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This chapter presents a theoretical and evidence-based investigation of the contribution that national educational systems make to the development of and transition to a knowledge economy in the Arabian Gulf, generally, and Saudi Arabia, specifically. The challenges to creating an Arabian Gulf knowledge economy are twofold. One is a functional and structural challenge of developing a knowledge economy-oriented mass education system. The other is a cultural and contextual challenge of aligning Arabian Gulf expectations, traditions, and norms with institutionalized expectations for knowledge economies. The knowledge economy development challenge that is specific to national versus non-national Gulf populations, information and communication technology (ICT), and formal mass education systems is highlighted. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role that national innovation systems play in knowledge economy development in the Arabian Gulf countries.

Despite the increasing number of small and medium enterprises pursuing international opportunities and penetrating global markets, international entrepreneurship literature has paid limited attention to emerging markets and entrepreneur-specific factors that influence internationalisation. Traditional internationalisation theories and international entrepreneurship theories consider organisation as the unit of analysis and lack sensitivity to the context, which influences ventures’ foreign market decisions. Moreover, only a handful of studies related to internationalisation in emerging markets are available. To address this gap, this chapter explores barriers and drivers for SMEs’ internationalisation in Sri Lanka, an emerging market. Semi-structured interviews with forty Sri Lankan youth entrepreneurs suggest structural barriers consisting of access to capital, legal restrictions and lack of legal, institutional and government support were prominent. These barriers suggest a need for policy changes in the entrepreneurial environment, finance, entrepreneurial culture and skill development, technology, research and development and regional balance. The findings also indicate that information communication technology is a driver for internationalisation.

This paper aims to determine how trust and perceptions shape uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public access venues (libraries, telecentres, and cybercafés) in 25 developing countries around the world.

As part of a global study conducted by the Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington, local research teams conducted surveys, site visits, and interviews of over 25,000 respondents in different types of public access venues in the selected countries, using a shared research design and analytical framework.

The use of public access venues is shaped by the following trust factors: safety concerns, relevance of the information, reputation of the institution, and users' perceptions of how “cool” these venues are. While libraries tend to be trusted as most reputable, telecentres tend to be trusted as most relevant to meet local needs, and cybercafés tend to be perceived as most “cool”.

The paper is limited by its descriptive and not predictive nature, and is not based on a statistically representative sample of the population.

The insight presented in this paper can help inform policy decisions about public access initiatives, and inform future research to better understand the causes and consequences of trust in public access ICT. Understanding these perceptions helps gain a more nuanced understanding of the way services are provided in venues that offer public access to ICT.

This paper is novel as it covers public access to ICT in 25 developing countries across different types of venues, using a shared design and methodological approach. A study of this magnitude has never been done before. The findings provide valuable insight into understanding how people trust different types of public access ICT venues.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of a growth enhancement support scheme (GESS) on youth development in informal farm entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the GESS on rural youths’ adoption of new technologies needed to sustainably increase food security in Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 800 rural youths were sampled across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

The result from the use of a bivariate probit model indicates that the GESS has a significant impact on rural youths’ innovations in farming.

This suggests that information and communication technology could provide new opportunities for making farming more interesting and enterprising for rural young people.

It implies that while old male and female farmers are less likely to adopt the new farming technologies needed to achieve Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda (ATA), a younger generation can help introduce new technologies, while also learning from traditional methods.

This research adds to the literature on informal farm entrepreneurship and rural communities’ debate in developing countries. It concludes that engaging youths in GESS should form the foundation of the ATA in Nigeria, which, in turn, would offer adequate combination of new and traditional solution to address the challenges of food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa.