Three Essays on Social Networks and the Diffusion of Innovation Models

Download Three Essays on Social Networks and the Diffusion of Innovation Models PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 117 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (898 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Essays on Social Networks and the Diffusion of Innovation Models by : Tae-Hyung Pyo

Download or read book Three Essays on Social Networks and the Diffusion of Innovation Models written by Tae-Hyung Pyo and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a small fraction of data from the population, it accurately recovered the true parameters. Therefore, the NBB model can be used when we do not have complete network information. The last essay is the first attempt to incorporate heterogeneous peer influence into the NBB model, based on individuals' preference structures. Besides the significant extension of the NBB (Bass) Model, incorporating high-quality data on individual behavior into the model leads to new findings on individuals' adoption behaviors, and thus expands our knowledge of the diffusion process.

Social Networks and the Geography of Innovation and Research Collaboration

Download Social Networks and the Geography of Innovation and Research Collaboration PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (94 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Social Networks and the Geography of Innovation and Research Collaboration by : Laurent Bergé

Download or read book Social Networks and the Geography of Innovation and Research Collaboration written by Laurent Bergé and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis pertains to understanding how social networks and geography affect thecreation of new knowledge. More precisely, this thesis will question how the social networkof collaboration can influence the production of knowledge, how do geography and thesocial network interact, and whether the social network can help to bypass geography. Answeringthese questions required to make some theoretical, methodological and empiricalcontributions. One part of the thesis gathers the mechanisms linking the social network toknowledge creation, while another focuses on the interplay of geography and the networkinto the collaboration process. Following this theoretical discussion, two empirical studiesare laid out. First, it assesses the formation of scientific collaborations in Europe in thefield of chemistry. This study focus on the competing role between the social network andgeography to shaping new collaborations. Then, the thesis comes to evaluate how thenetwork of inventors influence the innovation performance of French employment areas.In particular, a specific methodology is set up to address what kind of network structurefavours the most collaboration. The main results of this thesis are that an increase inthe connectedness of inventors is always beneficial to urban innovation performance. Wealso show that social network act as a substitute to geographic distance, so that socialnetwork allows to alleviate the burden of distance. These results shed light on the role ofthe network in shaping the spatial distribution of the scientific and technological activity.

Essays in the Economic Theory of Social Networks

Download Essays in the Economic Theory of Social Networks PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (1 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Essays in the Economic Theory of Social Networks by : Wang Xiang

Download or read book Essays in the Economic Theory of Social Networks written by Wang Xiang and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dissertation, I provide three social network models addressing different aspects of the economy.First, I consider the issue of social network formation. Meeting with strangers and meeting with friends friends are two common patterns when observing the formation of social networks and thus are widely adopted in many statistical network formation settings. I establish a network formation model trying to find the individual level incentive behind the two patterns. Each agent enters the network sequentially choosingbetween forming global random links or connecting with friends' friends, knowing that his payoff depends on the distance between the player with valuable information and himself. I find that the distance between players in the resulting network asymptotically follows a Weibull distribution and the link formation decision depends on how easily information can be transmitted under the network. When the transmission is relatively easy and information can be received from far away, players prefer to meet with strangers. Otherwise they prefer to connect with friends friends. The second model considers a moral hazard scenario in which a monitor must detect deviations so as to provide proper incentives to attain an efficient outcome. What if the monitor himself were to deviate after being bribed by his monitored subject? I explore a multi-agent public-good provision game in which each player prefers shirking to working in the absence of exogenous enforcement and can bribe those assigned to monitor him. I find that when players agree to cooperate in choosing an optimally designed monitoringnetwork, a core-periphery monitoring network results, with a small group of heavily monitored players who monitor all others. Under this network, a perfect Bayesian equilibrium (PBE) is supported in which shirking is prevented, bribing among players ceases and total monitoring costs are minimized. Further, the efficiency of this core-periphery structure is robust under various settings, including the dynamic spread of bribing, and under different punishments and monitoring schedules.Lastly, I consider a phenomenon of innovation adoption and diffusion. Innovations are crucial to the long run economic growth; however, not all new ideas are adopted by the majority of the society even though similar ones which appear later turn out to be commercial successes. I establish a model in which multiple potential entrants each can bring a new technology into a market with consumers connected under a social network.Technology has the character of network externality and entrants must rely on the word-of-mouth communication under the social network to promote their products. I find that high quality innovations are not guaranteed to perform better than low quality ones under the scenario and timing is a crucial determinant of their commercial performances. Low quality innovation firms are likely to enter the market whenever possible but high quality ones might strategically wait for a proper time to acquire a better market share.

