Contextualizing Mobile Diffusion of the Sub-Saharan Region: Explanatory Analysis of Factors Affecting Mobile Diffusion in Sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

The study aims to challenge the prevalent assumption of technological determinism in the field of mobile diffusion research by utilizing a contextualized approach with quantitative variables. It conducted random effects analysis with the data of 40 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2017. The study finds that what has been generally accepted, as developed countries’ mobile diffusion factors may not have the same dynamics for the sub-Saharan region due to heterogeneity among countries where collectivistic societal cultures reside in values in the region, and feedback loop features of the mobile diffusion process of the sub-Saharan countries.

Keywords

Sub-Saharan Africa local context mobile diffusion human development good governance collectivistic societal culture

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aker

Mbiti

(2010) Mobile phones and economic development in Africa. Journal of Economic Perspectives 24(3): 207–232.

Andres

David

Diouf

, et al. (2010) The diffusion of the Internet: a cross-country analysis. Telecommunications Policy 34: 323–340.

Asongu

Nwachukwu

(2018) Determinants of mobile phone penetration: panel threshold evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Global Information Technology Management 21: 81–110.

Asongu

Odhaiambo

(2020) The role of governance in quality education in sub-Saharan Africa. International Social Science Journal 70(237–238): 221–238.

Asongu

(2015) The impact of mobile phone penetration on African inequality. International Journal of Social Economics 42(8): 706–716.

Barili

Parolari

Kappetein

, et al. (2018) Statistical primer: heterogeneity, random-or fixed-effects model analyses? Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery 27(3): 317–321.

Barnes

(2011) Effective solutions for rural electrification in developing countries: lessons from successful programs. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 3(4): 260–264.

Bijker

(2006) How and why technology matters. In: Goodin

Tilly

(eds) The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.681–706.

Bijker

(2009) Social construction of technology. In: Olsen Friis

Pedersen

Hendricks

(eds) A Comparison to the Philosophy of Technology. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp.88–94.

10.

Bahrini

Qaffas

(2019) Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Economic Growth: Evidence from Developing Countries Economies 7(1): 1–21.

11.

Bohlin

Gruber

Koutroumpis

(2010) Diffusion of new technology generations in mobile communications. Information Economics and Policy 22(1): 51–60.

12.

Buys

Dasgupta

Thomas

(2009) Determinants of a digital divide in Sub-Saharan Africa: a spatial econometric analysis of cell phone coverage. World Development 37(9): 1494–1505.

13.

Casel

(2007) ICT for Education and Development. Info 9(4): 3–9.

14.

Caselli

Wilbur

(2001) Cross-country technology diffusion: the case of computers. American Economic Review 91(2): 328–335.

15.

Chinn

Fairlie

(2007) The determinants of the global digital divide: a cross-country analysis of computer and Internet penetration. Oxford Economic Papers 59: 16–44.

16.

Collier

(2007) The Bottom Billion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

17.

Creswell

(2009) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

18.

Dahir

(2017) Ethiopia has blocked social media sites as new Oromo protests hit the country. Quartz Africa, 15 December. Available at: https://qz.com/africa/1157890/oromo-protests-ethiopia-has-blocked-socialmedia-sites-facebook-twitter-and-youtube/

19.

Dahir

(2018) In a continent dominated by WhatsApp, Ethiopia prefers Telegram. Quartz Africa, 24 February. Available at: https://qz.com/africa/1214381/in-a-continentdominated-by-whatsapp-ethiopia-says-yes-to-telegram/

20.

De Bruijn

Brinkman

(2011) “Communicating Africa.” Researching mobile Kin Communities communication technologies, and social transformation in Angola and Cameroon. Autrepart 57–58: 41–57.

21.

Dedrick

Gurbaxani

Kraemer

(2003) Information technology and economic performance: a critical review of empirical evidence. ACM Computing Surveys 35(1): 1–28.

22.

Dreamson

(2016) Reinventing Intercultural Education: A Metaphysical Manifest for Rethinking Cultural Diversity. London: Routledge.

23.

Dyson

Grant

Hendriks

(2016) Indigenous People and Mobile Technologies. 1st ed. Abingdon: Routledge.

24.

Estache

Manacorda

Valletti

(2002) Telecommunications, reform, access regulation, and Internet adoption in Latin America. Economía 2: 153–203.

25.

Gebreab

(2002) Getting connected: competition and diffusion in African mobile telecommunications markets. Working paper no. 2863. Washington, DC: World Bank.

26.

Gichoya

(2005) Factors affecting the successful implementation of ICT projects in government. The Electronic Journal of E-Government 3(4): 75–184.

27.

Gold

(2011) Estimating the impacts of global system for mobile telecommunication (gsm) on income, employment and transaction cost in Nigeria. Journal of Economics and International Finanalce 3(1): 37–45.

28.

GSMA (2017) The Potential of Mobile for Rural Energy Access in Mali. London: GSM Association.

29.

GSMA (2018) The Mobile Economy: Sub-Saharan Africa 2018. London: GSM Association.

30.

GSMA (2020) The GSMA Mobile Economy: Sub-Saharan Africa 2020. London: GSM Association.

31.

