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Technological Readiness in the Middle East and North Africa – Implications for Egypt
Abstract
Innovation is widely recognized as a key driver of sustainable economic development. Governments, international organizations, donors and investors are increasingly interested in evaluating the technological capabilities and innovative capacities in developing countries, but often lack appropriate approaches for such measurement. This paper focuses on innovation and technological progress in the MENA region and discusses the challenges of understanding, expanding and fostering innovative potential in Egypt.
... The society is collectivistic and neither masculine nor feminine. Brach (2010) grouped users in countries in the Middle East and North Africa into the following categories: "consumers," "integrated users," and "isolated users." With reference to the three countries in this study, while "consumers" in the Arab Gulf countries (i.e., the U.A. E., within the context of this research) are open to the latest technologies available globally, "integrated users" (located in Jordan) are significantly less open to them. ...
... This is consistent with the findings of Straub et al. (2001) andLoch et al. (2003). Users in Iraq are seen as "isolated" from countries that are more technologically advanced (Brach, 2010). From the perspective of these users, being more open to technology advancement is important. ...
... The case in the U.A.E. is similar, as young users in the U.A.E. are already open to and exposed to countries that are more advanced. The categorization in Brach's (2010) study of users in the U.A.E. as "consumers" provides further support for and validates this argument. The finding that technological culturation is important in Iraq but not in Jordan or the U.A.E. ...
The main aim of this research is to propose a conceptual model that explains the factors that can predict behavioral intention to use smartphones and the actual use of smartphones by young Arab consumers in three Arab countries: Iraq, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). The findings indicate that the proposed extended model fits well in the three countries. The research provides information that can help policymakers and mobile companies.
... There are abundant natural resources in this region, but production methods and skills necessary for effective and rational use of these resources to improve economic and social conditions is limited. Increasing the level of knowledge and skills of the people is necessary condition for the elimination of economic backwardness and creation of motivation necessary for development (Brach, 2010). Education is one of the areas that can solve the problem in this region. ...
In a society like Egypt, online political practice is not normatively integrated due to structural and/or technological inefficiencies. By the time this research began in late 2010, less than a quarter (21.1 %) of the Egyptian constituency was online (Egypt: Internet Usage and Telecommunications Report, n.d.). As the Internet’s new communicative affordances have benefitted “those who have crossed the digital divide,” (Bennett, 2003, p. 20) it is expected that the limitations of digital inequalities would reduce the numbers of potential online recipients and possible contributors. This, in turn, excludes the poorer and less-educated, and influences the contributors’ capabilities to support a viable form of influential ‘Internet-based’ activism. So, while the Internet and social media have expanded the toolkit for activists and enabled large numbers to assemble in loose networks with minimal resources, a hybrid ‘repertoire of collective action’ (McAdam, Tarrow, & Tilly, 2001) that fuses the virtual with the real is crucial should they aspire to acquire significant change and yield feasible outcomes for the collective. Social media, Hands (2011) writes, should be articulated as “a new element into the revolutionary process, in which new dynamics and new capacities need to be absorbed and understood.” This was evident in the configuration of the massive uprising of January 2011, which was arguably enabled by the creation of “a complex socio-technical system ….. not only between social media and the more traditional media, but also between mediated and face-to-face networks” (Lim, 2012, p. 244).
... The numbers of studies focused on MENA countries are few. Related to the role that imported intermediates could play in technological diffusion, Brach (2010) assesses the role of technological readiness in the MENA region and the implications for Egypt. The author takes a closer look at the technological progress and innovative activities in the MENA region and within this context investigates the implications for economic development and job creation, as well as the main economic policy recommendations. ...
This paper is the first to explore the links between exporting and importing activities of Egyptian firms using panel data over the period from 2003 to 2007. The main aim is twofold. Firstly, the authors report regression results indicating that firms that both export and import are the most productive, followed by importing-, exporting-only firms and non-traders. Secondly, they estimate the determinants of the extensive and intensive margins of exports and imports using dynamic panel-Probit and panel-Tobit models in combination with the method proposed by Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal (Avoiding biased versions of Wooldridge’s simple solution to the initial conditions problem, 2013) to tackle the initial conditions problem. The results show that both activities present a high degree of hysteresis, which is higher for imports than for exports pointing to the existence of sunk costs in both activities. Moreover, past productivity does affect the extensive margin of imports, but not of exports and the initial condition status is also only relevant for the import side. Similar outcomes are obtained for the intensive margin of trade.