Rethinking the Role of Social Networks in Knowledge Diffusion

Download Rethinking the Role of Social Networks in Knowledge Diffusion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (515 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rethinking the Role of Social Networks in Knowledge Diffusion by : Nazmun Nahar Ratna

Download or read book Rethinking the Role of Social Networks in Knowledge Diffusion written by Nazmun Nahar Ratna and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Three Essays on Social Networks in Economics

Download Three Essays on Social Networks in Economics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (137 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Essays on Social Networks in Economics by : Livia Shkoza

Download or read book Three Essays on Social Networks in Economics written by Livia Shkoza and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Three essays on empirical finance

Download Three essays on empirical finance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rozenberg Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9036101514
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (361 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three essays on empirical finance by : Tse-Chun Lin

Download or read book Three essays on empirical finance written by Tse-Chun Lin and published by Rozenberg Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Three Essays on the Importance of Social Networks in the Labor Market

Download Three Essays on the Importance of Social Networks in the Labor Market PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 99 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (491 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Essays on the Importance of Social Networks in the Labor Market by : Mauro Sylos Labini

Download or read book Three Essays on the Importance of Social Networks in the Labor Market written by Mauro Sylos Labini and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Three Essays on Dynamic Processes and Information Flow on Social Networks

Download Three Essays on Dynamic Processes and Information Flow on Social Networks PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9788469532317
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (323 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Essays on Dynamic Processes and Information Flow on Social Networks by : Gergely Horváth

Download or read book Three Essays on Dynamic Processes and Information Flow on Social Networks written by Gergely Horváth and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Three Essays on Social Network Theory

Download Three Essays on Social Network Theory PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Essays on Social Network Theory by : Abel Camacho Guardian

Download or read book Three Essays on Social Network Theory written by Abel Camacho Guardian and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Essays on Signaling and Social Networks

Download Essays on Signaling and Social Networks PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Stanford University
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Essays on Signaling and Social Networks by : Tomas Rodriguez Barraquer

Download or read book Essays on Signaling and Social Networks written by Tomas Rodriguez Barraquer and published by Stanford University. This book was released on 2011 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last few decades some analytic tools intensely used by economics have produced useful insights in topics formerly in the exclusive reach of other social sciences. In particular game theory, justifiable from either a multi-person decision theoretic perspective or from an evolutionary one, often serves as a generous yet sufficiently tight framework for interdisciplinary dialogue. The three essays in this collection apply game theory to answer questions with some aspects of economic interest. The three of them have in common that they are related to topics to which other social sciences, specially sociology, have made significant contributions. While working within economics I have attempted to use constructively and faithfully some of these ideas. Chapter 1, coauthored with Xu Tan, studies situations in which a set of agents take actions in order to convey private information to an observing third party which then assigns a set of prizes based on its beliefs about the ranking of the agents in terms of the unobservable characteristic. These situations were first studied using game theoretic frameworks by Spence and Akerlof in the early seventies, but some of the key insights date back to the foundational work of Veblen. In our analysis we focus on the competitive aspect of some of these situations and cast signals as random variables whose distributions are determined by the underlying unobservable characteristics. Under this formulation different signals have inherent meanings, preceding any stable conventions that may be established. We use these prior meanings to propose an equilibrium selection criterion, which significantly refines the very large set of sequential equilibria in this class of games. In Chapter 2, coauthored with Matthew O. Jackson and Xu Tan, we study the structure of social networks that allow individuals to cooperate with one another in settings in which behavior is non-contractible, by supporting schemes of credible ostracism of deviators. There is a significant literature on the subject of cooperation in social networks focusing on the role of the network in transmitting the information necessary for the timely punishment of deviators, and deriving properties of network structures able to sustain cooperation from that perspective. Ours is one of the first efforts to understand the network restrictions that emerge purely from the credibility of ostracism, carefully considering the implications that the dissolution of any given relationship may have over the sustainability of other relations in the community. In Chapter 3 I study the sets of Pure Strategy Nash equilibria of a variety of binary games of social influence under complete information. In a game of social influence agents simultaneously choose one of two possible strategies (to be inactive or be active), and the optimal choice depends on the strategies of the agents in their social environment. Different social environments and assumptions on the way in which they influence the behavior of the agents lead to different classes of games of varying degrees of tractability. In any such game an equilibrium can be described by the set of agents that are active, and the full set of equilibria can be thus represented as a collection of subsets of the set of agents. I build the analysis of each of the classes of games that I consider around the question: What collections of sets are expressible as the set of equilibria of some game in the class? I am able to provide precise answers to these questions in some of the classes studied, and in other cases just some pointers.

