leapfrog technology

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the phenomenon in which developing economies adopt the latest generation of a technology directly, bypassing the intermediate stages through which advanced economies progressed; the most celebrated example in Africa is the widespread adoption of mobile banking and mobile money services — exemplified by Kenya's M-Pesa — in countries that never developed extensive fixed-line telephone infrastructure or formal banking networks; leapfrogging is also occurring in renewable energy, where African countries that lack extensive fossil fuel infrastructure can develop off-grid solar capacity without the sunk cost burden that slows the transition in industrialised economies; while leapfrogging offers genuine development opportunities, scholars caution against assuming it always occurs or that it automatically translates into broader economic transformation