Kapitalizm, Ortadoğu’da tam yerleşememiş ama etkileri gün geçtikçe artan bir olgudur. Kapitalizmin Batı’nın sunduğu haliyle insanlığa refah ve mutluluk getirdiğini iddia etmek çok mümkün değildir. İkiz kardeşler olan küreselleşme ve kapitalizm, insani yönü son derece sorunlu olan bir süreç olarak bölgede mevzi kazanmaya devam etmektedir.
Küreselleşme, kapitalist değerleri taşıyıcı ve yayıcı bir enstrüman olarak bölgeyi dönüştürmektedir. Küreselleşmenin, kapitalizm aracılığıyla neden olduğu gelir dağılımındaki adaletsizlikler, sosyal, ekonomik ve politik eşitsizlikler, Arap dünyasında büyük sosyal ve siyasal sorunlara neden olmaktadır. Bölgede küreselleşmenin beslediği şeffaflık, demokrasi, insan hakları gibi olgular ise birer fırsat olarak değerlendirilmelidir. Ancak bu bakımdan da kat edilmesi gereken çok mesafe olduğu anlaşılmaktadır.
Bu çalışmada bölgenin politik olarak liberal demokratik değerlerin yaygınlaştırılmasına ihtiyacının olduğu, bölgeye dıştan müdahalelerin bölgeyi ekonomik, sosyal ve politik yönden istikrarsızlaştırdığı, bölgesel aktörlerin, bölge ve bölge dışı aktörlerle karşılıklı bağımlılık teorisi eksenli işbirliği olanaklarını maksimum düzeyde geliştirmesi gerektiği savunulmaktadır.
In this paper we investigate the extent of international entrepreneurship in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Oman and Syria using a dataset covering 3,281 firms. We find that weak technological capabilities constrain internationalization. Firms with ISO accreditation, an own website, and those who have introduced new technology have a higher probability of entering export markets than otherwise. Firms in high-tech sectors are more likely to export early. However with foreign shareholding this advantage of high-tech firms disappears. The results suggest that early international entrepreneurs may need to pay more in informal payments if they want to increase the share of their exports once they have entered into export markets. We derive implications for policy and further research.
JEL classification codes: L26, L25, M16, O55, F23
This is the first research to study gender differences among consumers in a cross-national context in the Middle
East: the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan. A conceptual framework was developed by extending the
extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) further. It was tested among individuals
aged 18–29 years using multi-stage cluster sampling. A total sample of around 900 usable responses from both
countries were included in the analysis. The factors national IT development, enjoyment, perceived relative
advantage, price value and effort expectancy were found to be significant in the model among Arab women in
the UAE and Jordan. The study has theoretical, social and policy relating contributions. The study shows how an
extended UTAUT2 fits among both genders in a cross-national context. The study is helpful for policymakers who
intend to reduce the gender gap in smartphone adoption and use. The advancement of national IT development
and the presence of effective policies focusing on women were found important in both countries.
Note: The full article can be accessed through the link below https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1XWk62f~UW4li9
This research aims to examine the effect of national IT development on Arab consumers’ behavioural intention and their actual use of smartphones. This effect was compared to the effect of two factors: usefulness and ease of use. The study was conducted in three different countries, namely, Iraq, Jordan and the UAE. A total of 1264 questionnaires were collected from smartphone consumers aged 18–29 years old in the three countries. The collected data were analysed using partial least squares-structural equation modelling. The results revealed that the new proposed factor, national IT development, has a more significant effect on behavioural intention than the effect of perceived relative advantage (usefulness) and ease of use. The research provides information to academics, policy makers and mobile companies operating in Iraq, Jordan and the UAE, enabling them to understand the perceptions of their customers of the effects of ICT development and policies on smartphone adoption and use.
