| Peer-Reviewed

Triple-Win User Innovation Network and Facilitated All-Inclusive Collective Enterprise (TWUINFAICE): A Postdoctoral Research Agenda for Turning the Youth Bulge in Africa into Blessing

Received: 20 August 2013     Published: 30 November 2013
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Eradicating abject poverty, realising social development and environmental sustainability are among the core focus of the UN millennium development goals. In Africa, realising such triple-win outcomes poses running challenges due to persistent youth bulge and growing unemployment and their attendant youth violence and crimes. Notwithstanding, in all societies, youths generally have remarkable inherent qualities that befit entrepreneurship. Importantly, with youths’ high degree of sociability, it is possible to use collaborative networks and network effect to channel those sterling youths’ attributes and potentials towards realising triple-win entrepreneurship agenda. Most of all, continuing advances in computing, communication and social networking technologies and the widespread democratisation of tools of production and distribution, make it easier for youths to connect horizontally with peers and vertically with experts and institutions in order to individually and collectively innovate and reach their entrepreneurship goals easier and better. Yet, experts have noted that active participation of actors in collective process does not just happen; it requires a facilitator with requisite tools and strategies to initiate, control, manage and sustain the participation. Consequently, all-out triple-win entrepreneurship drive is advocated in this paper for African nations to turn the youth bulge into blessing. The work presented in this paper is a postdoctoral research agenda for community informatics social technologies embodied in the acronym TWUINFAICE and designed to facilitate triple-win development in the developing countries of Africa. Above all, TWUINFAICE upholds user innovation network and collective entrepreneurship that is built on scalable and reusable social network structures as the bedrock of its strategies for realising the triple-win objectives across Africa. Finally, this paper presents TWUINFAICE concepts, models and some selected areas of immediate application in the developing countries of Africa.

Published in Science Innovation (Volume 1, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.si.20130103.11
Page(s) 18-33
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2013. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Triple-Win, Social Network, Innovation Network, Network Effect, User Innovation, Collective Enterprise, Youth Bulge, Participatory Development, Community Development, Community Informatics, Urbanisation Youth Bulge

References
[1] A. Jha, "Reaching Out to People: Achieving Millennium Development Goals through Innovative Public Service Delivery" GRIN Verlag, 2012.
[2] S. Kuruvilla, , F. Bustreo, P. Hunt, A. Singh, E. Friedman, T. Luchesi, and J. Frenk, "The Millennium Development Goals and Human Rights: Realizing Shared Commitments" Human Rights Quarterly, 34(1), 141-177, 2012.
[3] J.A. Frankel "Mauritius: African Success Story" HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP10-036, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Available at: HarvardUniversity.http://web.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=7410. [accessed 02.07.13], 2010.
[4] MDG Africa "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa" Recommendations of the MDG Africa Steering Group Available at: http://www.mdgafrica.org/pdf/MDG%20Africa%20Steering%20Group%20Recommendations%20-%20English%20-%20HighRes.pdf. [ accessed 20.07.13], 2008.
[5] B. M. Ochieng, , D. C. Kaseje, , & C. O. Wafula, "The contributions of community based volunteer workforce towards the millennium development goals in Nyando District, Kenya" Developing Country Studies, 2(5), 36-43, 2012.
[6] UNDP . "The MDG Report 2013: Assessing Progress in Africa Toward the Millennium Development Goal" Report on progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Africa, 2013, prepared for the Sixth Joint Annual Meetings of the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 25 and 26. -A available at: http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/document_files/report-on-progress-in-achieving-the-mdgs-in-africa.pdf . Also available at: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/mdg/mdg-reports/africa-collection/ . [ accessed 26.07.13], March 2013
[7] E. Y. Jimenez and M. Murthi "Investing in the Youth Bulge" Finance & Development, a quarterly magazine of the IMF September , Page 1 of 15, Volume 43, Number 3, 2006.Available at; http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/09/jimenez.htm and also at: http://relooney.fatcow.com/00_New_913.pdf . [ accessed 20.07.13]. 2006.