Grubler

(1996) Time for a Change: On the Patterns of Diffusion of Innovation. Daedalus 125(3): 19–42.

32.

Gupta

Jain

(2012) Diffusion of mobile telephony in India: an empirical study. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 79(4): 709–715.

33.

Hofstede

(2011) Dimensionalizing cultures: the Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture 2(1).

34.

Hughes

(1987) The evolution of large technological systems. In: Bijker

Hughes

Pinch

(eds) The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press, pp.51–82.

35.

Human Rights Watch (2020) Ethiopia: communications shutdown takes heavy toll. Human Rights Watch, 8 March. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/09/ethiopia-communications-shutdown-takes-heavy-toll

36.

Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) (2018) IIAG. Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Available at: http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag/downloads/

37.

International Energy Agency (IEA) (2017) Energy access outlook. From poverty to prosperity. IEA. Available at: https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-access-outlook-2017

38.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2014) Measuring the Information Society Report. Geneva: ITU.

39.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2017) Measuring the Information Society Report 2017. Geneva: ITU.

40.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2018) Measuring the Information Society Report 2018. Geneva: ITU.

41.

Jamalova

Constantinovits

(2020) Smart for development: income level as the element of smartphone diffusion. Management Science Letters 10(5): 1141–1150.

42.

Kabla

(2008) The adoption of mobile phones in emerging markets: global diffusion and the rural challenge. International Journal of Communication 2: 631–661.

43.

Koski

Kretschmer

(2005) Entry, standards and competition: firm strategies and the diffusion of mobile telephony. ETLA Discussion papers no. 824. Helsinki: ETLA.

44.

Lyytinen

Damsgaard

(2001) What’s wrong with the diffusion of innovation theory? In: Ardis

Marcolin

(eds) Diffusing Software Product and Process Innovations. TDIT 2001. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Vol 59. Boston, MA: Springer, pp.173–190.

45.

Madden

Cobel

Dalzell

(2004) A dynamic model of mobile telephony subscription incorporating a network effect. Telecommunications Policy 28(2): 133–144.

46.

Mann

Rosen

(2002) The New Economy and A.P.E.C. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.

47.

Mariscal

(2005) Digital divide in a developing country. Telecommunications Policy 29(5–6): 409–428.

48.

Marshall

Fiore

(1967) The Medium is the Massage. New York: Bantam.

49.

Murphie

Potts

(2003) Culture and Technology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

50.

Norris

(2000) The global divide: information poverty and Internet access worldwide. In: Internet Conference at the International Political Science World Congress, Quebec City, 2014.

51.

OECD (2008) Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators: Methodology and User Guide. Paris: OECD Publications.

52.

Pachis

Yannelis

(2018) Determinants of mobile broadband penetration: an Empirical International Study. In: 29th European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunication Society(ITS): Towards a digital future: Turning technology into markets. Trento, 1–4 August. Trento: International Telecommunications Society.

53.

Park

(2022) Mobile phones as a Paradigm Shifter: understanding an authentic position of mobile diffusion phenomena in Sub-Saharan Countries. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Society and Technology, Stony Brook University, New York.

54.

Park

Dreamson

(2023) The heterogeneous effects of human development and good governance on mobile diffusion in the sub-Saharan region: evidence from panel quantile regression. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 189: 122355.

55.

Porter

Hampshire

Milner

, et al. (2016) Mobile phones and education in Sub-Saharan Africa: from youth practice to public policy. Journal of International Development 28(1): 22–39.

56.

Ragossnig

Vujić

(2015) Challenges in technology transfer from developed to developing countries. Waste Management & Research 33(2): 93–95.

57.

Reuters (2018) Internet in eastern Ethiopia shut down after regional violence. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-internet-idUSKBN1KT0T4

58.

Safdar

(2017) Business models for mini-grids. Technical report 9. Smart Villages. Available at: http://test.e4sv.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TR9.pdf

59.

Solomon

Van Klyton

(2020) The impact of digital technology usage on economic growth in Africa. Utilities Policy 67: 101104.

60.

Techatassanasoontorn

Kauffman

(2005) Is there a global digital divide for digital wireless phone technologies? Journal of the Association for Information Systems 6(12): 338–382.

61.

Thomas

Michael

John

, et al. (2003) Country case studies on the challenges facing landlocked developing countries, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNDP Human Development Report.

62.

Tikam

(2013) Impact of ICT on education. International Journal of Information Communication Technologies and Human Development 5(4): 1–9.

63.

USAID (2019) Power Africa Annual Report 2019. Washington, DC: USAID.

64.

Venables

Henderson

Jones

(2017) Africa’s urban development trap. In Henderson

Jones

Venables

(eds) Africa’s Cities: Opening Doors to the World. Available at: https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/10.1596/978-1-4648-1044-2_ch4

65.

We Are Social (2018) Global digital report 2018. We Are Social. Available at: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2018-global-digital-yearbook

66.

World Bank (2021) Population total—Mali. Available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=ML

67.

World Economic Forum (WEF) (2019) The network readiness index 2019. Available at: https://networkreadinessindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NRI_2019_Report.pdf

68.

Yates

Gulati

Marabelli

(2015) Determinants of mobile broadband diffusion: a focus on developing countries. In: Twenty-Third European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Münster, 2015.