In the ultra-modern world of today, the role of technology and its undeniable impact on public administration is obvious to everyone. It has a tangible role in establishment of quality and functional goals of society. The human desire to achieve a better life is getting more depended on technology, and this is perhaps the most important reason that our world is developing with extraordinary speed. In fact, the main difference between the world as it is today with the past, is the speed of technological developments. The world is changing and the pace of change is increasing more and more. We are in a critical relationship with the technology. Some believe that humanity is threatened by the evolution of technology. They believe that by application of new technologies, machines are replacing manpower. But the main goal of technology is to facilitate fulfilment of jobs by human and not the omission or replacement of human Thus, the prevalence of technology drastically affects many areas of society including education. Education has always been one of the main concerns of the educational system of every country, and families and the educational system are constantly trying to help this process to reach its destination in better and faster ways with regard to the possibilities and necessities of the age. Educational system has the duty of creativity and innovation as well as the proper use of the talents and abilities of individuals. This is the way for the development of cultural, economic and social community. The present age which is called the age of technology, can contribute to this issue.
The development of a bio-economy in Africa will require enhanced bio-innovation for sustainable development. It will also require structural and policy changes to ensure that the systems are in place to support the bio-economy. Already, many developed and developing countries are placing emphasis on the development of a bio-economy, and African countries must not be left behind.
There are many bio-innovation success stories in Africa, some of which are highlighted in this paper, such as the development of cereals resistant to parasitic infection, banana tissue culture, veterinary vaccines and diagnostics, microbial fermentation products, and value addition to primary agricultural products through agro-processing.
There are also challenges to overcome, including access to finance and business skills, legislative and intellectual property hurdles, and the need for enhanced technical capacity. Some of these challenges are being overcome in novel ways, such as through regional collaborations and public–private partnerships, but strong leadership by Africa’s politicians and a change of mindset regarding the importance of science, technology and innovation are needed if the opportunities presented by the bio-economy are to be fully realized.
According to conventional wisdom, strategic natural resources like oil are harmful to international peace. Nonetheless, there is little empirical quantitative work on the link between resource abundance and interstate conflicts. Analyzing the impact of oil on militarized interstate disputes on a monadic level of analysis, this paper shows that oil in fact influences the conflict potential between countries. Results of logistic regressions suggest that a high absolute oil production is associated with an increased risk of dispute initiation. Per capita oil production, in contrast, does not seem to influence a country’s propensity to start militarized conflicts. We also find that while very small oil‐rich countries are more frequently the object of military actions, large oil producers seem to be generally spared from foreign attacks. We conclude that specific causal mechanisms such as an increased military capacity or the indulgence of the international community (rather than domestic political conditions inherent to the rentier state) might be particularly useful to explain our findings.
The paper points out that there is hardly any research for the reverse transition, the transition from democracy to non-democratic regimes for more than 30 years. For heuristical purposes, it provides basic data of the decline of democracy, which refers to loss of democratic quality, changes from liberal democracy to hybrid and to authoritarian regimes, during the third wave of democratisation (1974-2008). The stocktaking shows that most of the cases of decline refer to the change in and from young democracies established during the third wave, especially after 1989. Loss of democratic quality and hybridization are the most frequent cases of decline, while the breakdown of democracy has been very rare. Young democracies and poorer countries are more prone to decline than the older and richer cases - aside from a few remarkable exceptions. Finally, the overview argues that the research on the decline of democracy can benefit from the richness of the approaches of transitology, but should also avoid its methodological traps and failures, concluding with a number of suggestions for the future research agenda.
Within international discourses on security, North Korea is often associated with risk and danger, emanating paradoxically from what can be called its strengths - particularly military strength, as embodied by its missile and nuclear programs - and its weaknesses - such as its ever‐present political, economic, and food crises - which are considered to be imminent threats to international peace and stability. We argue that images play an important role in these representations, and suggest that one should take into account the role of visual imagery in the way particular issues, actions, and events related to North Korea are approached and understood. Reflecting on the politics of visual representation means to examine the functions and effects of images, that is what they do and how they are put to work by allowing only particular kinds of seeing. After addressing theoretical and methodological questions, we discuss individual (and serial) photographs depicting what we think are typical examples of how North Korea is portrayed in the Western media and imagined in international politics.