Value Creation in Online Social Platforms

Download Value Creation in Online Social Platforms PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Value Creation in Online Social Platforms by : Hyelim Oh

Download or read book Value Creation in Online Social Platforms written by Hyelim Oh and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This dissertation is comprised of three essays examining the interplays between social media and IT-enabled business models and its implications for firms' value creation.The first essay of the dissertation examines how a firm's content pricing strategy influences its WOM in social media. Specifically, using the New York Times's (NYT's) paywall rollout as a natural experiment, we examine the impact of NYT's content pricing policy (i.e., a shift from "free" to "for a fee") on the patterns and effectiveness of WOM on Twitter. The results indicate that implementing a paywall has a disproportionate impact on the WOM for popular and niche articles, creating a longer tail in the WOM (i.e., content sharing) distribution. To examine why the long-tail results happen, we conduct a latent segment analysis. The results show that because of low willingness to pay for paid content, light users consuming popular articles have higher attrition likelihoods than heavy users consuming a mix of niche and popular articles, thus reshaping the content sharing distribution. Further, we find that the impact of WOM on NYT's website traffic weakens significantly after the introduction of NYT's paywall. These results show that content pricing strategy has significant implications for product and promotion strategies. The study offers implications for theory and practice concerning the strategic use of social media and content pricing strategy. In the second essay we focus on firms' use of online social platforms as part of their innovation and product development strategy, and study the factors that influence the success of such crowdsourcing initiatives. Specifically, we investigate how inventors' and co-inventors' collaboration network structures affect the performance of crowdsourcing ideation projects. Drawing on the notion of the "wisdom of crowds," this study examines how the diversity of project team composition and the independence of project teams within crowdsourcing communities impact the likelihood of product co-development project success. Using product co-development project data collected from Quirky.com, a US-based online crowdsourcing platform, we specifically look at how inventors' project affiliation (i.e., a two-mode network that emerges from inventor and co-inventor collaboration) and friendship network (i.e., a directed network constructed from Twitter-like following and follower ties) structures affect crowdsourcing project success. We find that more diverse participation and more independent (less conformative) idea generation yields more successful outcomes in product co-development projects. The empirical results suggest the negative performance implications of highly embedded network structures in both project affiliation and friendship networks. This study provides significant implications concerning the "wisdom of crowds" effect on crowdsourcing performance.Finally, the third essay focuses on firms' strategy to use social media for diffusion of its promotional content and/or products and studies the factors that can influence the effectiveness of such social media based diffusion strategies. Specifically, this essay investigates how social network characteristics influence micro-level content diffusion in social media. Given that in Twitter-like broadcasting social media, diffusion of word-of-mouth relies on people retransmitting the information, it is important to understand the factors that influence the retransmission of information. Using Twitter's subscription network as an empirical context, this study examines how the network characteristics between sender-and-receiver dyads affect the likelihood of a receiver's content retransmission. We find that latent homophily between a sender and receiver pair predicts the likelihood of a focal receiver's retransmission decision. Further, we find that tie strength in the dyad mediates the homophily effect on retransmission decisions." --

