article

Complementarities in the Diffusion of Personal Computers and the Internet: Implications for the Global Digital Divide

Authors:

Kenneth L. KraemerAuthors Info & Claims

Information Systems Research, Volume 21, Issue 4

Pages 925 - 940

https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1080.0219

Published: 01 December 2010 Publication History

Abstract

This paper studies the cross-country diffusion of personal computers (PCs) and the Internet, and examines how the diffusive interactions across these technologies affect the evolution of the global digital divide. We adopt a generalized diffusion model that incorporates the impact of one technology's installed base on the diffusion of the other technology. We estimate the model on data from 26 developing and developed countries between 1991 and 2005. We find that the codiffusion effects between PCs and the Internet are complementary in nature and the impact of PCs on Internet diffusion is substantially stronger in developing countries as compared to developed ones. Furthermore, our results suggest that these codiffusive effects are a significant driver of the narrowing of the digital divide. We also examine the policy implications of our results, especially with respect to how complementarities in the diffusion of PC and Internet technologies might be harnessed to further accelerate the narrowing of the global digital divide.

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cover image Information Systems Research

Information Systems Research Volume 21, Issue 4

December 2010

350 pages

ISSN:1526-5536

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INFORMS

Linthicum, MD, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 December 2010

Received: 10 August 2006

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Panwar SKapur PSingh O(2021)Predicting diffusion dynamics and launch time strategy for mobile telecommunication services: an empirical analysisInformation Technology and Management10.1007/s10799-021-00323-x22:1(33-51)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2021
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