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Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya

Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014.

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Other Authors: White, Lyal
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 White, Lyal
author_browse White, Lyal
author_facet White, Lyal
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
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publisher University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/44914 Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya White, Lyal ichelp@gibs.co.za Mkhize, Ntombiyenkosi UCTD Information communications Technology Qualitative research Knowledge Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. The recent development in the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) has resulted in major changes in the social, cultural and economic changes globally. The impact of ICT investments has been noticed in developed countries such as Singapore and United States of America. This has stirred up an interest in developing economies, whereby governments are also perceived to be increasing a portion of their annual budgets towards ICT investment in an effort to improve national competitiveness. Several countries are implementing various government policy interventions to promote foreign direct investments (FDI) so as to build ICT clusters similar to the Silicon Valley model. One of the recent and successful clusters amongst the developing countries is the ICT cluster in Costa Rica, which is an ideal example for other developing countries to imitate. Amongst such developing countries is Kenya. The objective of this research was to gain an understanding on how the ICT policy has helped create an enabling environment for FDI, which further boosts national competitiveness within the context of an African country. A qualitative case study research design was adopted for the Kenyan case. A sample size of eight respondents consisting of representatives from multinational companies in ICT and government policy experts was used. The findings on the Kenya case study were later compared to lessons learnt from the Costa Rica case. The study identified the importance of adopting supporting and supplementing policies in relation to the National ICT policy. The mere supply of technology infrastructure is not enough, but as in the case of Kenya, the demand side of ICT adoption was equally important in order to shift the economy to the next stage of growth. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the findings in Costa Rica, an independent, non-political organisation plays a vital role in the effective implementation of ICT policies. Poor execution of ICT policy, re-introduction of VAT on ICT products and old school mentality were identified as factors, which are detrimental to the adoption of ICT policy. The findings indicated that political instability affects different industries at varying degrees. The results also outline the importance of multinational companies in managing relationships with governments especially during the times of government transition. A model was constructed in order to provide a guide for policy makers in adopting national ICT policies for national competitiveness. zkgibs2015 Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Unrestricted 2015-04-28T08:03:57Z 2015-04-28T08:03:57Z 2015-03-24 2014 Mini Dissertation Mkhize, N. (2014). Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector: the case of Kenya (MBA mini-dissertation).Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. Retrieved from http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/1818 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44914 en © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Information communications
Technology
Qualitative research
Knowledge
Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya
title Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya
title_full Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya
title_fullStr Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya
title_short Leveraging country competitiveness through the ICT sector : the case of Kenya
title_sort leveraging country competitiveness through the ict sector the case of kenya
topic UCTD
Information communications
Technology
Qualitative research
Knowledge
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44914