[8] M. Sommers, "Governance, Security and Culture: Assessing Africa’s Youth Bulg" International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 5(2), 292-303, 2011.
[9] R. Assaad, , & F. Roudi-Fahimi, "Youth in the Middle East and North Africa: demographic opportunity or challenge?" Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2007.
[10] S. Kurtenbach, "Youth Violence in Post-War Societies" Conceptual Considerations, 2008.
[11] P. Huntington, Samuel, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" New York, 1996.
[12] UN "Our shared responsibility" Report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change. New York, 2004. http://www.un.org/secureworld/report2.pdf [ accessed 26.07.13], 2004.
[13] Goldstone, Jack A., ‘Demography, Environment, and Security’, in Paul F. Diehl and Nils Petter Gleditsch, eds., Environmental Conflict. Boulder, CO: Westview (84–108), 2001.
[14] Urdal, H. The devil in the demographics: the effect of youth bulges on domestic armed conflict, 1950-2000. Social Development Papers: Conflict and Reconstruction Paper, (14), 2004. Availale at : http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC14714.pdf, [ accessed 07.07.13]
[15] M. Sommers, "Embracing the margins: working with youth amidst war and insecurity. Too poor for peace. Session V: Youth Bulges, Disaffection And Conflict, The Brookings Blum Roundtable". Available a ; http://www.ineesite.org/uploads/files/resources/doc_1_57_Embracing_the_Margins.pdf, [ accessed 07.07.13], 2006.
[16] P. Cincotta, Richard, R. Engelman, and D. Anastasion. "The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict after the Cold War" Washington: Population Action International, 2003.
[17] E. Fuller, Graham. "The Youth Factor: The New Demographics of the Middle East and the Implications for U.S. Policy" Analysis Paper 3 (June). Washington, DC: Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution. 2003
[18] World Bank, "World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation" Washington: World Bank, 2006.
[19] O. Ruhl, "Nigeria’s youth: Turning challenge into opportunityz’ Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria, http://siteresources. worldbank. org/NIGERIAEXTN/Resources/Nigerian-Youth-Paper-Onno-Ruhl. pdf. [ accessed 18.07.13] , 20101.
[20] N. Dhillon, "Middle East Youth Bulge: Challenge or Opportunity?" Presentation to Congressional staff, 22, 2008.
[21] K. Cattapan-Ludewig, S. Ludewig, , N. Messerli, F. X. Vollenweider, , A. Seitz, J.Feldon, , & M. P. Paulus, "Decision-making dysregulation in first-episode schizophrenia" The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 196(2), 157-160, 2008.
[22] M.P .Paulus "Neurobiology of decision-making: Quo vadis?" Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 23:2–10, 2005.
[23] A. Tversky, D. Kahneman, "The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice" Science. 211:453– 458, 1981.)
[24] C. C. Mincemoyer, and F. P. Daniel "Assessing decision-making skills of youth" The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues 8(1). Available at ; http://ncsu.edu/ffci/publications/2003/v8-n1-2003-january/ar-1-accessing.php, 2003.
[25] G.D. Nelson, " Assessment of health decision-making skills of adolescents" Washington, DC: US Department of Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED220257), 1984.
[26] I. Alam, "An exploratory investigation of user involvement in new service development" Journal of the Academy of Market Science, 30 (3), 250-216, 2002.
[27] F. Chigunta, "Youth Livelihoods and Enterprise Activities in Zambia" Report to IDRC, Canada, 2001.
[28] T. N. Garavan, and B. O'Cinneide "Entrepreneurship education and training programmes" A review and evaluation - Part 2. Journal of European Industrial Training, 18 (11), 13-22, 1994.
