Literature Review Introduction

1.

Understanding ICT

Information and communication technology (ICT) connectivity (PCs and Internet) is very widespread in businesses of all sizes. As is the case with all technologies, small businesses are slower than large ones to adopt new ICTs. Potential small business benefits and firm and sectorspecific strategies drive the adoption and use of ICTs. Furthermore, sectors are increasingly global and dominated by large firms and the structure of their values chains and operations shape opportunities for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Principal reasons for non-adoption are lack of applicability and little incentive to change business models when returns are unclear. SMEs also face generic barriers to adoption including trust and transaction security and IPR concerns, and challenges in areas of management skills, technological capabilities, productivity and competitiveness. The issues for governments are to foster appropriate business environments for e-business and ICT uptake (e.g. to diffuse broadband, enhance competition), and target programmes to overcome market failures to the extent that they are needed in particular areas (e.g. skill formation, specialised information). Governments have a range of SME ebusiness and Internet use programmes. However commercial considerations and potential returns are the principal drivers of small business adoption and profitable use. Information and communication technology (ICT) and e-business applications provide many Evolution of ICT four major phases in the history of using computers in education. The fifth: the era of social software and free and open content is still to come I hope. The phases are: (1) Late 1970s early 1980s: programming, drill and practice; (2) Late 1980s early 1990s: computer based training (CBT) with multimedia; (3) Early 1990s: Internet-based training (IBT);

(4) Late 1990s early 2000: e-Learning;

Reasons For Implementing ICT

Business environment A healthy business environment is fundamental for firms to thrive and benefit from ICTs. This includes a transparent, open and competitive business framework, clear independent rule of law for all firms, easy set up and dissolution of businesses, transparent, simple and accessible corporate regulation, and equal and stable legal treatment for national and cross-border transactions. Network infrastructure Encourage rollout and use of quality infrastructure at affordable prices. Broadband connectivity is a key component in ICT development, adoption and use. It accelerates the contribution of ICTs to economic growth, facilitates innovation, and promotes efficiency, network effects and positive externalities. The development of broadband markets, efficient and innovative supply arrangements, and effective use of broadband services require policies that: promote effective competition and continued to stress liberalisation in infrastructure, network services and applications across different technological platforms; encourage investment in new technological infrastructure, content and applications; and technology neutrality among competing and developing technologies to encourage interoperability, innovation and expand choice. Public financial assistance to expand coverage for under-served groups and remote areas could complement private investment where appropriate, provided it does not pre-empt private sector initiative or inhibit competition.

Trust infrastructure Get the regulatory infrastructure right for trust, security, privacy and consumer protection. Essential are a culture of security to enhance trust in the use of ICT, effective enforcement of privacy and consumer protection, and combating cyber-crime and spam. Strengthened crossborder co-operation between all stakeholders is necessary to reach these goals. Of particular relevance for small firms are lowcost on-line dispute resolution mechanisms among firms and between firms and consumers. Digital products and information services These are an increasingly significant part of economic activity and they offer important opportunities to small firms. Government and the private sector have key roles in facilitating content availability across all platforms and encouraging local development of new content, including content from public sources.

Applications of ICT
ICT as a high-efficiency enabler for essential sectors As the global economy recovers, the ICT sector will continue to unlock new efficiencies and capabilities across a range of key industry sectors. Healthcare, education, finance, and e-governance are just some of the vertical industry sectors where the impact of ICT is felt most significantly. Eco-sustainability: The efficiencies of ICT can serve to help meet the challenge of low-carbon global

economic growth. A recent study states that the ICT industry could deliver approximately 7.8 GtCO2e of emissions savings in 2020, significantly below recommended standards and with cost savings of approximately 600 billion13. Education: ICT has enabled tremendous growth in the online-education sector and thousands of libraries across the globe can now be accessed online. The New Zealand Digital Library Project has developed open-source, multilingual software to help universities, libraries, and public service institutions throughout the world build digital libraries14. E-government: As more government services become available online for businesses and citizens, these public agencies promote a virtuous circle of adoption and investment and become conduits of technology, users of ICT infrastructure and promoters of ICT services. Further, as government usage stimulates demand for ICT solutions, it helps promote investment in the supply of additional infrastructure and services

E-governance S.no 1 year 2002 author

The World Bank

definition
E-Government refers to the use by

government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government Carter and Belanger the relationship of government with recipients of its electronic services is characterized as; government to citizen (G2C), government to business (G2B); government to employees (G2E); government to government (G2G).

