Electronic commerce for development: a conceptual analysis and future research agenda for Africa

Ransome Bawack

Information Technology for Development, 2025, vol. 31, issue 2, 406-434

Abstract: Despite the e-commerce boom worldwide, Africa ranks last on all indicators of e-commerce readiness, indicating that it is not sufficiently benefiting from this practice's economic, social, and human development potential. This paper explores the role of research in promoting knowledge on how e-commerce can contribute to Africa’s development. It uses Jakubik’s knowledge creation theory and the scientometric perspective of knowledge diffusion to identify six main conceptual themes that characterize knowledge creation and diffusion through research on e-commerce in Africa using four different science mapping methods. Results show that knowledge created and disseminated through academic research on e-commerce in Africa is not adapted to what practitioners and policymakers need to better understand how e-commerce can promote development in Africa. We discuss six main points regarding this issue and propose recommendations for addressing them in future research.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02681102.2024.2377277 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:titdxx:v:31:y:2025:i:2:p:406-434

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/titd20

DOI: 10.1080/02681102.2024.2377277

Access Statistics for this article

Information Technology for Development is currently edited by Sajda Qureshi

More articles in Information Technology for Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().