Developing an Ecosystem Framework to Explore ICT Contribution to Socio-economic Development; An Empirical Analysis in MENA Region

Information communication technology (ICT) is often considered as one of the main drivers and enablers of development in both developed & developing countries. Considering different aspects of ICT contribution to development like social, economic, cultural and political impacts, all these aspects should be noted simultaneously in exploring interactions between ICT and development. Furthermore, existing literature on ICT development is so fragmented in developing countries especially countries located in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. To narrow this literature gap, there is a need for an integrated and comprehensive framework that would explain the contribution of ICT to socio-economic development in MENA region by taking advantage of ecosystem perspective. The ecosystem perspective is valuable in grasping all the contextual factors, interactions and ICT entities which cause ICT-based socio-economic development. In addition to need for a comprehensive model to understand the relations between ICT and socio-economic development by ecosystem insight, on the other hand the scarce of relevant researches which have been addressed to both disruptive and progressive transformation impacts of ICT in MENA countries make this sort of study timely and worthwhile. Hence, the main objective of this research is to explore ICT contribution to socio-economic development in MENA countries through developing an ecosystem framework labeled as “ICT-based socio economic development (ISED) ecosystem framework”. To develop ISED ecosystem framework three research questions were defined. These research questions are as follows: 1. What are the main elements (pillars and sub-pillars) of ISED ecosystem framework? 2. What are the appropriate indicators to measure sub-pillars of ISED ecosystem framework? 3. How do sub-pillars of ISED ecosystem framework vary in selected countries of MENA region? Based on both qualitative and quantitative analyses, this study investigates ICT contribution to socio-economic development across 17 selected MENA countries including: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. To address first two research questions grounded theory research method and Delphi research method are employed. For third research question, guidelines of constructing composite index and correlation analysis are applied. In this way four sub-pillars concerning key ICT Entities which are interacting in a particular context have been determined. Also, six sub-pillars considering contextual factors (Capital Portfolio) which play key roles in obtaining particular level of ICT-based socio-economic development (ISED) have been defined. Moreover, the appropriate indicators in each sub-pillars were determined to measure these 10 sub-pillars in 17 MENA countries. The empirical analyses unveil that there are a huge intra-regional gap in MENA region considering various sub-pillars of ISED ecosystem framework. Moreover, the correlation analysis shows that the 10 sub-pillars of ISED ecosystem framework are strongly and positively correlated. The sub-pillars of ICT entity (IE) alone are not enough to allow ICTs to show fully their potential. It means that the six sub-pillars of capital portfolio (CP) that reflect the status quo of a nation play significant role to allow ICTs to appear their full potential. In other words, the serious weaknesses on 6 sub-pillars of contextual factors across MENA region hinder the overall potential of this region to leverage ICT entities to improve the level of ICT-based socio-economic development.