| dc.description.abstract | This thesis’ aim was to explore the diffusion of the internet, and which capabilities were necessary to successfully diffuse the technologies in low- and middle income countries. The thesis is a panel data analysis of fifteen mainland African countries with a significant number of internet users today, through a time series of ten years – 2006 - 2015. The study aims to give indications to implications for investors and policy makers where internet technology investments are concerned, and to contribute to the current academic research on the field of internet diffusion in low and middle income countries. The literature review showed that some research has already been done in this field, but the research is mostly focused on other regions or different stages of economic development or even outdated – as studies quickly become in a field with as quick development as information and communication technology. The literature review is the background for the hypothesis for this thesis, that foreign direct investment, income, technological infrastructure and adoptability – proxied through mobile phone subscriptions, access price and education were the most important variables to explain growth in internet users. These variables were all analyzed. The panel data study showed that of these explanatory variables, mobile phone subscriptions, secondary education and access point were the significant variables in the study. While the other variables were insignificant, it is likely that some are insignificant due to other reasons than that they are insignificant themselves. Foreign direct investment has in other research been linked strongly to human capital, and because the countries in this study is varying highly in human capital, this could lead to an expected insignificance. Primary and tertiary education both has very variable data, and on primary school, some countries reduce their enrollment over the time period while others increase. This makes the regression pull in different directions. The findings in this study may be generalized to countries of similar development, and to countries about to enter the same levels of economic development, even though they are now on the lower end, and can give some indication to the many initiatives working with internet infrastructure in low income countries in the region. However, it is important to not only look at what grows internet usage in the country, even though it is closely linked to economic growth, but also remember how internet access can help grow other parts of the society, and increase the value of health care, education etc. This study is rather limited in both number of samples and number of variables, and even though the results in this analysis is quite clear, more research is needed on the area to give a clearer and more precise picture of the capabilities countries needs to successfully diffuse internet technologies. | eng |