E-Readiness in Mexico, Germany, and the UK - Statistics Project Example

E-READINESS By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Table of Contents E-Readiness Abstract Basically, achieving high e-readiness levels is more and more being heralded as a top priority for developing economies. Moreover, more effort, money, and time is being invested to measure the level of e-readiness within a country. Owing to the rapid Internet diffusion across the globe, the e-potentials interest in of the developing economies has considerably increased resulting in the first generation of e-readiness pieces of literature. In this case, e-readiness connotes different things to diverse individuals, in various contexts, as well as for distinct purposes. In spite of well-known advantages, the first generation of e-readiness studies presumed a one-size-fits-all, fixed requirements set, irrespective of the attributes of different countries, the context of investment, or certain applications demand. As it will be evidenced in the report, the level of the country's e-Commerce, as well as the capability of its businesses and consumers to beneficially utilize the internet, is measured through e-Readiness index. As indicated in the report, e-readiness at the organization level is operationalized through six variables; governance, business resources, human resources, commitment, technological resources, as well as awareness. Besides that, external e-readiness is analyzed as the managers' market forces e-readiness insight, supporting e-readiness of the government and the industries. This paper seeks to compare and contrast Mexico, Germany and UK by explaining why there are different criteria for e-readiness, the number of different users, and GDP of the countries. Besides that, the report will talk about the mobile phone penetration in these countries, the number of the mobile phones, Internet users, and Internet business. Introduction Currently, the world is experiencing enormous changes: Internet bubble emerged and faded, and developing countries like India and China have turned out to be prominent global users and providers of ICT services as well as equipment (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013). As mentioned by Bilbao-Osorio et al. (2013), developing economies struggled to overcome the financial crisis, but they are determined to go back to the higher levels of competitiveness and growth while stubbornly fighting high rates of unemployment, particularly amongst their youth. Presently, both developed as well as emerging economies are concentrating on innovation, contending internationally for market shares, resources, and talent. Networks and information flows have disseminated across countries in an imaginable way, and there is an increase in the worldwide adoption of social networks and mobile phones, and the broadband has rapidly grown. There has been redefinition of business models, the place of work has been redesigned, small businesses’ have evolved into big corporations, and the whole societal functions (privacy, security, health, and education) are being reconsidered. So, e-readiness has been defined by Dada (2006, p.2) as a measure of the level to which an economy or country is prepared or ready to benefit from information and communication technologies. Therefore, this measure as indicated by Dada (2006, p.2) is normally utilised to gauge how prepared a nation or economy is to take part in electronic activities like e-government and e-commerce. E-readiness Mexico, Germany, and UK According to 2013 Networked Readiness Index, Mexico improved 13 positions to reach 63rd position in the rankings, steered primarily by the efforts of the government to profoundly develop its online services (ranked 28th), improve Mexicans involvement in supporting their government (ranked 25th), as well as the general improvement in the innovation as well as business environment (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013, p.24). In spite of such crucial steps forward, less progress has been made by Mexico in developing its ICT infrastructure (ranked 82nd) and considerably cutting its access costs (ranked 63rd), particularly based on mobile telephony (ranked 102nd). In consequence, ICT uptake with regard to Internet users (ranked 78th) or households having access to the Internet is yet to progress. This, together with shortage in skills (ranked 87th) due to the low educational system quality (ranked 100th), has led to almost no progress with regard to ICTs’ economic impacts (ranked 72nd). According to Bilbao-Osorio et al. (2013, p.25), holistic digital agenda espousal and implementation that can improve the uptake as well as development of ICTs in addition to their inclusion in the innovation system can assist in addressing a number if such crucial weaknesses and offer improved outcomes. In a number of most documented worldwide rankings, Mexico occasionally appears in the top 