2005

Summary of project sites

Benefits of ICT and Internet use ICT and e-commerce offer benefits for a wide range of business processes. At firm level, ICT and its applications can make communication within the firm faster and make the management of the firms resources more efficient. Seamless transfer of information through shared electronic files and networked computers increases the efficiency of business processes such as documentation, data processing and other back-office functions (e.g. organising incoming orders and preparing invoices). Increasingly sophisticated

ICT applications such as KMS (Knowledge Management System) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) allow firms to store, share and use their acquired knowledge and know-how. For example, customer databases with a history of client-specific correspondence help managers and employees to respond more effectively to customers. At inter-firm level, the Internet and e-commerce have great potential for reducing transaction costs and increasing the speed and reliability of transactions. They can also reduce inefficiencies resulting from lack of co-ordination between firms in the value chain. Internet-based B2B interaction and real-time communication can reduce information asymmetries between buyers and suppliers and build closer relationships among trading partners (Moodley, 2002). In fact, adopters of e-commerce tend reduce transaction costs, increase transaction speed and reliability, and extract maximum value from transactions in their value chains (OECD, 2002a). In the B2C context, the Internet and e-commerce can be effective tools for better communication.

A corporate Web site that provides information on products, services or technologies can enhance the quality of a firms services to customers and attract new customers. By collecting information on customers needs, it can be used for product development or innovation. A home page with a direct link to the corporate e-mail account provides an easy-to-access contact point. For those in different time zones,24-hour availability of the contact is especially attractive. Eurostats Ecommerce Pilot Survey shows that SMEs motives for Internet commerce include reaching new/more customers, geographic expansion ofmarket and improvement of service quality.

3) Studies Global Perspectives

Adoption of Internet e-commerce by SMEs Computers and access to the Internet have become common in most OECD countries, but sales and purchases over the Internet have yet to take off. While available data suggest that electronic commerce is growing, it still accounts for a relatively small proportion of economic activity for firms of all sizes. Taking a wide definition of electronic commerce to cover transactions over computer-mediated networks (including traditional EDI) and inter-firm transactions, e-commerce sales were 13.3% of total business sector sales in Sweden and 7.9% in Finland. Excluding the financial sector they were 10% in Norway, and 6% in the United Kingdom and Denmark. For retail sales (B2C) shares were much lower, around 1.4% in the United Kingdom

Ethiopia
The Government of Ethiopia has a stated objective to use the development, deployment and exploitation of ICTs to help develop Ethiopia into a socially progressive and prosperous nation with a globally competitive, modern, dynamic and robust economy (FDRE, 2002). Simultaneously, the education sector

has been identified by the Government as a priority area. Thus Ethiopia presents a good example of a developing country in which the use of ICTs in education has central support. The Figure shows that Regional Education Bureaux have responsibility for financing and supervising schools and the College of Teacher Education sector. Both the Regional Education Bureaux and public universities are responsible to the Ministry of Education

Indian Perspectives
IT in India Information technology essentially refers to the digital processing, storage and communication of information of all kinds1. Therefore, IT can potentially be used in every sector of the economy. The true impact of IT on growth and productivity continues to be a matter of debate, even in the United States, which has been the leader and largest adopter of IT2. However, there is no doubt that the IT sector has been a dynamic one in many developed countries, and India has stood out as a developing country where IT, in the guise of software exports, has grown dramatically, despite the countrys relatively low level of income and development. An example of ITs broader impact comes from the case of so-called IT-enabled services, a broad category covering many different kinds of data processing and voice interactions that use some IT infrastructure as inputs, but do not necessarily involve the production of IT outputs. Indias figures for the size of the IT

sector typically include such services. The numbers on Indias software exports are well-publicised (www.nasscom.org). The latest figures on the software and services sector indicate that annual revenue was Rs.480 billion ($10.1 billion) in 2001-02, up from Rs.382 billion ($8.4 billion) in 2000-01 (NASSCOM, 2002a) This translates into overall growth of 26 per cent in rupee terms and 20 per cent in dollar terms. While growth rates have been high, Indias IT sector is still small, relative both to the world market and to Indias GDP. World sales of software and services in 2000 were $440 billion (Desai, 2002b). Even if this did not grow at all, Indias 2001-02 sales would be just about 2 per cent of the world market. To compare the software sector to GDP, one has to estimate the fraction of sales that constitutes value added. Assuming this fraction to be two-thirds would imply that software directly contributed about 1.5 per cent to GDP. The latest NASSCOM figures no longer include hardware and peripherals, whereas they did earlier (Singh, 2002). Using earlier calculations, the broader IT sector is probably one third again as big, allowing for slower hardware growth. This would imply that the IT sector is about 2 per cent of GDP. Despite Indias emphasis on import-substituting industrialisation, it has not developed a robust, world-class manufacturing industry, and this includes IT hardware. Much of Indias hardware industry consists of assembly tasks, almost entirely for the

