The history of mankind is full of innovation, research, discovery, war, and conquest for the sake of social welfare. Although one can call this complex and endless process as the meaning of life, according to economists, it is just the way to improve the quality of life. While countries seek for social welfare at the macro level, human beings try to improve the quality of their lifestyle at the micro level.
Scholars agree that welfare is critically important for economic development. Since welfare is mainly an outcome of the positive change in income level, dramatic growth in developed countries following World War II has attracted much attention. Nevertheless, the distinctive characteristics of wealth and poverty have led economists to seek for dynamics of economic development. Direct and indirect connections among the dynamics of economic development have always been an issue. For instance, productivity is known as the engine of economic development. Then again, education and technology are key elements of productivity. While education is important to improve human-related factors, advanced technology is necessary for technical improvements. No need to mention the importance of education for the technology development process. At this point, it is necessary to highlight the significant role of individuals on economic development. Every human being is a temporary member of the development process. Unlikely, societies are permanent elements of this process as they are responsible for providing human capital to keep the system running.
Apart from Western Europe, North America, Oceania, and Japan, all other regions of the world consist of developing or less developed countries. Considering the fact that most of the developing countries have already completed the development process, it is necessary to understand how did they succeed in sustainable development? A close look at socio-economic, technological, and political changes in those countries can help us for a better understanding of the dynamics of sustainable development.
In the 21st century, size, form and the direction of development primarily affect the transformation process of a nation into a knowledge society. While some countries quickly complete this process, the digital divide between these rapidly advancing countries and the rest of the world has become increasingly wider. By examining the factors which significantly affect the digital divide, we can address the dynamics and the effects of change, which include the acquisition of new knowledge, industrial development, economic development, technological development, migration, differences in religions and ideologies, organizational changes and so on.
Information technology is the key concept for sustainable economic development within both macro and micro perspectives as it can assist in addressing individual, organizational, regional, and global development. Hence, there is an imperative need for an in-depth, systematical investigation of the dynamics and effects of the knowledge society transformation process in order to address the influence of information technologies on sustainable economic development in the 21st century.
Sustainable Economic Development And The Influence Of Information Technologies: Dynamics of Knowledge Society Transformation provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area of information technology as it relates to sustainable economic development and the development of knowledge societies. It consists of chapters in wide range of topics, written by a variety of scholars and professionals in various disciplines from different countries.
The book is organized into five sections with 17 chapters. Section I addresses some theoretical discussions about sustainable economic development. Section I includes three chapters:
Chapter I, “Why The Already Difficult Task of Identifying Sources of Growth Has Become Even More Challenging?” provides a summary of some of the useful issues in analyzing and understanding the growth process. It briefly explains how the empirical literature on growth has made identifying sources of growth even more challenging.
Chapter II, “Some Philosophical Reflections on Foundations of Sustainable Social Development,” provides a discussion of sustainable social development process to achieve sustainable economic development.
Chapter III, “Lessons for Development Economists from the Shanghai Experience, 1842-2008,” provides a discussion on the financial conjunctures and institutional patterns that had the most lasting impact on how business was carried through in Shanghai before the Pacific War, and compares them with the city’s growth dynamic and new knowledge base under the current reform thrust.
Section II addresses the importance of natural resources for sustainable economic development. Section II includes two chapters:
Chapter IV, “Natural Resources Accounting for Sustainable Development: Approaches and Some Applications,” highlights the potential of using natural resources accounting for making decisions for sustainable development through policies for conservation, management and development of natural resources.
Chapter V, “Re-conceptualising the ‘technology-development’ nexus – linking water, energy, people and governance in India,” focuses on rural economic development and examines how water- and energy-related technologies interact with human-nature relationships.
Section III addresses the significance of savings and investments. Section III includes four chapters:
Chapter VI, “The Influences of Savings and Investments on Sustainable Development and the Role of Information Technology,” aims to investigate how the combination of savings and investments affects economic development and sustainability.
Chapter VII, “Developing the Financial Infrastructure in an Emerging Market Economy: The Role of Credit Rating Agencies,” examines the role of rating agencies in capital-market development and on the conduct of monetary policy.
Chapter VIII, “Does Financial Liberalization and Trade Openness Promote Growth in South Asia,” analyzes the role of finance, trade and information technology and seeks the possible answer that does financial development, trade openness and information technology promotes economic growth?
Chapter IX, “Changing Contours of Indian Investment Abroad: Evolution, Diagnosis and Public Policy,” examines India’s outward foreign direct investment in an evolutionary perspective by tracing the emerging pattern of India’s outward foreign direct investment, hints at the facilitating role of state policy to encourage the outflow of foreign direct investment.
Section IV addresses the influence of information and communication technologies. Section IV includes four chapters:
Chapter X, “Does Information and Communication Technologies Sustain Economic Growth? The Underdeveloped and Developing Countries Case,” works out theoretically and econometrically whether ICT investment has a positive impact on the long-run growth performance of underdeveloped and developing countries.
Chapter XI, “AN Empirical Analysis of Indices and Factors of ICT Use by Small- and Medium-sized enterprises in Japan,” attempts to extract factors which promote the introduction and usage of ICT by small- and medium-sized enterprises in Japan.
Chapter XII, “Telecommunications Capital Intensity and Aggregate Production Efficiency: A Meta-Frontier Analysis,” attempts to estimate the effects of telecommunications capital intensity on the levels of aggregate production efficiency in a broad range of countries around the world, putting a specific emphasis on the difference between country group and global stochastic production frontiers.
Chapter XIII, “Evaluating the Internal Capabilities and External Linkages of the Philippine IT-Enabled Services (ITES) Industry,” examines how internal capabilities and external linkages of the Philippine ITES industry play a significant role in facilitating growth and long term sustainability.
Section V addresses the issues about knowledge society transformation and digital divide. Section V includes four chapters:
Chapter XIV, “The Potentials and Pitfalls of the Information Society Project in Turkey: A Critical Assessment of Policy Paradigms Regarding E-Transformation And Digital Divide,” examines policies regarding information and communication technologies in Turkey with a special references to Turkey’s Information Society Project.
Chapter XV, “Sustainable Development and the Digital Divide Among OIC Countries: Towards A Collaborative Digital Approach,” examines the digital divide in a broader perspective of information and communications technologies, and investigates the depth of the existing digital divide among the OIC member countries.
Chapter XVI, “Regional Innovation Strategies: Europe and Turkey,” explores the development of regional innovation strategies in Turkey in relation to the relevant EU policies.
Chapter XVII, “Governance-Based Regional Development and E-Government: The Turkish Case,” analyzes the current state of the concept of regional development in Turkey, and examines the contributions of e-government to the notion and applications of new regional development.
Editors
Dr. Muhammed Karatas
Dr. Mustafa Zihni Tunca