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Who Is ICT Innovation For? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study

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Who Is ICT Innovation For? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Center for Global Communication Studies ICTs, Statebuilding and Peacebuilding in Africa (CGCS) 1-2015 Who is ICT Innovation For? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study Eleanor Marchant University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/africaictresearch Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons Recommended Citation Marchant, Eleanor. (2015). Who is ICT Innovation For? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study. ICTs, Statebuilding and Peacebuilding in Africa. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/africaictresearch/5 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/africaictresearch/5 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Who is ICT Innovation For? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study Abstract Kenya, along with countries like Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana, is leading the way on the continent in innovating new applications and programs that enable developments in the information communication technology (ICT) sector. This growth has not gone unnoticed. It has attracted substantial international interest, not just from non-profit organizations focused on development, but increasingly from for-profit actors interested in investing in the country. In this environment, understanding how tech innovation happens in Kenya – the roles played by these many different international, local, for-profit, and not-for-profit actors – is a big part of understanding the shape of new technologies that will emerge. Yet many of the theories that exist to explain technology innovation were developed to describe processes in Western contexts, like Silicon Valley, far removed from the reality of innovation in Kenya. This paper uses the technology innovation sector in Kenya to illustrate where existing innovation theories fall short. If we hope to understand the growth of these sector and help shape its development, ICT, communication, and management scholars need to work together to develop better theories to explain the unique context of innovation in African countries. Disciplines Communication Technology and New Media Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. This report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/africaictresearch/5 WHO IS ICT INNOVATION FOR? CHALLENGES TO EXISTING THEORIES OF INNOVATION, A KENYAN CASE STUDY Who is ICT Innovation For­ Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study Eleanor Marchant CGCS Occasional Paper Series on ICTs, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Africa Number Four January 2015 WHO IS ICT INNOVATION FOR? CHALLENGES TO EXISTING THEORIES OF INNOVATION, A KENYAN CASE STUDY Who is ICT Innovation for? Challenges to Existing Theories of Innovation, a Kenyan Case Study Center for Global Communication Studies Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania 202 South 36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Phone: 215-898-9727 Fax: 215-573-2609 Email: [email protected] URL: www.global.asc.upenn.edu By Eleanor Marchant Design and layout: Jen McCleary The ICTs, Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding in Eastern Africa Project: This occasional paper series is part of a larger project run by the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted in partnership with the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at University of Oxford, and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY). This project seeks to bring greater clarity about the expectations and the realities of the use of communication technologies in developing contexts. In media and development theory, policy, and practice, strong normative statements about the transformative power of ICTs have often clouded the understanding of how people and communities actually make sense of, and engage with, the old and new communication technologies that surround them. Under this framework, this two-year project explores the use of ICTs in Eastern Africa. This report was made possible (in part) by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. Page 2 WHO IS ICT INNOVATION FOR? CHALLENGES TO EXISTING THEORIES OF INNOVATION, A KENYAN CASE STUDY JANUARY 2015 Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................4 Existing Theories of Innovation ..................................................................................................................................6 Case Study and an Evolving Theory .............................................................................................................................9 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................18 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................................................20 Page 3 WHO IS ICT INNOVATION FOR? CHALLENGES TO EXISTING THEORIES OF INNOVATION, A KENYAN CASE STUDY Introduction Kenya’s mobile communication industry is a fast growing Western contexts. While in recent years, more theories innovative sector that increasingly produces technologies have been developed to describe information technology with a global significance. Examples include M-PESA, innovation in an increasingly globalized context, too many the mobile banking system that has made Kenya the focus on these complicated global dynamics predominantly global leader in mobile money (The Economist, 2013). in relation to how they affect the innovation potential in Such achievements sit in stark contrast to perceptions, so Western multinational companies. prevalent among many outside of the continent, that Africa is ‘backwards’ or ‘underdeveloped’. Working against such After providing a review of the existing international characterizations, the mobile communication industries in literature on technological innovation, which is largely Kenya and a handful of other African countries have rapidly situated in the business and management literature, I will expanded in the last five years. This has attracted widespread examine the case of the Kenyan ICT innovation ecosystem to international interest, not just from those interested demonstrate where the existing theories may be insufficient. in helping to ‘save Africa’, but increasingly from those Through fieldwork conducted over two summers in the interested in investing in it as well. In Kenya—the country Kenyan technology innovation sector, I will outline some that many have called the “tech hub of Africa” (Bloomberg, of the different players in the Kenyan ecosystem and many 2013) – these actors include development organizations as of the numerous and overlapping networks that allow well as multinational technology companies and private it to function. This outline will be used to make the case equity firms. All these actors have the potential to influence that while the existing theories on innovation may be the kinds of technologies that are created in the Information helpful, they should always be approached and used with Communication Technology (ICT) sector. a critical eye. In particular, I will argue they undervalue the contribution of the social, cultural, and historical contexts in The Kenyan government has also turned its attention which innovation takes place. In addition, existing theories towards the ICT sector. In the last few years, the government overlook the ways in which those contexts intermingle has launched, among other things, the Konza City project and conflict in a transnational innovation ecosystem. In and Huduma. The Konza City project is intended to be the the Kenyan case, the particularities of the context have led country’s new home for technology innovation and has been to an innovation system whose structure differs from the branded as the “Silicon Savannah.” Huduma is a new system ones described by existing theories, particularly in the role for streamlining public-to-government communication of universities and the incubators. It has also meant that and government service delivery, which includes a mobile the purpose of the sector – who technology in Nairobi is platform and is slated to include an online platform before being created for – is constantly being renegotiated by the the end of 2014. Though the success of such projects is different individual and organizational actors currently debatable, these projects, along with the new ICT Master engaged in the system, whether they are multinational or Plan, help illustrate the importance that the government local, non-profit or for-profit. places on the growth of the ICT sector for the future of Kenya’s economic growth and global position.1 It is my hope that this illustration might be a helpful word of caution for practitioners, policymakers, and In this environment, understanding the process by which innovators eager to fully adopt Western approaches to innovations in the ICT sector are taking place is of central technology innovation in a transnational ecosystem where importance for the future development and sustainability
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