50 e-government countries. A number of European nations continue to lead in the digital economy rankings, exhibiting their strong commitment and efforts to completely leverage and develop ICTs so as to improve their citizens’ well-being and their competitiveness. In the Networked Readiness Index (2013), Germany was ranked 13th place and improved in efficiently leveraging its ICTs, particularly after improving its competitiveness economic impacts whose score is amongst the top ten rankings (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013, p.18). Basically, Germany is boasting an ICT infrastructure that is highly developed (ranked 10th), and this translates into individuals’ high uptake (ranked 14th), and being amongst highest world’s subscriptions of broadband Internet (ranked 8th). Moreover, Germany businesses are widely utilising ICTs (ranked 5th) to carry out their transaction with consumers (ranked 14th) and with other businesses (ranked 15th). Moreover, the local firms, which have an outstanding innovation capacity (ranked 3rd) together with an educational system (ranked 20th) performing considerably well has led to high levels of economic impacts (ranked 10th) as well as in knowledge-intensive and innovation activities (ranked 15th) (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013, p.18). Among the top ten countries, the United Kingdom improved three positions in 2013 to the 7th position, which according to Bilbao-Osorio et al. (2013, p.10) was the biggest improvement in the rankings. The United Kingdom provides the most favourable environments for developing ICT (ranked 6th). Essentially, UK provides a conducive and sound regulatory as well as political environment (ranked 7th) and boasts high ICT adoption levels. ICTs are exceedingly ubiquitous in UK to businesses, the population as well as the government, but it is almost systematically outclassed by the Asian Tigers and Nordic; thus, indicating the need for more improvement. Still, UK is amongst the best in terms of ICT impacts, ranking 14th as well as 4th in economic and social impacts, in that order (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2013, p.10). Furthermore, UK is ranked 1st in ICTs role of offering new organizational models as well as 2nd for ICTs impacts in generating new products and services, which indicates ICTs innovation significance, particularly in the service-based economies. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) In 2013, Mexico Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was worth 1260.91 USD billion, and its GDP value signified 2.03% of the world economy. Between 1960 and 2013, Mexico GDP averaged 374.24 USD Billion, attaining a record high in 2013 of 1260.91 USD Billion as well as an all-time low in 1960 of 13.06 USD Billion (TRADING ECONOMICS, 2013). By April 2015, Mexico GDP had increased by 0.40 per cent than the last quarter. In nominal terms, Mexico economy according to IMF is ranking 15th in the world as well as the 11th by purchasing power parity. The GDP of Germany in 2013 was worth 3634.82 USD billion, and its GDP value signified 5.86% of the world economy. Between 1970 and 2013, Germany GDP averaged 1733.36 USD Billion, attaining a record high in 2013 of 3634.82 USD Billion as well as an all-time low in 1970 of 208.90 USD billion. In the first quarter of 2015, Germany GDP has expanded 0.30% as compared to the last quarter of 2014 (TRADING ECONOMICS, 2013). In Europe, Germany is undoubtedly the leading national economy, and in the world is ranked 4th by nominal GDP and 5th by purchasing power parity. In 2013, the UK’s GDP was worth 2522.26 USD billion, and its GDP value signified a 4.07% of the world economy. Between 1960 and 2013, the UK GDP averaged 966.41 USD Billion attaining a record high in 2007 of 2857.08 USD Billion as well as an all-time low in 1960of 72.33 USD Billion (TRADING ECONOMICS, 2013). In the first quarter of 2015, the UK GDP has expanded 0.30% over the last quarter. Currently, the UK is ranked 5th by nominal GDP in the world in terms national economy and 2nd in Europe after Germany. Mobile Phone Penetration and Number of Mobile Phones In Mexico, smartphone penetration according to eMarketer is very high as compared to other Latin American countries. The usage of Smartphone in Mexico increased by double in 2012, and in the following year it increased by 50 percent. Projections by the eMarketer point out that almost 6.1 million Mexicans owned a smartphone by 2014, and the Smartphone uptake will experience a steady and sharp growth trajectory in the coming years (Oleaga, 2014). Statistics indicates that 57 per cent of people in Mexico have a mobile phone in 2012. As of 2014, penetration of Smartphone in Mexico was 36.8%, and the total number of mobile phones stands at 101.3 million. In Germany, the number of mobile phones users has increased gradually from roughly 64 million users in 2011 to around 67 million users in 