Details

Track Chairs:

Narcyz Roztocki, State University of New York at New Paltz,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
H. Roland Weistroffer, Virginia Commonwealth University,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Track Description:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have a major impact on economic and societal development. Though developing, emerging, and transitional economies play an increasingly important role in the global market, mainstream information systems research continues to focus on the relatively small group of countries with highly developed economies. The business, social, and legal environments of developing, emerging, and transitional economies often mandate that ICT implementation and management apply different practices and models from those conceived and tested in highly developed countries. The intention of this track is to encourage more research and publications on ICT focused on developing and emerging markets and communities.

Thus, this track serves as a forum for research on the appropriate use and diffusion of information and communication technologies and associated management practices in the distinctive environments of developing, emerging, and transitional economies.

Mini-Tracks:


Information Technology Issues in Transition Economies

Piotr Soja, Cracow University of Economics, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Paulo Rupino da Cunha, University of Coimbra, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Transition economies are a particular case of emerging economies, including countries from the former eastern bloc and those that resulted from the breakup of the Soviet Union, which, in the last two decades, have abandoned the communist-style central planning system and committed to substantial reforms to adopt a free market approach.
These fast growing transition economies play an increasingly significant role in the global market, with information technology (IT) being a key driving force in this process. However, despite their growing importance, research that specifically addresses the specificities and different challenges of IT in transition economies is still scarce, when compared with the body of knowledge for developed countries.

The objective of this mini-track is to encourage more research in this topic by providing a forum for interested authors to disseminate their research, compare results, and exchange ideas.

The roles of ICT in Creating and Supporting Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural and Emerging Economies

Linda Jo Calloway, Pace University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Joseph Cazier, Appalachian State University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This mini-track focuses on the roles Information and Communications Technologies play in opening opportunities to create sustainable livelihoods for everyone. Requirements for sustainable livelihoods exist in a world still searching for food and water, clean energy, education, health, and sustainable economic development for all. Population projections show the earth will need to sustain another billion people in the next decade let alone another 25 billion in the next century. This track will gather together research and position papers, educational materials, conceptual models and cases on ICT initiatives aimed at relieving these hardships that interfere with creating economic, social and environmental sustainability in rural and emerging economies.


Education and ICT in Developing Regions

Sergey Butakov, Concordia University College of Alberta, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ICT can be considered to be a major tool for improving the accessibility and efficiency of education in developing countries. ICT can also be viewed as a “flat world” enabler by providing access to the latest educational content developed all over the world. However, despite many promising efforts there is still a significant digital divide between educational institutions located in developing and developed countries. This includes policy and infrastructure gaps, lack of training facilities and trained maintenance personnel, limited community participation, gender related issues, etc.

Special circumstances, challenges, and rewards of ICT projects in the educational sector in developing regions have created a unique ecosystem for such projects with many stakeholders, ranging from government institutions to private companies and individual entrepreneurs. This minitrack aims to facilitate the discussion on topics related to education and ICT in developing regions. Original research papers that address such topics are invited to this minitrack.


ICTs for Financial Inclusion of the Unbanked Poor in Developing Economies

Lakshmi Mohan,  University at Albany, State University at New York
Devendra Potnis, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Financial inclusion is critical for global development since it provides financial services at an affordable cost to the poor, who are left out of the formal financial sector. The stark impact of financial exclusion can be seen in one statistic: 42% of India’s population, or 490 million people, live under the poverty benchmark of USD1.25 per day. ICTs are creating new channels to reach the poor through branchless banking using combinations of mobile technologies such as smart cards and biometric identification. Information systems also play a pivotal role to expand the number of customers reached through, for example, systems for managing portfolio risk. Web 2.0 has enabled an innovative business model to serve the unbanked poor through online microlending. Untapped business opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid offer an exciting and lucrative proposition for IT professionals and businesses to develop innovative technical solutions, financial products and services.  Access Call for Papers at: http://web.utk.edu/~dpotnis/CfPAMCIS2014


Role and Significance of ICT in Micro-Enterprises

Shana Ponelis, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Micro-enterprises are the dominant form of business in developing countries and in many underserved regions in developed countries. Micro-enterprises range from informal traders on sidewalks and markets to registered businesses employing between 1 and 5 people but all play an important role in broad-based economic development by generating jobs and income for basic household economic survival, developing skills, and providing necessary goods and services to a community. Few studies have focused specifically on the role and significance of ICTs in micro-enterprises. This mini-track is relevant and important not only to practitioners and researchers engaged in ICT for development but also to providers of ICTs to micro-enterprises and to the micro-enterprises themselves. Researchers and practitioners are invited to share their research results and professional insights with regard to all aspects of ICTs in micro-enterprises. Both completed research and research-in-progress contributions within positivist, interpretive and critical research paradigms will be considered.


ICT Issues in Arab and Middle Eastern Countries

Mazen Ali, University of Bahrain, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Yousuf Salim Alhinai, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Over the last few decades much of the Information Systems (IS) research has been focused on developed countries. While more recently there has been a noticeable increase in the number of IS studies in developing countries, these studies have mainly been specific to Asian countries. IS research in the context of Middle Eastern Countries has been overlooked. Middle Eastern Countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt to name a few, have witnessed a tremendous growth in ICT development but research has been limited. These countries have different social, economical and cultural context compared to Asian and other developed countries. Understanding adoption of ICT and the issues faced by these countries in the process of implementation would be a valuable contribution to the IS field. Therefore, there needs to be more studies that focus on the adoption of ICT in the Middle East. The objective of this mini-track is to invite interested researchers to present and discuss their research specific to ICT in Middle Eastern Countries.