In the course of the last decade, the IBSA states (India, Brazil, South Africa) have increased their weight in the shifting global order, particularly in economic affairs. Can the same be said about the IBSA states’ position in the international security hierarchy? After locating the IBSA coalition in the shifting world order, we analyze its member states’ willingness and capacity to coordinate their security policies and build a common global security agenda. In addition, we explore the state of and perspectives on bi‐ and trilateral collaboration initiatives on defense and armaments between India, Brazil and South Africa. A key reason for the mostly modest results of global security agenda coordination and cross‐regional defense collaboration is that the prevailing security concerns of each country are located at the regional level. Therefore, the starting point of an assessment of the prospects of IBSA’s security cooperation and its potential impact on the strategic global landscape has to be a comparative evaluation of the regional security environments, focusing on overlaps and potential synergies between the national security policies of the three state actors.
Historical institutionalism has been used to explain the emergence of democracy and dictatorship in various regions of the world, but not applied to political development in Africa. Based on the recently refined concepts of historical institutionalism, the aim of this study is to provide a framework for the analysis of the various regime types that have been established in Africa during the last two decades: democratic, hybrid and authoritarian. Surprisingly little effort has been dedicated to a historically grounded explanation of these regime types. Against a common claim that African politics is mainly driven by informal institutions or behaviors, we argue that an institution‐based examination of African politics is justified. We then provide a proposition of how to link up concepts of historical institutionalism with empirical cases in Africa, within a comparative approach. Our proposition for tracing specific development paths will not be based on the regimes as a “whole”, but on the deconstruction of a political regime into partial regimes and subsequently into selected formal and informal institutions. This will allow for an empirical analysis of the different components of a regime over long periods of time, and thus for path‐dependent analyses of regime development.
Indonesia has long been associated with neopatrimonialism, corruption, collusion, and nepotism as the main modi operandi of politics, economics and public administration. Despite various measures and initiatives to fight these practices, little evidence for a significant decline can be found over the years. Rather, longitudinal analysis points to changes in the character of neopatrimonialism. Based on more than 60 in‐depth interviews, focus‐group discussions, and the analysis of both primary and secondary data, the aim of this article is, first, to describe the changes that have taken place, and, second, to investigate what accounts for these changes. Political economy concepts posit the amount and development of economic rents as the explanatory factor for the persistence and change of neopatrimonialism. This study’s findings, however, indicate that rents alone cannot explain what has taken place in Indonesia. Democratization and decentralization exert a stronger impact.
This paper examines the efficiency effects of foreign bank entry on domestic banks in sub-Saharan Africa during the period 1999-2006. Using a recently compiled dataset on foreign bank presence, the competition and spillover effects of North-South, regional and nonregional South-South banks are distinguished. The results show that the competitive pressure on domestic banksʹ net interest margins emanates only from regional South-South banks. There is evidence of spillover effects from North-South and regional South-South banks on domestic banks. As domestic banks invest in foreign technologies, their overhead costs increase in the short-run. Non-regional South-South banks seem to have little effect on the efficiency of domestic banks.
Innovation is often seen as carried out by highly educated labor in R&D intensive companies with strong ties to leading centers of excellence in the scientific world. Seen from this angle innovation is a typical "first world" activity. There is, however, another way to look at innovation that goes significantly beyond this high-tech picture. In this broader perspective, innovation-the attempt to try out new or improved products, processes, or ways to do things-is an aspect of most if not all economic activities. In this sense, Section 1 puts forward the idea that innovation may be as relevant in the developing part of the world as elsewhere. Section 2 discusses the existing theoretical and empirical literature on the subject. An important conclusion is that to be able to exploit technology to their own advantage, developing countries need to develop the necessary capabilities for doing so. But what are these capabilities and how can they be measured? Section 3 surveys attempts to identify and measure capabilities at the national level. However, the development of such capabilities, it is argued, depends in important ways on what firms do. Section 4, therefore, focuses on recent attempts to survey innovation activity in firms in developing countries and what can be learnt from that. Section 5 discusses the role of domestic versus foreign sources in fostering innovation in the developing part of the world. The final section summarizes the main lessons. copy; 2010 Elsevier B.V.
