ICT-based rural service innovation: A case study on rural financial services in Lishui, China

Despite much research and practical effort having been devoted to information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled services for rural development, a major limitation in such applications is the lack of a clear and systematic analysis to capture the characteristics of ICT-based rural service innovation and to guide the development of collaborative partnership and systems solutions. Through a detailed analysis of an ICT-enabled rural financial service case in Lishui, China, it is identified that rural ICT solutions are developed as the result of synergy-based partnership among heterogeneous organisations. In addition, ICTs are also the platform to facilitate collaborative service innovation and to help integration of different services for holistic solutions. Furthermore, ICT devices, applications, and infrastructures are embodiments or carriers of rural services. Such characteristics of ICT-enabled service innovation are essentially in line with the Product-Service System (PSS) concept and paradigm. A synergy-based PSS model for community transformation could be adopted to provide a systematic process to guide the rural ICTs and ICT services development.