Researching ICT-Based Enterprise in Developing Countries : Analytical Tools and Models

This paper provides a guide for those researching ICT-based enterprises in developing countries. Examples of such enterprises would include telecentres, cybercafés, mobile phone shops, Internet service providers, software companies, IT training firms, IT consultancies, hardware assemblers, data entry operators, and so forth. This may also be called the IT or ICT sector, or the digital or knowledge economy.The paper offers a series of "lenses" – i.e. analytical frameworks – through which to investigate these enterprises. They move from basic classificatory models to those that can analyse competitive strategy, impact, context and the enterprise lifecycle. In each case, the paper provides an explanation of basic concepts, and a sense of what research using the particular framework would offer