[29] P. O. Oladele, I. Akeke, and , & O. Oladunjoye, " Entrepreneurship Development: A Panacea for Unemployment Reduction in Nigeria" Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, 2(4), 251-256. Available at: http://jetems.scholarlinkresearch.org/articles/Entrepreneurship%20Development.pdf , [ accessed 15.07.13], 2011.
[30] N. Anyadike, E. J. Emeh Ikechukwu, and U. Finian Okechukwu. "Entrepreneurship development and employment generation in Nigeria: Problems and prospects." Journal of Education and General Studies 1.4: 088-102, 2012
[31] R. N. Kanothi, "The dynamics ofentrepreneurship in ICT: Case of mobile phones downstream services in Kenya" Working Paper, No. 466, Institute of Social Science, The Netherlands, 2009.
[32] S. Badal, "Entrepreneurship and Job Creation"Available at: http://www.nifa.org/downloads/entrepreneurshipandjobcreation10711.pdf. [ accessed 24.07.13], 2010.
[33] R. P. Rumelt, "Theory, strategy, and entrepreneurship" In Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research (pp. 11-32). Springer US. Available at; http://bilder.buecher.de/zusatz/13/13715/13715290_lese_1.pdf [ accessed 24.07.13], 2005.
[34] H. Suleiman, "Youth entrepreneurship education for national development" International Journal of Education Studies, 1 (1), 47-50, 2010.
[35] L. Tardieu, "Knowledge and the Maintenance of Entrepreneurial Capability" Center for Economic Analysis, Université d‘Aix-Marseille, 2003.
[36] D. J. Connell, "Collective Entrepreneurship: In Search of Meaning". Available at http://www.djconnell.ca/papers.html. [ accessed 22.07.13] , 1999
[37] N. Roberts, "Public Entrepreneurship as Social Creativity" World Futures: the Journal of General Evolution 62(8 ), 595-609, 2006.
[38] M. Bogers, A. Afuah, and Bastian B. "Users as Innovators: A Review, Critique, and Future Research Directions" Journal of Management Vol. 36 No. 4, July 2010 857-875 DOI: 10.1177/0149206309353944 © The Author(s) 2010
[39] E. Von Hippel, "Democratizing innovation: the evolving phenomenon of user innovation" International Journal of Innovation Science, 1(1), 29-40. Available at: http://in3.dem.ist.utl.pt/master/stpolicy04/files04/2_paper9_3.pdf and http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.109.6512&rep=rep1&type=pdf [ accessed 02.07.13] , 2009.
[40] E. von Hippel. "Open user innovation" The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed, 2013.
[41] J. Salminen, , & S. Konsti-Laakso, "Facilitating user driven innovation trough a Living Lab" In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising, Lugano, Switzerland , pp. 21-23, 2010.
[42] Von Hippel, E. Horizontal Innovation Networks - By and for Users. Industrial and Corporate Change, 16: 293-315. (2007)
[43] E. von Hippel, "The sources of innovation" New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
[44] T. Burns, , & G. M. Stalker, "The management of innovation" London: Tavistock (1961).
[45] S. Myers, , & D. Marquis, "Successful industrial innovations" Washington, DC: National Science Foundation. ,1969.
[46] R. Rothwell, "The characteristics of successful innovators and technically progressive firms" R&D Management, 3: 191-206. 1977.
[47] C. Baldwin, , C. Hienerth, , & E. von Hippel, "How user innovations become commercial products: A theoretical investigation and case study" Research Policy, 35: 1291-1313., 2006.
[48] S. K. Shah, , & M. Tripsas, "The accidental entrepreneur: The emergent and collective process of user entrepreneurship" Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1: 123-140, 2007.
[49] E. Von Hippel, "Democratizing innovation" Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Available: http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm [ accessed 27.07.13] , 2005.
[50] G.von Krogh, , & E. von Hippel, "Special issue on open source software development". Research Policy, 32: 1149-1157. 2003.
[51] G.von Krogh, , & E.von Hippel, "The promise of research on open source software". Management Science, 52: 975-983. 2006.