Three Essays on Social Interactions and Networks

Download Three Essays on Social Interactions and Networks PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (894 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Essays on Social Interactions and Networks by : Shenzhe Wang

Download or read book Three Essays on Social Interactions and Networks written by Shenzhe Wang and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation focuses on the social interaction with economic perspectives. This first essay tests peer effects in the workplace with piece-rate compensation. Reference groups are defined as the geographical peers in undirected networks. A series of spatial econometric models are employed to investigate the social effects. We identify and present evidence for endogenous effects (production) while find no evidence for exogenous effects (characteristics). We also find that the heterogeneity of endogenous effects depends on workers and their peers' characteristics, which is defined as conditional endogenous effects in this paper. Our results suggest that rearranging workers' seats according to their personal characteristics could lead to changes in overall productivity. From a field experiment design, the second essay studies the relation between social distance and training outcomes. We test our hypothesis through two measures: the tips shared with trainees by trainers, and the exist test results of trainees. We find that trainers share more tips to socially closer trainees, and the communications between trainers and trainees have a significant indirect effects on the number of tips shared. The productivity of trainees are also higher when they are socially closer to their trainers. The third essay discusses the identification problem in social peers effect studies. By considering the canonical linear in means model with the rank condition in simultaneous equations model, it suggests that the group structures determines the identifiablity of the desired social effects estimates. Transitive networks are not identified unless there are more information contained in the between group structures. Modifications to the conventional model are also suggested with respect to the recovery of transitive networks and potentially incomplete networks.

Essays on Social Networks in Development Economics

Download Essays on Social Networks in Development Economics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (86 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Essays on Social Networks in Development Economics by : Arun Gautham Chandrasekhar

Download or read book Essays on Social Networks in Development Economics written by Arun Gautham Chandrasekhar and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (cont.) substitutes for commitment. On net, savings allows individuals to smooth risk that cannot be shared interpersonally, with the largest benefits for those who are weakly connected in the network. The final chapter (co-authored with my classmates Horacio Larreguy and Juan Pablo Xandri) attempts to determine which models of social learning on networks best describe empirical behavior. Theory has focused on two leading models of social learning on networks: Bayesian and DeGroot rules of thumb learning. These models can yield greatly divergent behavior; individuals employing rules of thumb often double-count information and may not exhibit convergent behavior in the long run. By conducting a unique lab experiment in rural Karnataka, India, set up to exactly differentiate between these two models, we test which model best describes social learning processes on networks. We study experiments in which seven individuals are placed into a network, each with full knowledge of its structure. The participants attempt to learn the underlying (binary) state of the world. Individuals receive independent, identically distributed signals about the state in the first period only; thereafter, individuals make guesses about the underlying state of the world and these guesses are transmitted to their neighbors at the beginning of the following round. We consider various environments including incomplete information Bayesian models and provide evidence that individuals are best described by DeGroot models wherein they either take simple majority of opinions in their neighborhood.

The Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies

Download The Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315474646
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies by : Ewa Lechman

Download or read book The Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies written by Ewa Lechman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, the world has witnessed, unprecedented in terms of speed and geographic coverage, diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICT). The on-going digital revolution pervasively impacts and reshapes societies and economies and therefore deserves special attention and interest. This book provides extensive evidence on information and communication technologies development patterns and dynamics of this process across developed economies over the period 1980 to the present day. It adopts newly developed methodology to identification of the ‘critical mass’ and isolation of technological takeoff intervals, which are intimately related to the process of technology diffusion. The statistically robust analysis of country-specific data demonstrates the key economic, social and institutional prerequisites of ICT diffusion across examined countries, indicating what factors significantly foster or – reversely – hinder the process.

