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This paper aims to explore how the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) can leverage broadband, as a frontier emerging market, to diversify the economy and promote growth, job creation and productivity. The objective is to analyze the challenges and opportunities of the broadband market and propose policies to boost its development and achieve medium to long-term economic benefits.

The paper uses qualitative and quantitative tools to study the legal and regulatory environment, market structure, competitive dynamics and available services and infrastructure in the KRI. The data and information analyzed were obtained through field research, primary data collection and consultation with government institutions, telecom operators and IT companies.

Obstacles to broadband development in the KRI are barriers to competition, the need for clearer and more transparent policies and regulations and a fragmented market. However, when the right conditions are in place, KRI has the potential to emerge as a regional hub for international broadband connectivity and significantly expand local broadband access.

This paper presents a first-of-its-kind baseline analysis of the telecom sector in the KRI. Very little information is available on the KRI market, which also has not been previously studied separately from the Iraqi market. Based on the fieldwork, the paper relies on region-specific data to analyze the particularity of the market and identify reforms within the prerogative of the regional government.

Explores the impact of competition in mobile services using data on global systems for mobile communications (GSM) technology. States international experience shows that competition in any of the digital technologies brings substantial benefits to users. Sums up that increasing numbers of governments are taking specific steps to ensure that new cellular operators can compete with incumbent operators.

The regulatory framework may be construed as the existence of supporting infrastructure that assists in control, direction/implementation of a proposed course of law, rule or action. The regulatory order is now more formalized, expert-driven, transparent, independent and pervasive across countries and sectors. As a result, regulatory reforms enable markets to function efficiently by providing a supportive environment for increased investment, private sector growth and market-led economic growth. This study aims to review previous literature for understanding the impact of sectoral regulatory framework on sectoral performance.

This paper has adopted a systematic literature review to understand dynamics between the sectoral regulatory framework and sectoral performance. While seven multidisciplinary databases were used to identify 51 research articles, the bibliometric research profiling was executed to broaden academic research.

The results are organized into three broad categories: research context, research area and research methods. The identified articles exhibited association with 12 distinct sectors/industries, with maximum articles belonging to telecom, energy and finance industries. The study has focused on evolution of regulatory studies, impact of regulatory framework on sectoral performance and commonality in regulatory studies. Among the 15 distinct research contexts identified in this systematic literature review (SLR), the highest mapping was registered (from 23 articles) by the research context “impact of regulatory framework on the sector–institutions, infrastructure and performance indicators.”

Public administration researchers are increasingly using mixed methods research approaches to add diverse and novel perspectives on wicked problems. The qualitative approach (grounded theory, action research, phenomenology and participant observations) is appropriate for understanding the native viewpoints of regulatory practitioners and reducing the gap between rigor and relevance.

The study addresses lack of systematic review of articles covering the impact of regulatory framework on sectoral performance encompassing all sectors by, inter alia, collating important bibliometric profiles of the identified articles.