Information and Communication Technology in Transition Economies: An Assessment of Research Trends

Abstract

In this paper we assess the publication base and the research trends in information and communication technology (ICT) specifically in transition economies. We limit our analysis to work published in academic journals and dealing with ICT in countries that have abruptly abolished a centrally planned economy and one-party controlled political system in favor of a market-driven economy. We conduct a literature review and analyze the reviewed papers looking at research focus, research approach, and theoretical foundations. Based on 173 papers published between 1993 and 2012, we observe several trends and prevalent themes and identify gaps in the literature and opportunities for future research. We find that current published research is concentrated on relatively few ICT issues, such as diffusion and implementation, and is conducted primarily at the country or organization level. Furthermore, very few research studies use otherwise commonly applied theories to explain their results.

Keywords:

• information technology
• information and communication technologies
• transition economy
• research trends
• review

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of part of this research, based on a much smaller sample of just 33 papers, was presented at the International Conference on ICT Management (ICTM 2012) in September 2012 in Wroclaw, Poland. We would like to thank the participants that attended our presentation and provided valuable suggestions. We also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the guest editors of this special issue, Paulo Rupino da Cunha and Piotr Soja, for their constructive critiques and valuable suggestions that no doubt resulted in a much-improved version of this paper.

Notes on contributors

Narcyz Roztocki (Ph.D.) is Professor of Management Information Systems at the State University of New York at New Paltz, USA and Professor of Management at the College of Management “Edukacja” in Wroclaw, Poland. His research interests include IS/IT investment evaluation, IS/IT productivity, IS/IT investments in transition/emerging economies, technology project management, and e-commerce. He has been published in numerous journals including the European Journal of Information Systems, the Journal of Strategic Information System, the Journal of Computer Information Systems, the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, the Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, the International Journal of Service Technology and Management, the Journal of Global Information Technology Management, the Journal of Information Science & Technology, and in proceedings of AMCIS, DSI, ECIS, ECITE, and HICSS, among many others. He is an associate editor of the journal Information Technology for Development.

Heinz Roland Weistroffer is an Associate Professor of Information Systems in the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, USA. His research interests include information technology for development, computer assisted decision-making, and systems analysis and design. He has published in Information Technology for Development, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information Systems Frontiers, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, and European Journal of Operational Research among many other journals, as well as in numerous conference proceedings such as AMCIS, HICCS, and ECIS. He is an associate editor of the journal Information Technology for Development.