[52] P. R. Magnusson, "Benefits of Involving Users in Service Innovation", European Journal of Innovation Management, 6 (4), 228–238, 2003.
[53] M.Granovetter, "The Strength of Weak Ties" American Journal of Sociology, 78: 1360–138, 1973.
[54] S.Parjanen, , H.Melkas, "Etäisyyden ja läheisyyden leikki innovaatioprosesseissa, Innovaatiopolitiikkaa järjestelmien välimaastossa" In Harmaakorpi, V. & Melkas, H. (eds.) Acta series no. 200. Helsinki. Suomen Kuntaliitto. (in Finnish), 2008.
[55] InnoSupport. "Supporting Innovation in SMEs . InnoSupport Leonardo da Vinci Pilot Project ", page 231, http://www.innovation.lv/ino2/publications/leonardo_manual/en/www.innosupport.net/webhelp/wso/user/firma_3/eninnosupport.pdf. [ accessed 21.07.13], 2005
[56] Harhoff, D., Henkel, J., & von Hippel, E. Profiting from voluntary information spillovers: How users benefit by freely revealing their innovations. Research Policy, 32: 1753-1769. 2003.
[57] J. Beebe, "Rapid assessment process: An introduction. Rowman Altamira" www.parkdatabase.com/documents/download/2000_rapid_assessment_process.pdf [ accessed 24.07.13], 2001
[58] M. Sabone, , E. Ntsayagae, , M. S. Brown, N. M. Seboni, K. D. Mogobe, , & M. Sebego, "Perceptions of undergraduate students not participating in HIV/AIDS prevention activities in Botswana" International Nursing Review, 54(4), 332-338,
[59] M. S. Brown, , M. Sebego, , N. Seboni, , E. Ntsayagae, , K. D. Mogobe, , & M. Sabone, "Using qualitative methods for course evaluation: A case study from Botswana" Nurse educator, 31(6), 275-280. 2006.
[60] A. Sarkar, , A. R. Mukhopadhyay, , & S. K. Ghosh, "Issues in Pareto analysis and their resolution" Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 24(5-6), 641-651. 2013.
[61] E. Hofmann, , P. Beck, , & E. Füger, "CM1: Customer Segmentation and Supply Chain Strategy. In The Supply Chain Differentiation Guide". Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 47-79, 2013.
[62] A. Mahanti, N. Carlsson, M. Arlitt,, & C. Williamson, "A tale of the tails: Power-laws in internet measurements. Network", IEEE, 27(1), 59-64. 2013.
[63] Easley D. and Kleinberg J. "Chapter 17: Network Effects , From the book Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World". Cambridge University Press (2010) Available at: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book-ch17.pdf [ accessed 27.07.13], 2010
[64] UASID and DNA "diaspora Network Alliance (DNA)". http://idea.usaid.gov/gp/diaspora/diaspora-network-alliance-dna [ accessed 13.08.13] , 2013.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Simeon Ozuomba. (2013). Triple-Win User Innovation Network and Facilitated All-Inclusive Collective Enterprise (TWUINFAICE): A Postdoctoral Research Agenda for Turning the Youth Bulge in Africa into Blessing. Science Innovation, 1(3), 18-33. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20130103.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Simeon Ozuomba. Triple-Win User Innovation Network and Facilitated All-Inclusive Collective Enterprise (TWUINFAICE): A Postdoctoral Research Agenda for Turning the Youth Bulge in Africa into Blessing. Sci. Innov. 2013, 1(3), 18-33. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20130103.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Simeon Ozuomba. Triple-Win User Innovation Network and Facilitated All-Inclusive Collective Enterprise (TWUINFAICE): A Postdoctoral Research Agenda for Turning the Youth Bulge in Africa into Blessing. Sci Innov. 2013;1(3):18-33. doi: 10.11648/j.si.20130103.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.si.20130103.11,
      author = {Simeon Ozuomba},
      title = {Triple-Win User Innovation Network and Facilitated All-Inclusive Collective Enterprise (TWUINFAICE): A Postdoctoral Research Agenda for Turning the Youth Bulge in Africa into Blessing},
      journal = {Science Innovation},
      volume = {1},
      number = {3},
      pages = {18-33},
      doi = {10.11648/j.si.20130103.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20130103.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.si.20130103.11},