Much has been written on the impact of the global financial crisis on Europe, Asia and the Americas but only little on the Arab states. This article makes an early attempt to take stock of recent developments in the Arab world and offers a systematic approach to disentangle the various inter-linkages and effects of the crisis on the region. It argues that most Arab countries might be lucky and get off lightly, especially the energy-importing Arab countries which have proved not to be very vulnerable because they are only weakly integrated into global trade and capital markets. The energy exporters have been hit by the decline in energy prices, but most of them have also mastered the crisis well thanks to substantial financial reserves. The situation is more critical however for Dubai, Iraq and Yemen.
This book is part of a larger effort undertaken by the World Bank to understand the development experience of the 1990s, an extraordinary eventful decade. Each of the project’s three volumes serves a different purpose. Development Challenges in the 1990s: Leading Policymakers Speak from Experience offers insights on the practical concerns faced by policymakers, while At the Frontlines of Development: Reflections from the World Bank considers the operational implications of the decade for the World Bank as an institution. This volume, Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform, provides comprehensive analysis of the decade’s development experience and examines the impact of key policy and institutional reforms of growth.Economic Growth in the 1990s confirms and builds on the conclusions of an earlier World Bank book, The East Asian Miracle (1993), which reviewed experiences of highly successful East Asian economies. It confirms the importance of growth of fundamental principles: macro stability, market forces governing the allocation of resources, openness, and the sharing of the benefits of growth. At the same time, it echoes the finding that these principles translate into diverse policy and institutional paths, implying the economic policies and policy advice must be country-specific and institutional-sensitive if they are to be effective. The authors examine the impact of growth of key policy and institutional reforms: macroeconomic stabilization, trade liberalization, deregulation of finance, privatization, deregulation of utilities, modernization of the public sector with a view to increasing its effectiveness and accountability, and the spread of democracy and decentralization. They draw lessons both from a policy and institutional perspective and from the perspective of country experiences about how reforms in each policy and institutional area have affected growth.
This paper reports on the latest update of the worldwide governance indicators, covering 213 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance: voice and accountability political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption.
In the presence of uncertainty about what a country can be good at producing, there can be great social value to discovering costs of domestic activities because such discoveries can be easily imitated. We develop a general-equilibrium framework for a small open economy to clarify the analytical and normative issues. We highlight two failures of the laissez-faire outcome: there is too little investment and entrepreneurship ex ante, and too much production diversification ex post. Optimal policy consists of counteracting these distortions: to encourage investments in the modern sector ex ante, but to rationalize production ex post. We provide some informal evidence on the building blocks of our model.
The science–technology–innovation system is one that is continuously and rapidly evolving. The dramatic growth over the last 20 years in the use of science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators appears first and foremost to be the result of a combination of, on the one hand, the ease of computerized access to an increasing number of measures of STI and, on the other hand, the interest in a growing number of public policy and private business circles in such indicators. Such growing interest might be expected in societies that increasingly use organised science and technology to achieve a wide variety of social and economic objectives and in which business competition is increasingly based on innovation. On the basis of 40 years of indicators work, we argue that frontiers and characteristics of STI indicators that were important last century may no longer be so relevant today and indeed may even be positively misleading.
We model growth and technology transfer in a world where technologies are specific to particular combinations of inputs. Unlike
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all other techniques for producing that good. Technology improvements diffuse slowly across countries, although knowledge
spreads instantaneously and there are no technology adoption costs. However, even with “Ak” production, our model implies conditional convergence. This model, with appropriate technology and technology diffusion,
has more realistic predictions for convergence and growth than either the standard neoclassical model or simple endogenous-growth
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A simple application of big-push reasoning suggests that natural resource booms can be important catalysts for development in poorer countries. In this paper we present evidence from seven Latin American countries that natural resource booms are sometimes accompanied by declining per-capita GDP. We present a model with natural resources, increasing returns in the spirit of big push models, and expectations to clarify some of the reasons this may happen.
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