The relationship between national information technology policies and the impact on national economies is considered extensively in the literature. Kraemer et al. (1992) examine the effectiveness of government policies in promoting the diffusion of information technology through a review of industrial policies in 9 Asia-Pacific nations. The results showed that while some government trade and fiscal policies do facilitate increases in expenditures on computing technologies, the level of economic development was identified as a stronger predictor.

Kraemer et al. (1994a) indicate that the laissez-faire information technology strategy in Hong Kong, reflective of the country’s economic strategy, shows little government intervention in the promotion of production or use of IT products and services. Dedrick and Kraemer (1993) present a similar discussion of Australia’s treatment of information technology. They indicate that Australia has vacillated between laissez-faire, market-directed strategy and strong government interventionist, plan-directed strategies resulting in a collection of individual strategies as opposed to a single coherent strategy.

Kraemer and Dedrick (1993) describe information technology policy in New Zealand as moving from projectionist and centralized to almost total laissez-faire policies. They indicate that under these policies, New Zealand has become a heavy user of IT, ranking behind only Japan in the Asia-Pacific region, in terms of IT spending as a proportion of GDP, however the laissez-faire approach may have economic and other implications in an international environment in which many other countries directly subsidize the industry and have explicit strategies for IT infrastructure improvements.

Kraemer et al. (1996) discuss Taiwan’s coordinated government strategy in supporting private entrepreneurship by a large number of small, flexible, and innovative companies. They indicate that in just 15 years, Taiwan has emerged as a leading producer of hardware for almost every major computer vendor in the world and that Taiwan’s success has been due to a coordinated government strategy allowing the country’s computer companies to respond rapidly and effectively to changes in the international market.

Dedrick et al. (1995) indicate that there is a somewhat surprising number of small countries (those with populations of less than 10 million), including Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, with proportionally high rates of development and use of information technology in terms of country size and national resource endowments.