Promoting E-Commerce in Georgia : Exploring Constraints to Online Participation using Baseline Data from an Experimental Study
E-commerce has the potential to expand market opportunities for businesses. However, it is not guaranteed. The World Development Report on Digital Dividends (World Bank 2016) highlights the importance of complementary analog support that may be nee...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/963201595838912497/Promoting-E-commerce-in-Georgia-Exploring-Constraints-to-Online-Participation-using-Baseline-Data-from-an-Experimental-Study http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34226 |
| Summary: | E-commerce has the potential to expand
market opportunities for businesses. However, it is not
guaranteed. The World Development Report on Digital
Dividends (World Bank 2016) highlights the importance of
complementary analog support that may be needed to ensure
people and businesses are able to fully benefit from the
opportunities that high-speed, ubiquitous internet can
provide. The first step in providing such support is
understanding the constraints to adoption. The Competitive
Policy Evaluation Lab (ComPEL) is supporting an impact
evaluation in Georgia to generate knowledge about the
constraints that prevent firms from participating in
e-commerce platforms, while also testing an innovative
approach to address the identified issues. The study
evaluates the ‘Broadband for Development’ (BfD) project, a
component of the World Bank-supported Georgia National
Innovation Ecosystem (GeNIE) program, that aims to foster
innovation, particularly for otherwise marginalized firms.
The BfD provides support to Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs) located outside of the capital, Tblisi,
to adopt broadband connections and establish an online
retail presence through e-commerce training. Before BfD
launched this effort, the research team collected and
analyzed baseline data regarding 2,180 eligible firms. The
purpose of this note is to explore the baseline results and
some implications for BfD, or similar projects supported by
the World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation
(FCI) Global Practice, within the context of the impact evaluation. |
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