Broadband Internet Adoption Research Articles

How the Internet Changed the Market for Print Media

Combining rich data from the Norwegian media market with exogenous variation in the availability and adoption of broadband internet, this paper provides causal evidence on how the internet affected traditional print media. Broadband internet adoption triggered large reductions in print readership and circulation and equally large increases in online news readership. Despite strong substitution from print to online news consumption, newspaper revenues fell dramatically. Newspapers responded to this adverse technology shock along multiple dimensions, including cutting costs by reducing labor inputs and the physical newspaper size and changing the print product available to customers by reducing tabloid content share. (JEL D24, L13, L25, L82, L86, O33)

Mobile internet adoption in West Africa

Mobile broadband internet is the main technology through which individuals access the internet in developing countries. Understanding the barriers to broadband adoption is thus a priority in designing policies aiming to expand access and close the digital divide across socioeconomic groups and territories. This paper exploits data from harmonized household expenditure surveys in seven countries in West Africa in 2018/19—a subregion with one of the lowest levels of mobile internet penetration in the world—to identify the main factors that limit mobile broadband internet adoption. Results show that low levels of household consumption and the price of mobile services are two key constraints. A one standard deviation increase in household expenditure, about US$65 per capita per month, is associated with a 6.5% point rise in the probability of adoption, while a one standard deviation drop in the price of mobile internet services (as a share of per capita household expenditure), about 5.5% points, raises the probability of adoption by 2.4% points. Other determinants include demographic characteristics (sex, age, language, urban location), socioeconomic features (educational attainment, sector of employment), and other factors linked to policy (access to electricity, ownership of assets, alternative means of internet access). Results are robust to specifications focusing only on areas with mobile internet coverage (3G).

Digital self-harm: an empirical analysis of the effects of broadband adoption on suicide

PurposePast literature offered competing predictions of the effect of broadband Internet on suicide. The Internet facilitates suicide by providing suicide-related information and ruining mental health. In contrast, Internet prevents suicide by offering social interaction and online mental treatment. This study aims to solve this tension by empirically examining the effect of broadband Internet on suicide with large-scale panel set.Design/methodology/approachThis study takes instrument approach with the US county-level panel set for the period 2013–17. This study uses the number of household broadband Internet subscriptions as the measure of broadband and leverages the number of telecommunication carriers as an instrument to address concern for endogenous relationship.FindingsThere exists a positive and significant association between broadband Internet adoption and suicide on average. This study provides empirical evidence that this association is attributable to the Internet's role in leading to a general decline in the mental well-being and in providing suicide-relevant information. This association is more evident in areas with high poverty and low social capital.Originality/valueThis study contributes to literatures that address the dark side of information systems in general and that address how Internet adoption can influence public health and well-being in particular. Results of underlying mechanisms why Internet affects suicide, and heterogeneous effect of Internet by poverty and social capital provide insight for governments to enact proactive regulations to address continuing rise of suicide.

Mobile Internet Adoption in West Africa

Mobile broadband internet is the main technology through which individuals access the internet in developing countries. Understanding the barriers to broadband adoption is thus a priority in designing policies aiming to expand access and close the digital divide across socioeconomic groups and territories. This paper exploits data from harmonized household expenditure surveys in seven countries in West Africa in 2018/19 — a subregion with one of the lowest levels of mobile internet penetration in the world — to identify the main factors that limit mobile broadband internet adoption. Results show that low levels of household consumption and prices of services are two key constraints. One standard deviation increase in household expenditure, about US$65 per capita per month, is associated with a 6.5 percentage point rise in the probability of adoption, while one standard deviation drop in the price of mobile internet services, about US$3.60, increases the probability of adoption by 2.4 percentage points. Other determinants include demographic characteristics (sex, age, language, urban location), socioeconomic features (educational attainment, sector of employment), and other factors linked to policy (access to electricity, ownership of assets, alternative means of internet access). Results are robust to specifications focusing only in areas with mobile internet coverage (3G).

International heterogeneity in the associations of new business models and broadband Internet with music revenue and piracy

Broadband Internet has fundamentally changed business models in many industries. In the music industry, for instance, old business models were challenged by illegal competitors, and broadband Internet has enabled value creation through new business models. The changes that established business models experienced in the wake of broadband Internet, however, differed vastly across national markets, and these differences are not well understood. We build a conceptual framework and study the extent to which differences in economic and cultural factors are associated with different market outcomes in the wake of the proliferation of broadband Internet. Thus, we compile two unique data sets from the music industry, comprising (1) revenue data for 36 countries and 22 years and (2) piracy data for 47 countries and >2 years. We use a Bayesian multilevel model to explore between-country heterogeneity in the associations between these variables and broadband Internet adoption and business model innovations. Our results show that the negative association between broadband Internet penetration and music revenue is weaker in high-income countries, where income restrictions are less likely to drive demand towards illegitimate piracy services. In terms of cultural factors, we find that a market's response to the introduction of broadband Internet is less negative in countries scoring high on Hofstede's individualism and uncertainty avoidance dimensions. Furthermore, we find that overall revenues only recover after the latest generation of streaming services (e.g., Spotify) has been introduced, and the adoption of these services is associated with lower levels of online music piracy.

Do social networking sites build and maintain social capital online in rural communities?

Social capital (SC) is a cornerstone of rural communities but is not well understood in terms of how Social Networking Sites (SNS) can be used to build and maintain SC online. There are limited studies which have attempted to measure SC online and its two distinct dimensions – bonding and bridging SC. The main objectives of this paper are to: (i) confirm that building and maintaining of SC online can be measured reliably and validly as two factors of bonding and bridging SC, and (ii) to determine to what extent the use of SNS facilitates building and maintaining bonding and bridging SC online when rural households have broadband connectivity. This study used a large-scale survey to collect quantitative data in the Western Downs Region of Queensland, Australia regarding households’ adoption and use of broadband Internet including use of SNS and their contribution to building and maintaining bonding and bridging SC online in rural communities. This study confirmed that SC online can be reliably and validly measured as a first order two-factor hierarchical model providing further support for the findings of previous empirical studies. Evaluating the association between SNS use and building and maintaining bonding and bridging SC online in rural communities showed that Heavy and Light users of SNS in rural communities are more likely to have higher levels of bonding and bridging SC online than Non-users of SNS. The findings also suggest that higher levels of SNS use are more effective in building and maintaining bridging SC online than bonding SC online. This suggests that SNS usages may be able to play an important role in building and maintaining SC and improving social connectivity both within rural communities such as WDR and more widely with other communities regardless of geographical location. This is despite the tyranny of distance and poor telecommunications which has historically been a communication barrier for rural communities.

The Impact of Broadband Internet on Employment in France

The impact of broadband Internet on employment is ambiguous, but empirical evidence is still limited. In this paper, we exploit data on a massive adoption of broadband Internet in France to investigate the impact of broadband Internet on employment. Using a fuzzy difference-in-difference estimation strategy, we find that broadband Internet destroy jobs, although the unemployment rate seems not to be affected. This job destruction occurs in manufacturing activities, contrary to the service sector where broadband Internet adoption creates jobs. In addition, we find that raising the level of education in urban areas tends to alleviate the negative impact of broadband Internet on employment.

Do Information and Communication Technologies Empower Female Workers? Firm-Level Evidence from Viet Nam

This paper studies the effects of firms’ investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) on their demand for female and skilled workers. Using the gradual liberalization of the broadband Internet sector across provinces from 2006 to 2009 as a source of exogenous variation to identify the causal impacts of ICT, we find evidence from the country’s comprehensive enterprise survey data that firms’ adoption of broadband Internet and other related ICT increased their relative demand for female and college-educated workers. The effect of ICT on firms’ female employment is particularly strong among the college-educated workers, and is stronger in industries that are more dependent on highly manual and physical tasks. These results suggest that ICT can lower gender inequality in the labor market by shifting the labor demand from highly manual, routine tasks in which men have a comparative advantage toward more nonroutine, interactive tasks in which women hold a comparative advantage. However, the effect of ICT is weaker in industries relying more on complex and interactive tasks, suggesting that gender differences in education may have limited female labor supply for the most innovative industries that require highly technical skills to complement ICT.

The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet *

AbstractDoes adoption of broadband internet in firms enhance labor productivity and increase wages? Is this technological change skill biased or factor neutral? We combine several Norwegian data sets to answer these questions. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points and provides plausibly exogenous variation in the availability and adoption of broadband internet in firms. Our results suggest that broadband internet improves (worsens) the labor market outcomes and productivity of skilled (unskilled) workers. We explore several possible explanations for the skill complementarity of broadband internet. We find suggestive evidence that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks. Taken together, our findings have important implications for the ongoing policy debate over government investment in broadband infrastructure to encourage productivity and wage growth.

