II. INTERNET AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
II. INTERNET AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
processing, analysis, and transmission, but information is the underlying resource of value
to entrepreneurs. Based on surveys of small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in
developing countries6, four types of information appear to be especially valuable:
— on customers and markets;
— on product design;
— on process technology — operation, maintenance and repair of existing equipment,
as well as new technology developments; and
— on financing sources and terms.
ICTs may also benefit entrepreneurs by improving information available to their
transaction partners, whether customers, financiers, or others. Besides reducing information
search costs, the Internet or mobile telephony can improve the efficiency of the working of
product and factor markets directly, e.g. by reducing time for payments clearance, credit
processing, etc. (Leff, 1984 and Garbade and Silber, 1978).
Far and away the most important use of the Internet to date in developing countries
has been for e-mail services. In Bangladesh, about 82 per cent of Internet traffic consists
of e-mail, while in the United States the Web accounts for 70 per cent and e-mail only
5 per cent (ITU, 1999). This is a result of the rather high access costs in many developing
countries compared, notably, with the United States. As a mode of information management,
the Internet competes with, but also complements, other modes. Depending on access
costs, it can be a cheap if imperfect substitute for telephone and fax services: cheap
because of the higher transmission speed of a given information bundle or, viewed
differently, the large quantities of information that can be transmitted per unit time; imperfect
because, unlike telephone at least, i) it does not readily permit two-way communication in
real time7, and ii) it presumes basic literacy or the ability to hire a literate message transcriber.
In any event, it makes use of the telecommunications infrastructure, whose inadequacy in
many parts of the developing world (notably in rural areas, where most of the developing
world’s population, and a disproportionate share of its poor people, still lives8) precludes
either telephone, fax, or Internet use. Wireless (or mobile) telephony has emerged as a
potential solution to the rural telephone deficit and as a possible “bridging” technology
from an unwired world to an Internet-accessible one9. While state-of-the-art mobile
telephones already offer the potential of direct Internet access, even without this capability
in many low-income countries mobile phones are diffusing rapidly, in some cases even in
rural areas (e.g. the Grameen village phone network in Bangladesh).
As an instrument for acquiring timely information by otherwise isolated rural
communities, there are certainly parallels between the current uses of wireless telephones
and the potential uses of the Internet in developing countries. One difference is that the
latter potentially makes available with a single call (or dial-up connection) a much larger
set of databases and information sources. Moreover, the Internet makes possible the
automatic packaging and distribution of information to targeted user groups on a repeated
basis, and even the distribution of fully customised information packets for each individual user. The question remains whether there is sufficient information on the Web of value to
the average developing country entrepreneur to warrant the investment in Internet access.
Most SMEs in developing countries serve local markets and rely mostly on locally generated
information. In Botswana, for example, Duncombe and Heeks (1999) find that Internet
use remains in its infancy and argue that its benefits to most SME users are unlikely to
outweigh the costs until the amount and quality of local content is substantially increased.
For low-income entrepreneurs in much of the developing world, this also means locallanguage
content.
OECD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Working Paper No. 164
E-COMMERCE FOR DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS AND POLICY ISSUES
by
Andrea Goldstein and David O’Connor
II INTERNET AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS - To learn more about this author, visit OECD Development Centre's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
The Internet and ICT more generally are new tools for information acquisition,
processing, analysis, and transmission, but information is the underlying resource of value
to entrepreneurs. Based on surveys of small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in
developing countries6, four types of information appear to be especially valuable:
— on customers and markets;
— on product design;
— on process technology — operation, maintenance and repair of existing equipment,
as well as new technology developments; and
— on financing sources and terms.
ICTs may also benefit entrepreneurs by improving information available to their
transaction partners, whether customers, financiers, or others. Besides reducing information
search costs, the Internet or mobile telephony can improve the efficiency of the working of
product and factor markets directly, e.g. by reducing time for payments clearance, credit
processing, etc. (Leff, 1984 and Garbade and Silber, 1978).
Far and away the most important use of the Internet to date in developing countries
has been for e-mail services. In Bangladesh, about 82 per cent of Internet traffic consists
of e-mail, while in the United States the Web accounts for 70 per cent and e-mail only
5 per cent (ITU, 1999). This is a result of the rather high access costs in many developing
countries compared, notably, with the United States. As a mode of information management,
the Internet competes with, but also complements, other modes. Depending on access
costs, it can be a cheap if imperfect substitute for telephone and fax services: cheap
because of the higher transmission speed of a given information bundle or, viewed
differently, the large quantities of information that can be transmitted per unit time; imperfect
because, unlike telephone at least, i) it does not readily permit two-way communication in
real time7, and ii) it presumes basic literacy or the ability to hire a literate message transcriber.
In any event, it makes use of the telecommunications infrastructure, whose inadequacy in
many parts of the developing world (notably in rural areas, where most of the developing
world’s population, and a disproportionate share of its poor people, still lives8) precludes
either telephone, fax, or Internet use. Wireless (or mobile) telephony has emerged as a
potential solution to the rural telephone deficit and as a possible “bridging” technology
from an unwired world to an Internet-accessible one9. While state-of-the-art mobile
telephones already offer the potential of direct Internet access, even without this capability
in many low-income countries mobile phones are diffusing rapidly, in some cases even in
rural areas (e.g. the Grameen village phone network in Bangladesh).
As an instrument for acquiring timely information by otherwise isolated rural
communities, there are certainly parallels between the current uses of wireless telephones
and the potential uses of the Internet in developing countries. One difference is that the
latter potentially makes available with a single call (or dial-up connection) a much larger
set of databases and information sources. Moreover, the Internet makes possible the
automatic packaging and distribution of information to targeted user groups on a repeated
basis, and even the distribution of fully customised information packets for each individual user. The question remains whether there is sufficient information on the Web of value to
the average developing country entrepreneur to warrant the investment in Internet access.
Most SMEs in developing countries serve local markets and rely mostly on locally generated
information. In Botswana, for example, Duncombe and Heeks (1999) find that Internet
use remains in its infancy and argue that its benefits to most SME users are unlikely to
outweigh the costs until the amount and quality of local content is substantially increased.
For low-income entrepreneurs in much of the developing world, this also means locallanguage
content.
OECD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Working Paper No. 164
E-COMMERCE FOR DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS AND POLICY ISSUES
by
Andrea Goldstein and David O’Connor
II INTERNET AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS - To learn more about this author, visit OECD Development Centre's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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