2013. However, by 2017 the number of users is projected to increase to 70.4 million. According to Nielsen’s Smartphone Insights report, 62% of all mobile phone owners in Germany owned a Smartphone in 2013, which is an 8% increase from 2012 (Telecompaper, 2013). In total, there are almost 107 million mobile phones in Germany. In United Kingdom, 34.3% of the population had a smartphone in 2011, and projections indicate that the rate smartphone penetration will reach almost 65.8% of people in UK by 2017 (Statista, 2014). Almost 92% of grown-ups in the United Kingdom currently have a mobile phone, and the total number of mobile phones is 83.1 million. Internet Users In Mexico according to Internet World Stats (2014), there are almost 59.2 million Internet users, which represent 49.2 per cent of the total population. Besides that, Mexico is presently experiencing an enormous increase in broadband Internet services demand. In Germany, there are 73.2 million Internet Users, which signifies an 84.0 per cent of the Germany population. In 2014, 54 per cent of Germany population utilized their mobile phones to access the internet, which is a 14 per cent increase as compared to 40 per cent in 2013 (Internet World Stats, 2014). In general, the majority of Germany’s online activity occurred at home. In United Kingdom, there are 58.6 million Internet Users, which represents an 89.9 per cent of the UK population (Internet World Stats, 2014). Moreover, almost 77 per cent of adults in UK bought the Internet in 2013, which is the highest in Europe, as well as far higher as compared to European Union average of 47 per cent. A lot of adults in UK are accessing the Internet every day, and this has increased to 38 million in 2014 from 16 million in 2006. Besides that, in 2014 almost 22 million (84 per cent) households in United Kingdom had internet access bearing in mind that the European Union average in 2013 was 79 per cent. Internet Business Internet use has increased in Mexico and is currently widely utilised by businesses for marketing purposes. There is a growing internet economy in Mexico as observed by Landmark Global (2014), and determined marketers are utilising online tools so as to exploit everything offered by the internet including social media. The e-commerce market in Mexico is swiftly turning out to be one of the sectors that are experiencing dynamic growth within the national economy. Firms like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Amazon, as well as Palacio de Hierro have invested heavily in e-commerce in Mexico. As pointed out by Landmark Global (2014), Mexico attractiveness lies in its hidden digital economy potential. Currently in Latin America, Mexico is the second biggest e-commerce market based on volume, with Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sales attaining 7.32 Billion USD in 2013. Moreover, the annual growth is projected to continue growing at almost 25 per cent by 2016 (Landmark Global, 2014). In 2013, sales in Germany retail e-commerce totalled 51.91 billion USD and are expected to increase further to 99.33 billion USD by 2018. In Germany, online shoppers are fond of utilising invoice as the main method of online payment. A survey in 2013 established that around 60% of online customers in Germany pay later every time they make a purchase online (Ecommerce News, 2015). Ecommerce Europe data show that Germany’s online retail market is worth more than 56.8 billion USD, and this will increase annually by 12% until 2017, more rapidly as compared to other countries in Western Europe. Moreover, German e-commerce Revenue in 2013 increased by 44 per cent and currently, e-commerce makes up 83 per cent of total revenues from the online business. It is projected that by 2017, e-commerce revenue will make up 53 per cent of the total Germany GDP considering that in total retail, the estimated online retail share in Germany is currently 6.6 per cent (Ecommerce News, 2015). In United Kingdom, the sales in online retail surpassed expectations, recording an 18 per cent annual growth according to with the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index due to the fact that UK online shoppers spent 17.5 billion USD an increase from 14.3 billion USD spent in 2012 (Capgemini, 2014). According to IMRG/Capgemmini (2014) report, in 2013 UK experienced an 18 per cent year-on-year growth, 16 per cent online retail market growth, the amount spent on mobile devices was double that spent on 2012, and projected that in 2014, UK will experience a 17 per cent online market growth, as well as 169.9 billion USD, will be spent online. In total, 144.5 billion USD was spent online in 2013, which according to IMRG/Capgemmini (2014) report this was a positive Index, since the Index had increased by 16 per cent in one year, surpassing the original forecast by the IMRG and Capgemini of 12 per cent. Currently, the online retail makes up 21 per cent of the total retail market in