Broadband Internet adoption and utilization in the inner city: A comparison of competing theories

Factors influencing the adoption and utilization of technology have been extensively studied within a variety of theoretical paradigms but questions about their parsimony and their integrations with and contributions to overarching models of human behavior have been questioned. The present research employed a mail survey of inner city residents of a Midwestern state to analyze the sufficiency of the social cognitive theory (SCT) model of broadband adoption by testing it against variables drawn from the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households, Diffusion of Innovations, and the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Utilization of Technology-2. The variables tested explained little additional variance in broadband intentions after accounting for SCT and demographic variables, arguing for the superior parsimony of the SCT model. Price sensitivity, often overlooked in adoption research, was a significant predictor of broadband intentions and its effect was interpreted through the SCT framework.

Investigating the Factors Affecting Residential Consumer Adoption of Broadband in India

1. Amir Manzoor[1][1] 1. 1Bahria University, Karachi 1. Amir Manzoor, Management Sciences Department, Bahria University, 13 National Stadium Road, Karachi, Pakistan 75300. Email: amirmanzoor{at}yahoo.com This study aims to explore in detail the factors that affect the consumer behavioral intention to adopt broadband Internet in a developing country perspective. Various attitudinal, normative, and control constructs were identified and investigated for their possible influence on broadband Internet adoption. The empirical data for this study were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that included items related to various attitudinal, normative, and control constructs. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to test these constructs for their possible influence on Indian consumers’ adoption of broadband Internet. The findings suggest that perceived ease of use (PE), social outcomes (SO), hedonic outcomes (HO), service quality (SQ), facilitating conditions resources (FCR), and self-efficacy (SE) were very significant predictors of Indian consumers’ behavioral intention to adopt broadband Internet. This study has multifold significance. The integrated research framework used in this study is an extension of previous well-established research models (such as Model of Adoption of Technology in Households [MATH], Diffusion of Innovation [DOI], and Theory of Planned Behavior [TPB]) and provides an enhanced comprehension of broadband Internet by the Indian household consumers. [1]: #aff-1

Finding the Needle in the Image Stack: Performance Metrics for Big Data Image Analysis

Explosive growth of images and video captured and recorded on computing devices has occurred in the last decade. With the emergence and widespread adoption of broadband Internet in the late 1990s and continuing to mobile and cellular phones, video and images are ubiquitous in all aspects of modern society. The challenge is how this visual data can be used and analyzed on a large scale and how the results of this analysis can be applied to society and its citizens.

Digital Haves and Have-Nots: Internet and Broadband Usage in Canada and the United States

This paper builds on the 2012 TPRC paper by the same authors, on broadband adoption and use in Canada and the United States [McConnaughey et al, 2012]. Although very different in their population densities, the two countries have many similarities in terms of geography, demographic patterns, socio-economic factors, and challenges hindering universal broadband Internet adoption. The paper focuses on a comparison and evaluation of broadband adoption and usage results from major national surveys: the Statistics Canada’s Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) Computer and Internet Use Supplement. Broadband Internet availability data and subscription rates come from the CRTC’s annual Communications Monitoring Report as well as the NTIA’s National Broadband Map and the FCC’s Internet Use Services (FCC Form 477) reports. The CPS results used in this paper are taken from the Digital Nation series of reports published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.In our analysis, we examine online activities in some detail. We explore policy ramifications in light of our findings regarding online activity patterns, drawing comparisons and contrasts between the United States and Canada where appropriate. Detailed breakouts by socio-demographic factors and geography give information on which to base targeted demand side policies. Such policies can both address adoption and usage gaps and can complement the more common supply side policies used to address availability shortfalls.

The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet

Does adoption of broadband internet in firms enhance labor productivity and increase wages? And is this technological change skill biased or factor neutral? We exploit rich Norwegian data with firm-level information on value added, factor inputs and broadband adoption to answer these questions. We estimate production functions where firms can change their technology by adopting broadband internet. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points, and provides plausibly exogenous variation of broadband adoption in firms. This enables us to address endogeneity of broadband adoption and examine how it shifts the production technology and changes the productivity and labor outcomes of different types of workers.We find that broadband adoption favors skilled labor by increasing its relative productivity. The increase in productivity of skilled labor is especially large for college graduates in fields such as science, technology, engineering and business. By comparison, broadband internet is a substitute for workers without high school diploma, lowering their marginal productivity. Consistent with the estimated changes in labor productivity, wage regressions show the expansion of broadband internet improves (worsens) the labor outcomes of skilled (unskilled) workers.We explore several possible explanations for the skill bias of broadband internet. We find suggestive evidence that broadband internet complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks. When we use our production function estimates to construct measures of firm level productivity, we find that broadband internet accounts for a few percent of the standard deviation in total factor productivity across firms. Taken together, our findings have important implications for the ongoing policy debate over government investment in broadband infrastructure to encourage productivity and wage growth.

