ICTs and the Economic Performance of MSMEs in Palestine

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Journal Title, Volume, Page: 
Master Thesis
Year of Publication: 
2010
Authors: 
Wajih Amer
Preferred Abstract (Original): 

At present, numerous Palestinian enterprises are facing the challenges generated by an increase in the availability of goods imported from foreign markets. These challenges come in addition to the difficult operating environment that has resulted from the occupation. In response to these hurdles, many Palestinian enterprises have begun to implement new strategies in order to enhance their competitiveness. One of these strategies is investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In recent years, many Palestinian businesses have started to adopt ICT in their administrative activities, production processes and even in regards to their marketing and public relations. A key contributing factor to this trend has been the diffusion of ICT usage within the Palestinian Territories and a general improvement in the quality of the domestic ICT sector. The primary objective of the proposed research is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impact of ICT on the performance of enterprises (MSMEs) in Palestine. The project will include an assessment of how ICT is contributing to business development and the economic growth in Palestine more generally. Particular attention will be paid to the link between ICT and micro – small and medium Palestinian enterprises. A preliminary literature review indicates that several studies have already found a positive link between ICT adoption and the success of MSMEs. Indeed, it is almost universally acknowledged that there is a positive link between MSMEs, employment creation, poverty alleviation and economic growth. Our descriptive and quantitative analysis of the data on the use of ICT in MSMEs in Palestinian enterprises shows that investment in ICT is one of the significant determinant of value added of enterprises among other input factors. However, investment in specific tools of ICT in our study does not have any significant impact on enterprise performance and in some cases has even a negative impact on it. The results indicate that there are substantial technical inefficiencies in Palestinian enterprises in the industrial sector. Given the existing technology, firms could increase their performance by around 2% if they used, or spent more on, ICT tools. The proposed thesis will be organized as follows: section (1) will includes an introduction and a summary of the study’s objectives. Section (2) will contain an overview of the Palestinian economy in addition to an overview of the MSME sector and ICT sector. In Section (3) the theoretical framework, literature review, methodology, statistical results and concluding remarks are presented. 

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