Bridging the Technological Divide : Technology Adoption by Firms in Developing Countries / Xavier Cirera, Diego Comin, and Marcio Cruz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cirera, Xavier, author.

Comin, Diego, author.

Cruz, Marcio, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Business enterprises--Technological innovations.

Business enterprises.

Technological innovations--Economic aspects--Developing countries.

Technological innovations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : World Bank Group, [2022]

Summary:

Many of the main problems facing developing countries today and tomorrow-- growth, poverty reduction, inequality, food insecurity, job creation, recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and adjustment to climate change-- hinge on adopting better technology, a key driver of economic development. Access to technology is not enough: firms have to adopt it. Yet it is precisely the uptake of technology that is lagging in many firms in developing countries. Bridging the Technological Divide: Technology Adoption by Firms in Developing Countries helps open the "black box†? of technology adoption by firms. The seventh volume in the World Bank Productivity Project series, it will further both research and policy that can be used to support technology adoption by firms in developing countries.

Contents:

Front Cover

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Abbreviations

Introduction

The Imperative of Technology in Developing Countries

The Technological Divide

Road Map to the Volume

Contributions to the Literature

Main Messages from the Volume

Notes

References

Part 1 Measuring the Technological Divide

1. A New Approach to Measure Technology Adoption by Firms

Measuring Adoption and Use of Technology by Firms

Opening the Black Box: The Firm-level Adoption of Technology (FAT) Survey

The Data Used in This Volume

Using the FAT Data to Understand Some of the Limitations of Standard Measures of Technology

Summing Up

2. Facts about Technology Adoption and Use in Developing Countries

Cross-Country Technology Facts

Cross-Firm Technology Facts

Other Technology Facts

3. Adoption of Sector-Specific Technologies

Technology Differences across and within Sectors

Technology Upgrading and the Limits to Leapfrogging

Specialization, Technology, and Outsourcing

Part 2 The Implications of the Technological Divide for Long-Term Economic Growth

4. Technology Sophistication, Productivity, and Employment

Technology and Firm-Level Productivity

Technology Adoption and Employment

5. Digital Technologies and Resilience to Shocks

Digital Technologies

Technology and Resilience

Part 3 What Countries Can Do to Bridge the Technological Divide

6. What Constrains Firms from Adopting Better Technologies?

Firm-Level Determinants of Adoption.

Perceived Drivers of and Obstacles to Technology Adoption

Factual Evidence on Drivers of and Obstacles to Technology Adoption

Chapter 7. Policies and Instruments to Accelerate Technology Adoption

A Checklist to Design Technology Upgrading Programs

Using the FAT Survey to Inform the Design and Implementation of Policies Supporting Technology Upgrading

Instruments to Support Technology Upgrading at the Firm Level

Appendix A. The Firm-level Adoption of Technology (FAT) Survey, Implementation, and Data Set

Boxes

Box I.1 Defining Technology and Business Functions

Box 1.1 The Technology Index at the Firm Level: An Example from the Food-Processing Sector in Senegal

Box 2.1 The Large Gap in Technology Sophistication between Formal and Informal Firms

Box 3.1 The Strong Sector Composition of the Use of Industry 4.0 Technologies

Box 3.2 The Closeness of Pharmaceutical Firms to the Technology Frontier

Box 6.1 Specific Barriers to the Use of Digital Platforms

Box 7.1 Digital Platforms Are Prone to Market Concentration and Dominance

Box 7.2 The Firm-Level Technology Diagnostic Tool

Box 7.3 Agriculture Extension: The Case of Embrapa

Box 7.4 Credit Guarantees for Technology through the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC)

Box 7.5 The Difference between Vouchers and Grants

Box 7.6 Fraunhofer Institutes

Figures

Figure 1.1 While Countries Are Converging in Their Adoption of Technology, They Are Diverging in the Intensity of Use

Figure 1.2 Conceptual Framework for the Firm-level Adoption of Technology (FAT) Survey

Figure 1.3 General Business Functions and Their Associated Technologies

Figure 1.4 Share of Firms Using Technologies Applied to Various General Business Functions, All Countries.

Figure 1.5 Sector-Specific Business Functions and Technologies

Figure 1.6 An Example of the Technology Index

Figure B1.1.1 Comparing Technology Sophistication of a Large and a Small Firm in the Food-Processing Sector

Figure 1.7 Firms Vary Widely in the Status of Their Adoption of General-Purpose Technologies

Figure 1.8 Among Firms with Access to Computers and the Internet, a Large Share Relies Mostly on Less Sophisticated Methods to Conduct Business Functions

Figure 2.1 Estimated Technology Sophistication, by Country: Manufacturing

Figure 2.2 Estimated Technology Sophistication, by Country: Agriculture and Services

Figure 2.3 There Is a Strong Correlation between the Technology Sophistication of a Region and Regional Productivity

