INSEAD, the leading international business school, today announced the findings of the 2010-2011 Global Information Technology Report, Transformations 2.0, a study which the school has jointly published with the World Economic Forum for the past decade. The 10th anniversary edition of the report focuses on information and communications technology’s (ICT) power to transform society through modernisation and innovation.
The 2010-2011 report again features the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), which ranks 138 economies worldwide by examining the correlation between ICT readiness and economic growth. Similar to the 2009-2010 report, Sweden and Singapore led the rankings by placing first and second in the NRI, respectively. Finland outplaced Denmark (#3 in 2009-2010) for the third spot in the rankings, followed by Switzerland (#4) and the United States (#5). The Asian Tiger economies continue to make progress, with both Taiwan, China (#6) and Korea (#10) each improving five places, followed closely by Hong Kong SAR placing 12th in the ranking.
‘ICT, and the Internet in particular, have changed the world dramatically, and all indications point to an even higher rate of transformation of our lives going forward,’ said Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD and co-editor of the report. ‘As the Global Information Technology Report series enters its second decade, we hope it will continue to provide policy-makers and decision leaders from both the public and private sectors a unique reference and tool to address the challenges and opportunities brought about by the Transformations 2.0.’
The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) examines economies worldwide on their preparedness to use ICT effectively on three dimensions: the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; the readiness of the three key societal actors - individuals, businesses and governments - to use and benefit from ICT; and their actual usage of available ICT.
‘Innovation and ICT have proven a crucial lever for long-term growth, with countless social and economic benefits and the capacity to significantly improve people’s lives around the world,’ said Alan Marcus, Senior Director and Head of Information Technology and Telecommunications at the World Economic Forum and co-editor of the report. ‘Countries fully integrating new technologies and leveraging the new data revolution in their development and growth strategies are laying the foundations for competitive, resilient economies for the future.’
The Networked Readiness Index uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey, an annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum with its network of partner institutes (leading research institutes and business organisations) in the countries included in the report. This survey of over 15,000 executives provides unique data on many qualitative dimensions important to assess national networked readiness.
The presentation of the NRI rankings is followed by contributions by academics and industry experts, exploring the Transformations 2.0, including the emerging Internet economy, communities to be built around digital highways, ICT’s growing impact on poverty reduction, localisation 2.0, the potential of mobile banking in the emerging world, among others. Furthermore, four deep-dive studies on selected national/regional experiences in leveraging ICT for increased competitiveness are included: Costa Rica and Saudi Arabia, as well as broadband approaches and developments in the European Union and the United States.
The report contains detailed country profiles for the 138 economies featured in the study, providing a snapshot of each economy’s level of ICT penetration and usage. Also included is an extensive section of data tables for the 71 indicators used in the computation of the Index.
For additional information:
Please click here to download the full report: http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-information-technology/index.html
To view the INSEAD Knowledge video of Soumitra Dutta, Roland Berger Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD, discussing the report, please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C54i5GEY0gc
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
