In September 2009, my husband and I delivered a paper entitled “The Global digital divide: what the indices reveal” [1] at the American Political Science Association meeting in Toronto, Canada. In that paper, we made reference to the theory of modernization that attributes the development of some economies, especially in Asia, to the stimulus provided by their investment in information and communication technology (ICT). Writers sing the praise of the Asian tigers, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, as models of development spurred by such investment.

This book has the ambitious undertaking of providing the reader with further evidence that ICT has encouraged growth and development by taking a look at its impact in different parts of the world. In fact, it spans the regional groupings of Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the developing countries in Europe, which attests to its desire to be as inclusive as possible.

However, in its desire to be all things to all readers in all parts of the world, the book falls short of expectations. This is exhibited by the fact that Asia is represented solely by a country that used to be called the “basket case” of the world because of its futile and failed attempts at growth and development in the face of natural disasters, corruption, and political upheaval. The section makes the case for the use of e-business and e-government to improve the socioeconomic conditions that impede development in Asian countries. It uses the case study of Bangladesh’s use of accounting systems to counter corruption and its successes at such.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the section on Africa and the Middle East, or what are known as the MENA (Middle East and North African) countries. The chapters, except for the one on Nigeria, focus on the impact of indices I am familiar with since some of these indices were used in our study cited earlier: network readiness index, e-readiness index, digital readiness index, technological capabilities index, and so on. It applies such indices to 49 countries in the region.

That section paves the way for the section on Latin America, in which an assessment of information richness (IRI), digital skills, and digital capability is measured for three capital cities: Buenos Aires, Lima, and Guatemala City. A chapter on Chile takes evidence at the household level and attributes scholarship information, availability, and accessibility to the existence of information technology.

The book’s treatment of Europe is represented by Slovenia, Slovakia, and Estonia, and posits that their experiences are similar to those of other countries in other regions in that big data has driven innovation in the five key areas of (1) developing new products, (2) optimization and automation of process, (3) improvement of marketing, (4) development of new management and organizational practices, and (5) a boost in research and development activities. One of the most interesting chapters is the one on Estonia, which has been known for its electronic elections and being the home of start-up companies that used to include Skype.

The book, written mostly by academics, is interesting and has its uses especially for the policy-makers and ICT strategists that it is directing the results of the various studies toward. It is up to them to glean the kernels of wisdom based on the case study experiences of countries in various parts of the world that have benefited from the deliberate investment in the ICT infrastructure that will take them to the path of takeoff toward growth and development.