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The Impact of Open Development Initiatives in Lower‐ and Middle Income Countries: A Review of the Literature
Author(s) -
Bentley Caitlin M.,
Chib Arul
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.41
H-Index - 18
ISSN - 1681-4835
DOI - 10.1002/j.1681-4835.2016.tb00540.x
Subject(s) - openness to experience , scopus , exploit , normative , field (mathematics) , value (mathematics) , political science , economic growth , psychology , economics , computer science , social psychology , computer security , mathematics , medline , machine learning , pure mathematics , law
The purpose of this paper is to explore the field of open development in lower and middle income countries (LMIC) through a review of the literature. We examined 269 articles between 2010 and 2015, that were retrieved through keyword searches of the Scopus database and four ICT4D journals. This article adopts the pathway of effects model to analyze contributions according to inputs, mechanisms and outputs of open initiatives in LMICs. The review finds a fairly even spread of articles across the three stages of effects. Studies that disentangled reasons why or why not openness makes a difference provided the most insight to underlying mechanisms and impact of open initiatives. We found very little evidence that research within this area is concerned with the perspectives of poor and marginalized people – notably women. We therefore question the normative value of open development as a means to transform power relations. However, we argue that a more concentrated vision within this field is needed to exploit the full potential of digitally enabled openness for development.