| This dissertation focuses on evaluating the size and assessing the weight of the dynamic forces that shape the digital divide across generations of technologies that provide the foundation for e-Business in the globally networked economy. It consists of three interlocking chapters focused on illuminating the dynamic state, driving factors, and potential remedies for the digital divide. Throughout we use panel data of up to 40 countries from 1970--2001, from three distinct generations of IT: mainframes, personal computers, and Internet. In Chapter 1, we conduct an empirical investigation of socio-economic factors driving the digital divide, using a pooled factors approach and quantile regression techniques. We demonstrate that factors that previously may have been expanding the Divide with earlier technologies are narrowing the gap as the Internet becomes the defining technology of the Information age.; In Chapter 2, we provide detailed insights into the dynamics underlying the divide across different technologies, using a theoretically-founded diffusion model of IT penetration that incorporates co-diffusive interactions across successive IT generations. We find that the narrowing of the divide is driven in large part by inter-generation co-diffusive effects, which are stronger in developing countries as compared to developed countries.; In Chapter 3, we combine the approaches used in the first two chapters to develop and estimate a model of IT penetration that focuses on the factors that influence the heterogeneity of IT diffusion processes across the divide. One of our main findings is that, with the Internet, there is a general move away from factors based on personal preference determinants that were important in mainframe and PC diffusion. While they still play a part in determining diffusion patterns of all three technologies in developed countries, in developing countries, factors based on economic and social structures hold primary importance.; Put together, our results shed new light on the future evolution of the global digital divide, and suggest ways in which policies and developmental programs can be structured to promote IT penetration around the globe. |