Figure 2.4 Cross-Country Differences in Technology Are Also Explained by the Number of Firms Using Sophisticated Technology

Figure B2.1.1 Technology Sophistication Is Significantly Greater among Formal Firms in Senegal

Figure 2.5 The Level of Technology Sophistication for General Business Functions Varies Greatly

Figure 2.6 Technology Sophistication Varies across Firm Size

Figure 2.7 The Likelihood of Adopting Frontier Technologies for General Business Functions Varies across Firm Size

Figure 2.8 The Likelihood of Adopting Frontier Technologies for Sector-Specific Business Functions Varies across Firm Size

Figure 2.9 Rank Orderings of the Distribution of Technology Sophistication Are Consistent across Select Countries

Figure 2.10 Most Productive Countries and Regions Have Firms That Use More Sophisticated Technologies on Average

Figure 2.11 Within-Firm Variance of Technology Sophistication Is Positively Associated with Regional Productivity

Figure 2.12 Technology Disruption in Telecommunications

Figure 2.13 Diffusion Curves, by Firm Size (Early versus Late Adopters).

Figure 2.14 Firms with Lower Levels of Technological Capabilities Tend to Overestimate Their Technological Sophistication

Figure 3.1 Firms in Agriculture Tend to Use More Sophisticated Technologies in Sector-Specific Business Functions

Figure 3.2 The Technology Gaps Are Larger in General Business Functions in Agriculture Compared to Sector-Specific Business Functions

Figure 3.3 Technology Sophistication for Fabrication in Manufacturing Is Low in Developing Countries

Figure B3.1.1 The Likelihood of Adopting Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Varies Widely across Sectors

Figure B3.1.2 More Capital-Intensive Agricultural Firms Are More Likely to Adopt Advanced Technologies

Figure 3.4 Differences in Technology across Countries Roughly Follow Income Differences in the Food-Processing Sector

Figure 3.5 Cross-Country Comparisons in Wearing Apparel Are Not So Large among Exporter Countries

Figure B3.2.1 Pharmaceutical Firms Are Relatively Close to the Technology Frontier, but There Is Significant Room for Improvement in Developing Countries

Figure 3.6 Digitalization of Sector-Specific Business Functions Is at an Early Stage in Retail Services

Figure 3.7 The Diffusion Curves of Newer Sector-Specific Technologies Do Not Suggest Leapfrogging

Figure 3.8 Tractor Ownership, Renting, and Digital Renting Do Not Suggest Leapfrogging through Digital Platforms

Figure 3.9 Across Sectors, There Is Large Heterogeneity in Outsourcing Sector-Specific Business Functions

Figure 3.10 Within Sectors, There Is Heterogeneity in the Degree of Outsourcing within Sector-Specific Business Functions

Figure 3.11 The Significant Correlation between Outsourcing Tasks and Technology Sophistication (All Business Functions) Is Restricted to Some Business Functions.

Figure 3.12 There Are No Significant Differences between Traders and Nontraders in Outsourcing Business Functions

Figure 4.1 Several Drivers Affect the Margins of Productivity Growth

Figure 4.2 Technology Sophistication Is Correlated with Labor Productivity

Figure 4.3 The Level of Technology Sophistication Varies Considerably across Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Services Sectors

Figure 4.4 Differences in Technology Sophistication between the Republic of Korea and Senegal Are Larger in the Agricultural Sector than in Nonagricultural Sectors and Are Driven Mainly by the Low Sophistication of Informal Firms

Figure 4.5 Firms Generally Keep the Same Number of Jobs When They Adopt New Technologies

Figure 4.6 Firms That Have Adopted Better Technology Have Increased Employment

Figure 4.7 More Sophisticated Technologies in Some Business Functions Are More Associated with Employment Growth

Figure 4.8 Firms with a Higher Level of Technology Are Creating More Jobs but Not Changing Their Share of Low-Skilled Workers

Figure 4.9 Firms Using More Sophisticated Technologies Pay Higher Wages

Figure 4.10 Technology Sophistication Contributes to Wage Inequality within Firms

Figure 5.1 Use of Internet and Adoption of Applications of Digital Technologies Vary by Sophistication and Firm Size

Figure 5.2 Digital Technology Intensity Varies across Sectors and Business Functions

Figure 5.3 Some Technologies Diffuse More Rapidly than Others

Figure 5.4 Market Concentration Poses a Challenge for the Supply of Digital Business Solutions

Figure 5.5 The Large Drop in Sales at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic Persisted for Many Firms, and the Loss Was Greater for Microenterprises and Small Firms

Figure 5.6 Demand for Digital Solutions Increased Greatly in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Figure 5.7 A Large Share of Businesses Digitalized during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Print version: Cirera, Xavier Bridging the Technological Divide

ISBN:

9781464818592

1464818592

OCLC:

1336992003

Publisher Number:

10.1596/978-1-4648-1826-4