Multinational issues in information technology: A perspective from Less Developed Countries

This paper presents a survey of the emerging multinational issues in information technology from the perspective of the Less Developed Countries. The methodology of structured content analysis of published articles is used to examine 132 papers presented at international conferences and published in journals. Emerging from the debate, twenty three frequently raised issues are identified and ranked. Countries of authors of these papers have been ranked according to the importance of information technology in their international trade. The most frequently addressed multinational issues, important from the perspective of less developed countries, are: Information Technology Aid, Employment Creation with Information Technology, Indigenous Information Technology, Regional Information Technology Cooperation. High Cost of Information Technology, Training of Information Technologists, Domination by Multinational Corporations, and Domination by Industrialized Countries. Twenty three issues identified from the study are categorized as Perceived Advantages, Perceived Disadvantages, and Implementation Issues. The challenges and opportunities created by the eight most important issues for U.S. multinational corporations in computer industry are also discussed.