic incentives and institutional regime, and innovation (Tchamyou, 2017). The themed issue engages with high quality contributions which, taken together, address the drivers towards knowledge-based economies. This introduction provides a context for understanding the importance of building knowledge economies in Africa and summarises the main contributions to the themed issue. The paper ends by advising scholars and policy makers regarding the risks associated with a colonial view of knowledge-notably the importance of proposing knowledge-based policies while avoiding hegemonic paradigms and hierarchical constructs. In summary, the issue consists of a set of theoretically informed, empirically robust, policy-relevant and accessible articles for both specialists and non-specialists.

Research promotion strategies to enhance research productivity in Tanzanian higher educational institutions

“…Research is a core component of higher educational institutions (HEIs) that facilitates the creation of knowledge and development of competent faculty members who also contribute to the building of nations through facilitating strides towards economic prosperity and enhanced quality of life (Cloete et al., 2018; Bayarcelik & Taşel, 2012; Blanco et al., 2016; Snowball & Shackleton, 2018). Therefore, African universities' limited involvement in research activities, as documented by scholars (Asongu & Kuada, 2020; Fussy, 2019; Maziku, 2021a, 2021b; UKaid, 2019) is a worrying situation. In fact, it has been singled out as the reason behind unsatisfactory infrastructures, limited hygiene and sanitation, limited disease management, food insecurity, and climate change hazards on the continent (Kirigia & Barry, 2008).…”

The of role economic growth in modulating mobile connectivity dynamics for financial inclusion in developing countries

“…how growth affects mobile money innovations through supply-side mobile money drivers). Some of the contemporary studies which have focused on innovation stimulating economic growth include: innovation that is driven by knowledge for the ultimate purpose of promoting economic growth (Asongu & Kuada, 2020;Oluwatobi, Olurinola, Alege & Ogundipe, 2020); country-specific innovations within the framework of environmental policy for economic prosperity (Azimi, Feng & Zhou, 2020); innovations in small and medium sized corporations as a means to economic growth (Gherghina, Botezatu, Hosszu&Simionescu, 2020); the relevance of innovations in promoting the economic prosperity of family corporations (Teixeira & Correia, 2020) and scientific research innovations for economic performance (Hamidi Motlagh, Babaee, Maleki & Isaai, 2020).…”

The state of the knowledge-based economy in the Arab world: cases of Qatar and Lebanon

“…More recently, the literature on the knowledge-based economy moved toward a focus on the dynamics of the digital economy, the emergence of new sectors and industries such as the artificial intelligence (AI) (Doloreux and Savoie-Dansereau, 2019), agricultural technology (Agritech) (Padhy and Satapathy, 2020), financial technology (Fintech) (Lee and Shin, 2018) and smart cities. Knowledge has emerged as a fundamental driver of economic growth and development (Asongu and Kuada, 2020). Besides, several researches confirmed the importance of the transition to a knowledge-based economy for sustainable development.…”