IT Issues in Emerging and Developing Economies

Marlene Holmner, University of Pretoria, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Shana Polenis, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The evolving growth of ICT in emerging and developing economies such as the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has been remarkable in recent years and is likely to continue. These countries have become a leading market force, not just as ICT users but also as manufacturers of ICT services and goods. For example, according to Simon (2011) , China has become the world’s largest producer of ICT products. Although these countries are eagerly using and adapting ICTs to solve their real-life problems they face unique challenges compared to the established, developed economies. These challenges include high illiteracy rates, extreme poverty, and high mortality rates to mention a few. It is crucial for emerging and developing economies to harness the power of ICTs to address these and other unique challenges more effectively. Research contributions in this track will help to further equip those in emerging and developing economies with the intellectual capacity to address these issues. Those in developed economies will also benefit from understanding the possibilities and limitations of ICTs and how to promote its adoption, adaptation and use in emerging and developing economies. This mini-track is therefore of vital interest to information systems researchers and practitioners.

Leveraging Information Technology for Competitiveness in Emerging Markets

Jolanta Kowal, University of Wroclaw, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene

This mini-track will focus on leveraging information technology for competitiveness in emerging markets. The current level of development of information technology becomes a regular part of business development in emerging markets. The use of modern technologies that are not yet known to the public and competitors affect in a direct way to improve competitiveness and to raise the level of innovation in enterprises. It can be seen especially in the spheres of promoting, business and customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, alternative trading system, innovative systems, leverage Big Data capabilities for competitive advantage, e-government and education. Leveraging information technology may lead not only to economic growth, but also to the better quality of life of residents in emerging economies, knowledge-based society and social development. Particular importance and challenge in this process become strategy and implementation of information technology, information on demand, system platform, industry solutions, the infrastructure for leveraging information, data security, adequate legislation and educational programs.


ICT Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa

Francis Andoh-Baidoo, The University of Texas, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the larger of the two (Sub-Saharan and Arab) geopolitical regions of Africa. For many years, the African continent has been neglected in many ways including academics (Mbarika et al, 2005). However, recent UN Outlook report indicates that several Sub-Saharan Africa countries have experienced better economic growth rates than those of the United States, Western Europe, and some Asian countries. Others have recognized Africa as the second fastest growing region of the world only after Asia (McKinsey Global Institute, 2010 and The Economist, 2011). Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important enablers of the socio-economic development of Sub-Saharan African nations. Often, the implementation of ICT is more challenging than in more developed economies, and a high level of adaptability and creativity is required. The objective of this minitrack is to provide a forum to interested researchers for presenting and discussing ICT issues specific to the Sub-Saharan African region.


ICT Collaboration in Cross-Organizational, International, and Global Settings

Maria Madlberger, Vienna University of Economics and Business, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

With growing integration of corporations, public authorities, non-profit organizations, project teams, and individuals in cross-organizational, international and global settings, ICT collaboration is getting increasingly relevant. Cross-organizational and particularly international and global collaboration is much more complex than within one single organization. Critical success factors or challenges of ICT collaboration in such settings are for example physical locations of collaborating partners, varying levels of ICT infrastructure, cultural similarity or differences, legal regulations or the economic environment. The role of ICT in cross-organizational, international, and global collaboration is twofold: ICT can be a collaboration enabler, but also a collaboration purpose and goal. This mini-track focuses on conceptual and empirical research that contributes to a clearer understanding of ICT collaboration processes, their challenges, success factors, and benefits in cross-organizational, international, or global settings. All methodological approaches, including case studies, surveys, literature reviews, design science etc. are welcome.


Security Awareness & Management in Developing Economies

Corlane Barclay,  University of Technology Jamaica, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson

Security concerns have been on the top of the agenda globally with increased attention on investigations of technical, operational and psychological countermeasures to cyber-crime. Developing economies are already shackled by multiple constraints and are therefore lagging in mounting a serious challenge to cyber-crime. Further, some of the notable acts of cyber-crime have been reported to be originated in certain developing countries. It is therefore critical to initiate serious discussion and develop rigorous solutions to assist countries in this region to leapfrog to more advanced capabilities in cyber-security.

The intent of this mini-track is to provide a venue to critically discuss the current state of affairs across developing economies, experiences and best practices in managing security issues at the national and organizational levels, important lessons and cases from practice and strategies to effective fight against the growth of cyber-crime and data breaches


Information Technology Issues in the Commonwealth of Independent States countries

Elena Rogovai

The minitrack would be aimed at the discussion on the role and specific features of information technologies in the Commonwealth of Independent States countries. These are the countries having been once the republics of the former Soviet Union, excluding the Baltic States. Now they are at different stages of development, but nevertheless they belong to emerging or transition markets.

The IT-market in these countries is growing fast, and has numerous peculiarities, caused by the legislation, mentality, language, corporate governance, level of the economic development and other factors. We invite researchers and practitioners who have interests in the information technology management, economics, capital market reaction and other issues related to information technologies, to take part in this interesting and important discussion