Essays on Social Networks

Download Essays on Social Networks PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (858 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Essays on Social Networks by : Chen, Xi

Download or read book Essays on Social Networks written by Chen, Xi and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is composed of a literature review, Chapter 1, an in-depth analysis of data used in the dissertation, Chapter 2, and three main essays, Chapters 3-5, on relative concerns, social interactions and unintended consequences. To uncover the nature of social interactions, Chapter 3 studies how rural residents form social networks, and what explains the recent gift spending escalation. Chapter 4 focuses on a typical market that carries significant social stigma - paid blood plasma donation in China. I explore the role of peer interactions in the networks. Building upon it, Chapter 5 evaluates how in utero exposures to frequent and costly social events for the impoverished families impacts early child nutrients intake and health status. Chapter 1 This chapter reviews the recent literature on inequality and income distribution in rural China utilizing panel datasets. On the basis of the review, this chapter identifies new research areas with existing panel datasets and my new household panel dataset, i.e., the IFPRI-CAAS, which could shape future research. Chapter 2 The tradition of keeping written gift record in many Asian countries offers researchers an old-fashioned but underutilized means of data collection for development and social network study. This chapter documents a long-term spontaneous household gift record I collected from the field. I discuss the data collection and network structure, highlighting its unique features for studies at household and dyadic link level. Chapter 3 The growth rate of gift and festival spending in some developing countries has been much higher than that of consumption and income. I test three competing explanations of the phenomenon-peer effect, status concern, and risk pooling-based on the IFPRI-CAAS and the gift network data. I find that gift-giving behavior is largely influenced by peers in reference groups. Status concern is another key motive for keeping up with the Joneses in extending gifts. In contrast, risk pooling does not seem to be a key driver of the observed gift-giving patterns. I also show that large windfall income triggers the escalation of competitive gift-giving behavior. Chapter 4 Despite the resultant disutility, people are still engaged in behavior carrying social stigma. Empirical studies on stigma behavior are rare, largely due to the formidable challenges of collecting data on stigmatized goods and services. Combining the IFPRI-CAAS and the gift network data, I examine frequent blood sales, widely regarded as a stigmatized behavior and the driving force of public health crises. Using a novel spatial identification strategy, I find social interactions with heterogeneous intensities affect plasma sales decisions. Peer effects are directional and work through preference interactions that reduce stigma. Families with unmarried son are more likely to sell plasma to offset costs of getting married in a tight marriage market, such as a bigger house, a higher bride price and a more lavish wedding banquet. Chapter 5 Participating in and presenting gifts at funerals, weddings, and other ceremonies held by fellow villagers have been regarded as social norms. However, it is more burdensome for the poor to take part in these social occasions than the rich. Because the poor often lack the necessary resources, they are forced to cut back on basic consumption, such as food, in order to afford a gift to attend the social festivals. Using the IFPRI-CAAS and the gift dataset, this chapter shows that children born to mothers in poor families who are exposed to a greater number of ceremonies during their pregnancies are more likely to display a lasting detrimental health impact.

PRIMA 2016: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems

Download PRIMA 2016: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319448323
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (194 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis PRIMA 2016: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems by : Matteo Baldoni

Download or read book PRIMA 2016: Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems written by Matteo Baldoni and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-08-10 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems, PRIMA 2016, held in Phuket, Thailand, in August 22-26, 2016. The 16 revised full papers presented together with two invited papers, 9 short papers and three extended abstracts were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. The intention of the papers is to showcase research in several domains, ranging from foundations of agent theory and engineering aspects of agent systems, to emerging interdisciplinary areas of agent-based research.

ICT Diffusion in Developing Countries

Download ICT Diffusion in Developing Countries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319182544
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (191 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis ICT Diffusion in Developing Countries by : Ewa Lechman

Download or read book ICT Diffusion in Developing Countries written by Ewa Lechman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an extensive overview of the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in developing countries between 2000 and 2012. It covers issues such as country-specific ICT diffusion patterns, technological substitution and technological convergence. By identifying social, economic and institutional prerequisites and analyzing critical country-specific conditions, the author develops a new approach to explaining the emergence of their technological takeoff. Readers will discover how developing countries are now adopting ICTs, rapidly catching up with the developed world in terms of ICT access and use.