06 Friday Jan 2012
Posted in Research
Citigroup’s research team led by Chief Economist Willem Buiter recently published their forecasts for global trade in 2050. Of these 10 countries, 7 are in the Asia Pacific, here’s how rankings break down:
1. China
2. India
3. The United States
4. Germany
5. South Korea
6. Indonesia
7. Hong Kong
8. Japan
9. Singapore
10. The United Kingdom
05 Monday Dec 2011
Posted in Research
At The Future Cities Institute we have been investigating the relationships between the hi-tech sectors of hardware, software and services, and economic productivity, to provide better understanding for policy makers, industry, and non-government organisations on how these sectors can be developed to support economic growth and national competitiveness.
In working with these groups we are sometimes asked about the relationships between these hi-tech sectors, and other ‘social indicators’ so I thought I would share some preliminary results using two recently released social indexes; the UNDP Human Development Report for 2011 which is an alternative way of measuring countries’ prosperity and well-being, and the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International, which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 183 countries and territories around the world.
When comparing the maturity of local software economies with both these indexes, we found that Local Software Economy Maturity was more strongly correlated with the Corruption Perceptions Index (.715) than the Human Development Index (.640).
Remember this does not suggest cause and effect, just a signicant relationship. However, it may support the hypothesis that the use of software to provide better access to government processes by citizens (eGovernment) may have an impact on perceived corruption deduction. Here’s the plot of this relationship across 52 countries:
©Copyright Malcolm J Fraser 2011, The Future Cities Institute Inc.
04 Thursday Aug 2011
Posted in Cities and Innovation, Research
Interesting article on how researchers studying the way cell phones are changing behaviour and markets in the developing world, have begun to focus on the number of people who have access to a cell phone rather than the number who actually own a cell phone as a more relevant statistic…more.
13 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted in Research
Tags
competiveness, hi-tech survey, ICT, IISEIE, innovation, research
Recently I’ve been working with the Office of the CEO at The International Institute of Software Economies, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IISEIE) on the introduction of a Hi-Tech Economy Survey for New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The online survey tool has been designed to provide a view of the disposition and makeup of the high-tech industry within the target area.
The information provided by this survey will assist the government and industry to better understand the needs and opportunities for growth within the local economy. It will also help to align specific programs to enable high tech companies and entrepreneurs in these regions to create new solutions, new companies and new jobs in the market place.
The Output: The output of this study will be the High Tech Economy Report for that country or region. It will provide a view of the disposition and makeup of the high-tech industry within that country. It will consist of four key components:
1. Technical Audience Insight: The purpose of the technical audience survey portion of the High Tech Economy Report is to understand the high-tech population, make-up and company distribution within a country. The data can be used by various economic development agencies and government to better understand the industry and execute industry development programs.
2. Local High-Tech Economy Maturity: The purpose of this portion of the report is to measure local High-Tech Economy ‘maturity’ in order to provide a better understanding of the sector, while catering for the multiple factors inherent in High-Tech sector growth. The data will comprise various country based metrics which can be used to determine the current economic, innovation and technology stage of development of a Local High-Tech Economy within a country.
3.Innovation Readiness Index: Designed to provide feedback to high-tech entrepreneurs and companies, the Innovation Ready Index benchmarks ‘readiness’ of high-tech companies to undertake creation of new innovation. This benchmarking will provide valuable insight into companies’ strategic position in the market place and important for a development of any mandatory or incentive-based policies by a central government focused on not only educating people to build technology, but also educating technologists on how to build businesses.
4. Strategic Entrepreneurship outlook: Provides analysis of entrepreneurial strategy-making processes that companies and entrepreneurs use to enact their organizational purpose, sustain the vision, and create competitive advantages by exploring and exploiting the opportunities.
The survey can be viewed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Hi-Tech-Economy-Survey.
20 Thursday Jan 2011
Posted in Communities, Research
Tags
business management, business skills, business strategy, ICT, innovation, software economies, technology
Recently I attended an Auckland ICT Networking event where four focus group sessions were held with 44 Auckland-based high technology entrepreneurs and professionals.
All four groups discussed the following two open-ended questions:
The results of the focus group discussions were presented at the event.
Results
The top priorities in organisations in developing capacity for innovation were identified as:
The obstacles for doing more activities that develop companies’ capacity for innovation have been identified as:
Interesting results – how have you overcome challenges in your organisation that have affected innovation?
