Can new information and communication technologies (ICTs) enable African firms to significantly improve their performance and upgrade their technological capabilities in line with global industrial standards? The changing structure of international trade offers significant opportunities for African firms and some believe that ICTs can rapidly accelerate Africa's global market integration by helping small, medium, and micro-scale enterprises (SMMEs) become significantly more productive, innovative, and competitive. While there is general agreement about ICTs' importance, substantive questions remain regarding if and how they can dramatically improve SMME performance and whether investments in these should take precedence over other priorities such as the development of roads.
Dr. James Murphy at Clark University and Dr. Padraig R Carmody at Trinity College will address questions about ICTs and their significance through an in-depth examination of 'if' and 'how' mobile phone, computer, and internet use are influencing SMME development in South Africa and in Tanzania's tourism and wood products industries. The investigators will apply four distinct yet interrelated conceptual approaches: resource-based views on enterprise development; time-geography perspectives on the contribution of technology to mobility and accessibility constraints; conceptualizations of upgrading from the global value chain literature; and theories on socio-technical regime transitions from science and technology studies. This four-pillared approach will enable the research team to detail the contributions of ICTs from three vantage points: intra-firm development, industrial transformation in particular industries and countries, and their implications for global market integration. The investigators will employ a mixture of surveys and in-depth interviews to obtain data on the extent, intensity, and cost of ICT use; SMME performance since ICT adoption; the specific contributions of ICTs to production, marketing, and innovation; changes in the time-space characteristics of everyday business activities since ICT adoption; and the contribution of ICTs to changes in the technological capabilities of SMMEs.
The study will yield findings that contribute significantly to theories of technological change and industrial development. Moreover, the project will have significant comparative implications as the investigators analyze two different kinds of industry (wood products, tourism) in two different African countries (South Africa, Tanzania). In a broader sense, the study will help policy makers more effectively target and weigh ICT investments against other development priorities, such as public health and education, and will improve our understandings of what ICTs mean for the everyday lives of Africans. The study will also demonstrate how empirical research in Africa can contribute significantly to general theories on technology and industrial development. The project will also have significant educational impacts as research assistants and students in Ireland, the USA, South Africa, and Tanzania are supported and trained throughout its duration.