United Kingdom and in 2013, UK’s e-commerce retail made up 11.6% of the total revenue from retail sales (Capgemini, 2014). As noted by Capgemini (2014), UK shoppers purchasing online have been helpful in digitalizing the United Kingdom economy, given that the share contributed by the Internet to the GDP as compared to other G20 nations. Besides that, the UK digital economy is improving at a rate of 10.9% annually, which is exceedingly higher when compared to G20 average of 8.1%. Germany and Mexico are not anywhere closer since South Korea, and China comes second and third contributing 7.3% and 5.5% to GDP respectively. Conclusion In conclusion, it is noticeable that the minimum levels of education and infrastructure policies must be espoused so that the country can benefit from information communication technologies, and so, a measure of the abovementioned factors are provided through e-readiness. Moreover, it has been established that e-commerce cannot succeed if there are no consumers buying online, and e-government cannot happen if the required technology cannot be accessed by the citizens. Moreover, higher e-readiness levels generate a ripple effect, heightening the competitiveness of enterprises and national economies, as well as their capability to generate wealth, and therefore, empowerment as well as employment to the population, ultimately resulting in poverty reduction. In the three reviewed countries, UK is highly ranked (6th) in terms of ICT infrastructure, followed by Germany (10th), and then Mexico (82nd). In terms of GDP, Germany has a high GDP of 3634.82 USD billion, followed by UK’s of 2522.26 USD billion and Mexico’s 3634.82 USD billion of 1260.91 USD billion. The rate of Smartphone penetration is high in Germany at 62%, then Mexico at 36.8% and UK at 34.3%, but the number of mobile phones is high in Germany (107 million) and low in UK (83.1 Million). Finally, in terms of internet users, Germany has 73.2 million, UK has58.6 Million, and Mexico has59.2 million Internet Users. References Bilbao-Osorio, B., Dutta, S. & Lanvin, B., 2013. The Global Information Technology Report 2013. Insight Report. Geneva: World Economic Forum World Economic Forum ; INSEAD. Capgemini, 2014. £91 billion spent online in 2013 - IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "https://www.uk.capgemini.com/news/uk-news/ps91-billion-spent-online-in-2013-imrg-capgemini-e-retail-sales-index" https://www.uk.capgemini.com/news/uk-news/ps91-billion-spent-online-in-2013-imrg-capgemini-e-retail-sales-index [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Dada, D., 2006. E-READINESS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: MOVING THE FOCUS FROM THE ENVIRONMENT TO THE USERS. EJISDC, vol. 27, no. 6, pp.1-14. Ecommerce News, 2015. Ecommerce in Germany. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://ecommercenews.eu/ecommerce-per-country/ecommerce-germany/" http://ecommercenews.eu/ecommerce-per-country/ecommerce-germany/ [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Internet World Stats, 2014. Usage and Population Statistics. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "www.internetworldstats.com" www.internetworldstats.com [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Landmark Global, 2014. E-commerce in Mexico: trends, facts and figures. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://landmarkglobal.com/e-commerce-in-mexico-trends-facts-and-figures/" http://landmarkglobal.com/e-commerce-in-mexico-trends-facts-and-figures/ [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Oleaga, M., 2014. Mexico Tops Smartphone Market in Latin America With 50 Percent Growth in 2013, Becomes Interest for Mobile Ad Marketers. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.latinpost.com/articles/6946/20140206/mexico-tops-smartphone-mobile-market-latin-america-50-percent-growth.htm" http://www.latinpost.com/articles/6946/20140206/mexico-tops-smartphone-mobile-market-latin-america-50-percent-growth.htm [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Statista, 2014. Smartphone penetration rate in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.statista.com/statistics/270888/smartphone-penetration-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/" http://www.statista.com/statistics/270888/smartphone-penetration-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/ [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Telecompaper, 2013. German smartphone penetration grows to 62% - Nielsen. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.telecompaper.com/news/german-smartphone-penetration-grows-to-62-nielsen--959634" http://www.telecompaper.com/news/german-smartphone-penetration-grows-to-62-nielsen--959634 [Accessed 21 June 2015]. TRADING ECONOMICS, 2013. Countries. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.tradingeconomics.com/" http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ [Accessed 21 June 2015]. Read More