domestic market. Indias software industry is, of course, more robust at least in certain areas. While selling packaged software to consumer (and most business) markets requires economies of scale and scope, as well as marketing and customer support muscle, project-oriented components of software development do not, at least to quite the same degree. To some extent, therefore, Indias software industry remains narrowly focused. For example, of Indias 2001-02 software and services exports of Rs.365 billion, two-thirds came from IT services, and close to 88 per cent of that amount came from custom application development and application outsourcing (calculated from NASSCOM, 2002a; see also Desai, 2002a). Indicators of the strength of Indias software export capabilities include the depth of its base, and the breadth of its global reach. There are over 2 500 Indian software exporters, and while only the top five (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and HCL) are or are approaching the status of global brands, they together account for only about 35 per cent of software exports3. The United States remains by far the largest market for Indias software exports, its share of Indias software exports being 63 per cent, with Europe coming in at 26 per cent, and Japan and the rest of the world accounting for the remaining 11 per cent (NASSCOM, 2002a). Individual firms and organisations such as NASSCOM have shown themselves to be adept at targeting

markets with substantial growth potential, such as Germany, and the reputations built in exporting to the United States are proving important4. IT-enabled services (ITES) have shown the strongest growth in the last two years. They include a variety of types of service: customer call centres; accounting services and other business process outsourcing; and GIS and engineering services. Thus the required degree of technical sophistication of the workforce and the level of use of IT can vary widely. In fact, these three categories make up most of Indias ITES exports, with the first two showing high growth and representing over 60 per cent of the total of Rs.71 billion.

Market Capitalization of listed Indian Infotech companies

(in US$ Billin)

Sharp re-rating in valuations of companies in the knowledge sectors consistent outperformance over main indices
Source: Chowdery (2005): ict

development in India. portal player

Domestic market in India

The ICT domestic market in India has grown

from $10 million in 1991 to $1.75 billion in 1999

19 States out of 26 States have announced new

IT policies

E-Governance, e-Banking, e-Manufacturing, e-

Commerce,

etc are the new mantras in India

Major private industries participating in

providing high

Turkey

Higher Education in Turkey

Formal education in Turkey includes preschool education, basic education, secondary education, and higher education. The Ministry of National Education is responsible for all educational services in the country excluding higher education. The Council of Higher Education is the planning, coordinating and policy making body for higher education (YK, 2005a). In 1981, the Turkish higher education system entered a process of restructuring, and the institutions functioning within the scope of higher education were assembled under the framework of the Higher Education Council (YK, 2005b). Today, the Higher Education Council, whose functions as an autonomous organization within the framework of duties and authorities granted by the relevant articles of the Constitution, affiliates a total of 77 universities: 53 state universities and 24 private universities (YK, 2005b). Each university consists of faculties and four-year schools, offering bachelor's level program, and two years vocational schools offering pre-bachelor's (associate's) level program of a strictly vocational nature. Graduate-level programs consist of masters and doctoral program,

coordinated by institutes for graduate studies. Admission to higher education is centralized and based on nationwide examinations administered by the Student Selection and Placement Center every year. The center was established in 1974 and is affiliated with the Council of Higher Education. Each year approximately one and half million students take Student Selection and Placement Center Exam and approximately one third of these students is placed into a higher education program. The increases in the number of university students and in the number of students who wish to study in a university brings up the need use of opportunities provided by ICT facilities in the universities. It is believed that ICT plays a significant role though it is not the only factor, in coping with the increasing demand for universities.

. Proposed structure model for the ICT usage

Source : Usluel, Y. K., Akar, P., & Ba, T. (2008). A Structural Equation Model for ICT Usage in Higher Education.
Educational Technology & Society, 11 (2), 262-273

Research Model and Hypotheses

In this study, a research model which is based on the DoI explains the ICT usage for higher education. It consists of ICT facilities (ICTF) and five perceived attributes: relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, observability, and trialability. Several previous studies have shown that there are various external factors that influence the adoption of

innovation (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000; Venkatesh et al. 2003). In this study we expect ICTF to be an external factor affecting the usage of ICT for higher education. The research model is shown in Figure 1. The following three hypotheses are proposed: H1. ICT facilities have a positive effect on the ICT usage H2. Perceived attributes have a positive effect on the ICT usage H3. ICT facilities have a positive effect on the perceived attributes