17 Monday Jan 2011
Posted in Research
Tags
business strategy, IISEIE, local software economy, LSE maturity index, research, software business management, software economies, technology
As Research Director of the Maturity Index & CEO of IISEIE, I am pleased to release the 2010 Local Software Economy Maturity Index.
The index that examines the maturity of the software industry and for the second consecutive year, Switzerland has retained the Number 1 ranking with a score of 10.46 while the United States overtook Israel to grab second spot with 10.19.
Ireland was in third spot (9.94), up one spot from last year, then Israel (9.92) with Denmark (9.48) coming in at fifth place. France, was the biggest mover coming from 11th place to sixth with a 9.38.
The full listing can be viewed at http://knowledge.iiseie.org/articles/20110117
Within the ICT industry, the software segment is the fastest-growing sector. I believe that for countries to continually increase the maturity of the software industry and increase economic growth, start-ups need to develop applications that are relevant to local companies and industry.
The index is positively correlated to GDP growth and hews closely to the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) of the World Economic Forum, which measures the “propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology (ICT).” The NRI takes into account a country’s ICT environment, the readiness of individuals, businesses, and governments to use ICT, and the usage of ICT.
We noted on this year’s index noted that ICT production contributed to output, employment, and export earnings while ICT use increased productivity, competitiveness, and growth.
25 Thursday Nov 2010
Posted in Publications
Malcolm Fraser, Southern Cross University
Stephen Kelly, Southern Cross University
This paper is based on a review of literature into industrial clusters and subsequently discusses identified success factors within the context of ICT clusters generally and New Zealand ICT clusters in particular.
It is argued that through identifying the success attributes underpinning industrial clusters a baseline can be established for decision making by both industry vertical groups and various levels of government. It is also proposed that the application of this baseline logic to the development of the New Zealand ICT will enhance the domestic and international development of these clusters.
The paper identifies that the key components of successful industrial clusters exist within three discernable categories, that have been labelled ‘the core cluster’, ‘emerging innovation’ and ‘globalisation’.
Malcolm Fraser and Stephen Kelly. “The Creation and Growth of Information Technology Communication (ICT) Industrial Clusters: The New Zealand Case” New Zealand Journal of Applied Business Research 8.1 (2010): 15-26.
04 Wednesday Aug 2010
Posted in Conference, Workshops
This week I hosted a Local Software Economy workshop as part of a pre-event for the Third Conference of the African Union Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies.
Microsoft, in partnership with the African Union Commission, hosted the one day workshop which was attended by over 45 delegates from across Africa who discussed the challenges and key priorities in establishing and growing local software economies in Africa.
I introduced the Local Software Economy Kick Start Program developed by IISEIE at the workshop, which is aimed at providing emerging economies with a robust and measurable framework from which to develop and grow a software industry inside their national economy.
The program consists of three phases that:
The workshop also established that the development of a vibrant and growing software industry has a significant impact on economic and social development of a national economy and provides a strong basis for global competitiveness.
The participants resolved to use the Kick Start Program to drive innovation, incubate software start ups and develop local economy research data specifically for Africa.
16 Saturday Jan 2010
Posted in Communities, Research
Recently had the pleasure of forming the ICT Research Forum in New Zealand with NZICT Group and IISEIE.
The ICT Research Forum will focus on bringing together various industry, academia and government research communities to conduct research and make recommendations on the development and growth of a local software economy that will produce jobs and drive economic growth in New Zealand.
The forum will provide an opportunity for IISEIE and NZICT Group members to undertake research into economic activity generated through the creation and development of ICT industry’s and in particular the development of local software economies.
Using this research, the ICT Research Forum members will work in conjunction to recommend best industry practices, policy and programs, all designed to support the sustainable growth of New Zealand’s local software economy.
Based on the research and benchmarking outputs, the forum will recommend various programs that are designed to identify and support exporting opportunities as well as addressing issues in the local market such as skilled training, demand generation and collaboration across all relevant parties in the ICT industry.
10 Monday Aug 2009
Posted in Research
Spent a good couple of hours today, looking at a data strategy for getting the data out of hardcopy, and into a SQL database. Looks like the simplest solution is to scan the hard copies into PDF and then use some software to grab the data and pump it into an Excel Spread sheet. From there I can use the business intelligence tools in SQL to transport the data.
The key thing is going to be making sure that I have the right database structure and that I don’t carry over any of the proof of concept tables I used in prototype database structure.
Shame you can’t just shoot and scoot with data, but I guess thats why we have to do design and documentation…first!!
