Disruptive Technologies
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- ItemDisruptive Technologies and Manufacturing Performance in South Africa: Firm-Level Evidence(2022) Avenyo, Elvis Korku; Bell, Jason F.The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is changing while also adding increased complexity to the global manufacturing landscape. The global transformation in manufacturing is offering new prospects for sustained industrial development in developing countries through increases in productivity, value creation, and efficiency gains as well as employment creation avenues. Digitalization and the adoption of disruptive digital technologies are viewed as crucial to these transformations. However, there are limited research into the current state of disruptive technologies' adoption, digital skills, and capabilities in developing countries, particularly South Africa. This paper examines the effect of adoption of disruptive digital technologies on the performance of South African manufacturing firms. Using novel data from the South African digital skills survey and econometric analyses, our results highlight the importance of the adoption of disruptive digital technologies for the performance of manufacturing firms in South Africa. The policy implications of our results are discussed considering national policies on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
- ItemDisruptive Technologies in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Mobile Telecommunications Services(2022-09) Grzybowski, LukaszThe last decade around the world has been marked by digital transformation of the economies and societies. In most developed countries, almost every single household got fast broadband Internet connection, while mobile operators have been covering the globe with LTE networks, which offer high-speed Internet connections on mobile devices. These investments in telecommunications infrastructure and increasing number of people with fast Internet connections on fixed or mobile networks resulted in explosion of innovative Internet services, which impacted the functioning of almost every single traditional industry including the media, retail, and transportation. The impact of digital markets on individuals, households, and small business is gaining a momentum with the emergence and rapid growth of online social platforms, peer to-peer lending, crowd-funding services, and many other online platforms.
- ItemDisruptive Technologies, Agricultural Productivity and Economic Performance in Kenya(2022-09) Onsomu, Eldah; Munga, Boaz; Munene, Boniface; Macharia, John; Nyabaro, VioletKenya is at the forefront of technological innovations and is often referred to as the ‘Silicon Savannah’ of Africa. Disruptive technologies in Kenya comprise of fast internet connectivity, ICT infrastructure investments, value-added services, mobile money, and mobile banking services, among others. Kenya's ICT sector, therefore, remains a key enabler to economic growth, resilience and overall economic performance across counties. Disruptive technologies in agriculture consisted of digital and technical innovations that enable farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs to leap from current methods to increase their productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness, thereby facilitating access to markets, improving nutritional outcomes, and enhancing resilience to climate change while contributing to sustained economic growth. Disruptive technologies have the potential to help address the inequality challenge. Adoption of disruptive technologies, including use of innovations in the context of modern methods of farming, has contributed to improved farm productivity, marketing and incomes. The study established a positive correlation between fertilizer use and agricultural productivity. This is because small scale producers, when exposed to relevant on-farm training, benefit more from the innovation, including use of fertilizers and certified seed. The use of manufactured feed is gaining traction in commercial intensive production systems such as poultry and had a positive and significant effect on productivity.
- ItemThe Growth Effect of Disruptive Technology in Ethiopia: With a Case Study of Digitalization in the Financial Sector(African Economic Research Consortium, 2022) Grzybowski, LukaszFocusing on digitalization as a major disruptive technology in Ethiopia, this study found that digitalization is at a very low level of development in Ethiopia, by regional standard. Yet, a 10% rate of digital penetration (digitalization) is found to increate GDP growth by 0.5%―this being as high as 0.8% in the service sector. Digitalization in the financial sector is growing very fast, but is still the lowest by regional standard. Major challenges for this are found to be the stifling regulatory environment from the central bank, the telecommunication infrastructure (though significantly improved lately) and the low level of digital literacy both at national level and within the financial sector. Low investment from the board of directors of banks so as to pay high dividend, failure of executives to take risk to creatively use the IT capacity in the country, the difficult of measuring the impact of digitalization for use in board and executive decision-making, and coordination failure in collectively acquiring some digital technologies from global vendors at national level are some of the challenges identified in the sector. Based on these findings, the study derived various policy implications that include: strengthening the regulator body and improving its working modality; acquisition of some digital technology at national level; and improving the digital infrastructure, cost and reliability; among others.
- ItemImpact of Digital Technology Adoption on Employment in Senegal(2022-09) Malick Diallo, Thierno; Dumas, TSAMBOU André; Fomba Kamga Benjamin, Fomba KamgaThe future of developing countries lies primarily in the intensity of their uptake of digital technologies. Although these new technologies have disrupted the existence of old ones with a possible impact on productivity, employment, and competitiveness in different sectors of activity, there has been little empirical research on this possible impact. The present study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of digital technology adoption on labour market outcomes, and on employment dynamics in the manufacturing and service sectors in Senegal. Firstly, in order to assess the effect of digital technologies on young people's awareness of public employment programmes and their access to employment, the study applied the propensity score matching method to data obtained from a survey labelled “Improving Employment Policies” (Améliorer les Politiques d’Emploi, EAPE), which was conducted in 2018 among 2,746 individuals in Senegal. Secondly, in order to measure the effect of digital technology adoption on employment dynamics in the manufacturing and service sectors, the study applied the instrumental variables method to data obtained from a survey called “Determinants of the Performance of Firms in Francophone Sub Saharan Africa: the Case of Senegal” (Déterminants de la Performance des Entreprises en Afrique Subsaharienne Francophone: Cas du Sénégal), which was conducted in 2014 among 723 firms. The relevance of the present study lies in the fact that it will provide policy makers with guidance on the measures they should take to help young people entering the labour, and private-sector firms with guidance on how to make the most of digital technology diffusion in Senegal. By way of results, the study found that digital technology adoption helped the unemployed youth to participate in solidarity-contract programmes and to continue their active job search efforts, although it did not reduce the duration of their unemployment. It also found that digital technology adoption by Senegalese firms had a positive and significant impact on both the number of people they employed and the number of both their highly skilled and less skilled employees. Specifically, by adopting digital technologies, a firm increased the number of its highly skilled employees by 2.12% and that of its less skilled ones by 2.64%. This corresponds to a 0.52% greater impact for the less skilled employees than for the highly skilled ones.