      abstract = {Eradicating abject poverty, realising social development and environmental sustainability are among the core focus of the UN millennium development goals. In Africa, realising such triple-win outcomes poses running challenges due to persistent youth bulge and growing unemployment and their attendant youth violence and crimes. Notwithstanding, in all societies, youths generally have remarkable inherent qualities that befit entrepreneurship. Importantly, with youths’ high degree of sociability, it is possible to use collaborative networks and network effect to channel those sterling youths’ attributes and potentials towards realising triple-win entrepreneurship agenda. Most of all, continuing advances in computing, communication and social networking technologies and the widespread democratisation of tools of production and distribution, make it easier for youths to connect horizontally with peers and vertically with experts and institutions in order to individually and collectively innovate and reach their entrepreneurship goals easier and better. Yet, experts have noted that active participation of actors in collective process does not just happen; it requires a facilitator with requisite tools and strategies to initiate, control, manage and sustain the participation. Consequently, all-out triple-win entrepreneurship drive is advocated in this paper for African nations to turn the youth bulge into blessing. The work presented in this paper is a postdoctoral research agenda for community informatics social technologies embodied in the acronym TWUINFAICE and designed to facilitate triple-win development in the developing countries of Africa. Above all, TWUINFAICE upholds user innovation network and collective entrepreneurship that is built on scalable and reusable social network structures as the bedrock of its strategies for realising the triple-win objectives across Africa. Finally, this paper presents TWUINFAICE concepts, models and some selected areas of immediate application in the developing countries of Africa.},
     year = {2013}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Triple-Win User Innovation Network and Facilitated All-Inclusive Collective Enterprise (TWUINFAICE): A Postdoctoral Research Agenda for Turning the Youth Bulge in Africa into Blessing
    AU  - Simeon Ozuomba
    Y1  - 2013/11/30
    PY  - 2013
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20130103.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.si.20130103.11
    T2  - Science Innovation
    JF  - Science Innovation
    JO  - Science Innovation
    SP  - 18
    EP  - 33
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-787X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.si.20130103.11
    AB  - Eradicating abject poverty, realising social development and environmental sustainability are among the core focus of the UN millennium development goals. In Africa, realising such triple-win outcomes poses running challenges due to persistent youth bulge and growing unemployment and their attendant youth violence and crimes. Notwithstanding, in all societies, youths generally have remarkable inherent qualities that befit entrepreneurship. Importantly, with youths’ high degree of sociability, it is possible to use collaborative networks and network effect to channel those sterling youths’ attributes and potentials towards realising triple-win entrepreneurship agenda. Most of all, continuing advances in computing, communication and social networking technologies and the widespread democratisation of tools of production and distribution, make it easier for youths to connect horizontally with peers and vertically with experts and institutions in order to individually and collectively innovate and reach their entrepreneurship goals easier and better. Yet, experts have noted that active participation of actors in collective process does not just happen; it requires a facilitator with requisite tools and strategies to initiate, control, manage and sustain the participation. Consequently, all-out triple-win entrepreneurship drive is advocated in this paper for African nations to turn the youth bulge into blessing. The work presented in this paper is a postdoctoral research agenda for community informatics social technologies embodied in the acronym TWUINFAICE and designed to facilitate triple-win development in the developing countries of Africa. Above all, TWUINFAICE upholds user innovation network and collective entrepreneurship that is built on scalable and reusable social network structures as the bedrock of its strategies for realising the triple-win objectives across Africa. Finally, this paper presents TWUINFAICE concepts, models and some selected areas of immediate application in the developing countries of Africa.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Electrical/Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Uyo , Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

  • Sections