Research interests
1) Inclusive innovation
2) Digitalisation in lower income countries
3) The digital trade agenda
1) Inclusive innovation
My work on innovation has focussed broadly on the idea of inclusive innovation, using the case of low income mobile phone and mobile money networks in Kenya
Theorising inclusive innovation – There are a growing number of innovative small scale activities linked to ICTs in low income countries, particularly in the informal sector (paper).
Inclusive innovation and BoP practice – The above theoretical work led to empirical insights in the Kenya mobile sector. Including scaling of the mobile money service M-Pesa (paper) and a more generalised model of how firms might support localised innovation (paper).
Inclusive innovation policy – My work on inclusive innovation has also brought insights on policy. I have explored policy for inclusive innovation in the ICT sector, moving beyond market regulation (paper). I have also highlighted risks emerging around ICT innovation quality that have been rarely discussed (paper). I have also looked to generalise this work into a wider policy framework to aid policy makers in thinking about inclusive innovation beyond ICT (paper ,policy brief)
Quantifying inclusive innovation – Given the lack of quantitative work on inclusive innovation, I contribute to a paper on how we might measure inclusive innovation focussing on the Kenyan agriculture (paper)
2) Digitalisation in lower income countries
In East Africa, I have been involved in researching the impact of improving connectivity on production, particularly how it might impact of the ability of firms or entrepreneurs linking into globalised networks.
Analysis of impacts of connectivity in East Africa – As part of this work I have produced a number of outputs including reports on the tea sector (report) and the tourism sector in Rwanda (report). This work was part of a wider set of projects in Oxford exploring uneven geographies of information in Africa (paper).
Examining impacts of digitization – From this above work, additional analysis has theorised the broader changes in terms of Global Production Network (paper). Digitization also implies changing forms of value chain governance in Global Value Chains (paper). It is also common to use Transaction Cost models to explore digital disintermediation, but we find such accounts are often lacking (paper)
3) The digital trade agenda
I have been involved in exploring growing interest in policy for the digital economy and data, particularly from the perspective of cross-border trade:
Conflicts on digital trade/e-commerce – We explore the wider political economy behind digital trade (paper). We have also examined digital trade and the implications for Africa, particularly realted to WTO debates (paper)
Digital policy and digital industrial policy – We have examining more closely how digital policy might be a new type of industrial policy (paper). Extending these accounts, two working papers highlight further consideration digital policy with case studies from Brazil and Indonesia (papers). we have also examines on e-commerce policy in the African CFTA to support continenetal integration and development (paper)