Promoting development through information technology innovation: The IT artifact, artfulness, and articulation

Abstract

In this theoretical article the author explores how information technology (IT) innovation can be harnessed to promote the socioeconomic growth of developing nations. Adopting a behavioral perspective, he proposes that effective IT-based societal development requires the learning of a key competency, termed as IT artfulness: the creative or ingenious transformation of work/social practices through the contextually appropriate use of IT tools. The elaboration of this perspective is based on the nature of IT artifacts, and the way meaningful action in IT-based practices is constituted through articulation, which refers to the process by which interpretive schemes shape behavior or perception. Harnessing IT as an effective spur to socioeconomic development is seen to require the modification of relevant interpretive schemes in society that permit: (a) the innovative potential of IT to be recognized, and (b) human and material resources to be skillfully managed to achieve desired changes and heightened welfare. C 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Developing Countries and ICT Initiatives: Lessons Learnt from Jordan's Experience

“…More recently, (Heeks & Bailur, 2006;2007;Garcia & Pardo, 2006) have advised the use of multi-method approaches when investigating complex ICT initiatives such as e-Government.…”

“…Despite the global boom in governments investing in ICT initiatives and promising to achieve social and economic development, the opportunities for the success of these initiatives in developing countries have been largely unexploited (Avgerou, 2000;Sein & Harindranath, 2004;Ndou, 2004;Corea, 2007). However, it is broadly agreed that ICT can play an important role in bridging the developmental gap between countries (POST, 2006).…”

Is ICT the panacea to sub-Saharan Africa’s development problems? Rethinking Africa’s contentious engagement with the global information society

“…Rather, the problem is that technologies are often mobilized in support of particular regimes of truth (rationality) and passed on as part of transferring particular ways of organizing economic and social affairs which the poor countries are expected to adapt and assimilate (Corea, 2007). Even though this rationality confl icts with local beliefs and systems of reasoning, it still dominates the rationality for all development projects that occur in SSA.…”

Human resource development, domains of information technology use, and levels of economic prosperity

“…The model depicts direct and indirect effects of two multi-item constructs: Education Quality and On-the-Job Training. The data items for each construct are from a survey conducted by the WEF as a part of their work on the Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007(Lopez-Claros, Schwab, & Porter, 2007. The survey gathers information on a broad range of variables for which hard data sources are scarce or, frequently, nonexistent.…”

“…One, there is a renewed emphasis on human resource development, which has led to a reemphasis on the role of education and training in economic development (Chacko, 2005). Two, the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) utilization has been recognized as key to the modernization of socioeconomies (Baliamoune-Lutz, 2003), (Corea, 2007). Indeed, recent ICT trends such as e-business and e-government have been cited as routes to wealth creation (Amit & Zott, 2001) and economic growth (Baliamoune-Lutz).…”