Supply, demand and ICT-based services: A local level perspective

While much of the economic development literature urges greater emphasis on demand-based strategies, policies designed to create economic development advantage by leveraging telecommunications investment continue to be supply side oriented. The rationale underlying telecommunications investment efforts is that if the technology is low cost, both financially and from a cognitive usability standpoint, then it will be used. This paper examines the use of supply side strategies by one small community, LaGrange Georgia. LaGrange sought to enhance its competitiveness in the knowledge economy through the deployment of an Internet television like service designed to be free and easy to use called LITV. Based on a survey of 494 households and selected case studies, the study found that a major group of households that took up the service already had an Internet computer at home. They adopted LITV primarily because it was free rather than because it was an upward path toward economic transformation, as was the case for a segment of African-American female-headed households that adopted LITV. In spite of the fact that LITV was free and nominally easy to use, many citizens did not adopt LITV. Nonadopters and those who initially adopted but then dropped the service spanned the socioeconomic spectrum-rich and poor, well educated and dropouts, with Internet computers at home and beyond. This finding suggests that reducing the cost of technology alone is not enough to raise demand. More attention must be paid to tailoring policies to stimulate demand through targeted applications and broader supporting policies.

[1]  Peter A. Todd,et al.  Perceived Usefulness, Ease of Use, and Usage of Information Technology: A Replication , 1992, MIS Q..

[2]  Ramiro Montealegre,et al.  A Temporal Model of Institutional Interventions for Information Technology Adoption in Less-Developed Countries , 1999, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[3]  Jan Youtie Field of Dreams Revisited: Economic Development and Telecommunications in LaGrange, Georgia , 2000 .

[4]  Ephraim R. McLean,et al.  Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Dependent Variable , 1992, Inf. Syst. Res..

[5]  J. Newhagen,et al.  Media Access : Social and Psychological Dimensions of New Technology Use , 2003 .

[6]  Tawfik Jelassi,et al.  The French Videotex System Minitel: A Successful Implementation of a Naitonal Information Technology Infrastructure , 1994, MIS Q..

[7]  Olivia R. Liu Sheng,et al.  Examining the Technology Acceptance Model Using Physician Acceptance of Telemedicine Technology , 1999, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[8]  E. Rogers Diffusion of Innovations , 1962 .

[9]  M. Porter The Competitive Advantage Of Nations , 1990 .

[10]  R. Zmud,et al.  Information technology implementation research: a technological diffusion approach , 1990 .

[11]  Fred D. Davis Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[12]  James Bond,et al.  The Drivers of the Information Revolution : Cost, Computing Power, and Convergence , 1997 .

[13]  R. LaRose,et al.  Understanding Internet Usage , 2001 .

[14]  Michael Gurstein Effective use: A community informatics strategy beyond the Digital Divide , 2003, First Monday.

[15]  William R. King,et al.  Facilitators and inhibitors for the strategic use of information technology , 1994, Inf. Manag..

[16]  E. Malecki Digital development in rural areas: potentials and pitfalls $ , 2003 .

[17]  Hee-Su Kim,et al.  Determinants of subscriber churn and customer loyalty in the Korean mobile telephony market , 2004 .

[18]  Joseph F. Donnermeyer,et al.  Creating demand: influencing information technology diffusion in rural communities , 2003, Gov. Inf. Q..

[19]  E. Parker Closing the digital divide in rural America , 2000 .

[20]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Information Technology Adoption Across Time: A Cross-Sectional Comparison of Pre-Adoption and Post-Adoption Beliefs , 1999, MIS Q..

[21]  Lynette Kvasny,et al.  Triple jeopardy: race, gender and class politics of women in technology , 2003, SIGMIS CPR '03.

[22]  M. Gurstein Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies , 2000 .

[23]  Ricardo Ramirez,et al.  Measuring the impact of telecommunication services on rural and remote communities , 2005 .

[24]  A. Clement,et al.  The Access Rainbow: Conceptualizing Universal Access to the Information/ Communications Infrastructure , 2000 .

[25]  Peter K. Eisinger,et al.  The rise of the entrepreneurial state : state and local economic development policy in the United States , 1989 .

[26]  Neil Foster-McGregor,et al.  Does Venture Capital Investment Spur Employment Growth? , 2003, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[27]  Bartik,et al.  The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State: State and Local Development Policy in the United States by Peter K. Eisinger , 1990 .

[28]  Wendy A. Kellogg,et al.  Community-based Organizations and Neighbourhood Environmental Problem Solving: A Framework for Adoption of Information Technologies , 1999 .

[29]  Judy A. Siguaw,et al.  Adoption of Information Technology in U.S. Hotels: Strategically Driven Objectives , 2000 .

[30]  Jan Youtie,et al.  Evaluating industrial modernization: Methods, results, and insights from the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Alliance , 1998 .

[31]  Peter A. Todd,et al.  Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[32]  Does venture capital investment spur employment growth? CEPS Working Document No. 197, December 2003 , 2003 .

[33]  H. Goldstein,et al.  Technology in the Garden: Research Parks and Regional Economic Development , 1991 .

[34]  Ian Smith,et al.  High-technology employment and R&D in cities: Heterogeneity vs specialization , 2002 .

[35]  M. Feldman,et al.  R&D spillovers and the ge-ography of innovation and production , 1996 .

[36]  P. Attewell Technology Diffusion and Organizational Learning: The Case of Business Computing , 1992 .

[37]  Martin Mandioma Rural internet connectivity: a deployment in Dwesa-Cwebe, Eastern Cape, South Africa , 2007 .

[38]  J. Thong,et al.  CEO characteristics, organizational characteristics and information technology adoption in small businesses , 1995 .