Conclusiones y Recomendaciones

Empirical evidence indicates that ICT services (in-house and outsourced) play an important role in economic growth. In-house ICT technologies, such as desktop computers, do not automatically increase productivity, but are an essential component of a broader organizational change process, which does increase productivity (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1998; Ridzuan and

Ahmed, 2013). In-house ICT is also found to complement human capital (Ketteni, 2001) as well as labour and other capital (Jorgenson and Stiroh, 1999, 2003). However, other studies also suggest that in-house ICT does not contribute significantly to economic growth in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand Kenya and Tanzania (Matambalaya and Wolf, 2001; Kupussamy et al., 2013).

Only a limited amount of research has examined the economic impact of outsourced ICT services on a developing country. The growth of outsourced ICT services has shown benefits to organizations in terms of reduced business transaction costs, information dissemination and organizational efficiency (Baquero, 2013). Outsourced ICT services, that consist of broadband Internet connections and complementary broadband applications (Virtual Private Networking (VPN), video communications, email, and file sharing), are a motivator for organizations because of the additional business capability provided and ability to efficiently participate in global markets (Colombo et al., 2013).

Since differences between the penetration of ICT services exist between developed and developing countries, see Section 2.2.2, Sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 examine the implications of ICT services on the economic growth of developed and developing nations from previous studies.

2.3.1 Developed Countries

The literature review indicates that the majority of the previous studies on ICT utilizing an in- house model focused on developed countries.

A country-level study by Jalava and Pohjola (2007), used a growth accounting methodology to measure the ICT contribution (as a component of aggregate output and input) to Finland’s economic growth between 1995 and 2005. Jalava and Pohjola found that in-house

ICT accounted for 1.87 percent of the observed labour productivity growth at an average rate of 2.87 percent and the contribution from increases in ICT capital intensity was 0.46 percent.

Ketteni (2011) used the general production function to explore the interaction and influence of in-house ICT on the output elasticity of human capital and vice versa (ie the influence of the output elasticity of human capital on in-house ICT) in the U.S. Ketteni found that countries with high levels of ICT capital had high output elasticity for human capital.

Jorgenson and Stiroh (1999) also studied the U.S. using production function theory and found that lower computer prices increased IT capital spending as a substitute to other capital and labour input from the period 1990 to1996.

In the same way, several studies on the OECD and other developed countries found that ICT (in-house and outsourced) plays a significant role in economic growth (see, Ilmakunnas and Miyakoshi, 2013; Ceccobelli et al., 2012; Samoilenko and Osei-Bryson, 2008; Vicenzi, 2012; Dimelis and Papaioannou, 2012).

However, other studies have found that ICT (in-house and outsourced) has no impact (Ishida, 2015; Zelenyuk, 2014), providing a point of contention. In Japan, the long-run coefficient estimate for in-house ICT investment is for a statistically insignificant increase in GDP (Ishida, 2015). From 1980 to 1995, the increased capital investment in ICT (in-house and outsourced) was found to be unrelated to the increase in labour productivity in selected developed countries (Zelenyuk, 2014).

2.3.2 Developing Countries

In contrast to the number of previous studies relating to ICT services in developed countries, the number of studies on ICT services in developing countries is limited. Most of the available studies follow the in-house model for defining ICT. Ridzuan and Ahmed (2013) found a positive impact of in-house ICT investment on economic growth in eight Asian countries

between 1975 to 2006. Other studies that explored ICT utilization in developing countries were carried out by Kuppusamy et al. (2008); and Matambalaya and Wolf (2001).

Kuppusamy et al. (2008) found a long-run co-integration relationship between ICT-based investment and economic growth for Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore. However, the authors found that ICT investment in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand did not contribute significantly to economic growth during the same period. Erumban and Das (2016) found that India's export-oriented ICT focus contributed significantly to aggregate productivity growth and has led to efficiency gains in its fast-growing service economy

Irawan, (2014) showed that in the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), more developed countries did not necessarily derive greater benefit from ICT (in-house and outsourced) than did the less developed countries. The impact of ICT on the economy depended on the structure and the intensity of the ICT sector in the economy.

However, Dedrick et al. (2013) found that higher-income developing countries have achieved positive and significant productivity gains from IT investment in recent years as they have increased their IT capital stocks and gained experience with the use of IT. The study found that the effect of IT on productivity is extending from the richest countries to a large group of developing countries. The study indicates that lower-income developing countries can also expect productivity gains from IT investments.

Hofman et al. (2016) examined the case of Latin America where total capital was found to be the main source of economic and productivity growth, while the role of ICT (in-house and outsourced) was less than one sixth of the total capital contribution. The authors found that total capital went hand-in-hand with high investment, especially for ICT.

Matambalaya and Wolf (2001) found that ICT (in-house and outsourced) had no signficant effect on SMEs in Kenya and Tanzania for the period from November 1999 to December 2000.

Thompson Jr. and Garbacz (2007) explored the impact of communication networks and economic reform on economies using a panel of 93 developed and developing countries for the period from 1995 to 2003. The study found that institutional reforms and growth in telecommunication networks benefit all nations to some degree, and developing nations benefits from improved information flows and economic efficiency.