How Competition Drives Discrimination: An Analysis of Broadband Traffic Management in the UK

As global broadband Internet adoption has expanded, few telecommunications policy issues have been as contentious as that of net neutrality. The debate has concerned itself with a number of broadband Internet service provider (ISP) behaviors, including discriminatory traffic management – differential treatment of network traffic associated with different Internet applications for the purpose of managing the performance of the network. One of the central questions in both policy and academic debates concerns the extent to which competition between network operators serves to deter discriminatory behavior, including discriminatory traffic management. The fixed-line broadband market in the United Kingdom provides a rich case study for understanding the relationship between competition and network discrimination because it has seen both widespread discriminatory traffic management and intense competition. In recent years, more than 75% of UK residential lines have been subject to some form of discriminatory traffic management, most often rate limits on peer-to-peer applications. At the same time, Britain has enjoyed one of the most competitive broadband markets in Europe, with the majority of households served by at least four wholesale broadband providers and dozens of retail providers. This paper explains the empirical findings of a qualitative traffic management study covering the UK fixed-line broadband market from the mid-2000s to 2011. The study is based on 33 elite interviews with engineering and policy executives from the country’s largest ISPs, the telecommunications regulator (Ofcom), and the government; participant observation of a traffic management research team within a large ISP; and documentary analysis of public materials written by a variety of stakeholders. The study finds that the UK’s wholesale market structure for DSL, the intense effects of competition, and a regulatory culture of permissibility combined to foster a British broadband landscape in which discriminatory traffic management became pervasive. The nature of peer-to-peer and other high-volume applications provided incentives for DSL operators to limit those applications during the early years of broadband adoption, while early experiences with complex application-specific management on cable networks inspired cable operators’ preferences for simpler application-agnostic solutions. Over time, competitive pressure, a low risk of backlash from customers, and Ofcom’s insistence on both the market’s disciplining power and the necessity of peer-to-peer management firmly ingrained discriminatory traffic management as an acceptable practice industry-wide. As a result, both DSL and cable operators toward the end of the decade rationalized its adoption and extended its use in new ways. The key exception was the DSL operator and television giant Sky, which used lack of traffic management as a product differentiator and found other ways to pay for the costs associated with its customers’ unfettered traffic demand. Overall, rather than serving as a deterrent, competition inspired the adoption and expansion of discriminatory traffic management in the UK.

Patterns of Broadband Efficiency in the U.S

AbstractData envelopment analysis is used to assess the efficiency of broadband Internet adoption and use in the U.S. Analyses at the state level from 2005 to 2007 suggest that broadband adoption and use is not equally efficient across the U.S. states. Although the instantaneous efficiencies are relatively high for many states, the changes in total factor productivity suggest that the efficiency of broadband adoption and use still increases over time. Moreover, it is observed that efficiency values are often spatially autocorrelated, which suggests spatial dependency from spillovers or interstate competition. This leads to a particular spatial diffusion pattern in broadband adoption. Although states have different strategies in support of broadband expansion they need to identify their shortcomings and use the appropriate mix of inputs (and outputs) to improve their efficiencies.

Patterns of Broadband Efficiency in the U.S.

Data envelopment analysis is used to assess the efficiency of broadband Internet adoption and use in the U.S. Analyses at the state level from 2005 through 2007 suggest that broadband adoption and use is not equally efficient across the U.S. states. Although the instantaneous efficiencies are relatively high for many states, the changes in total factor productivity suggest that the efficiency of broadband adoption and use still increases over time. Moreover, it is observed that efficiency values are often spatially autocorrelated, which suggests spatial dependency from spillovers or interstate competition. This leads to a particular spatial diffusion pattern in broadband adoption. Although states have different strategies in support of broadband expansion they need to identify their shortcomings and use the appropriate mix of inputs (and outputs) to improve their efficiencies.

Online and on Point: Broadband Usage in Canada and the United States

Despite the pervasiveness of the Internet, more than one in five Canadian and American households did not go online by 2010. Furthermore, demographic and geographic disparities in Internet use, known as the “digital divide,” led to lower adoption rates among rural, low-income, less-educated, and older individuals from both countries. While the magnitude of these disparities has recently decreased, policymakers seek to eliminate such gaps in an economically sustainable and politically acceptable fashion.This paper examines the patterns of broadband Internet adoption and usage in Canada and the United States. Data used in this report were collected through the Statistics Canada Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) Computer and Internet Use Supplement, as well as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission’s (CRTC) annual Communications Monitoring Report, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) periodic collections of broadband data, and U.S. National Broadband Map. We examine the characteristics of those Canadians and Americans who are not online, assessing in particular their stated reasons for not using the Internet, and discuss the implications of their reasons. Contemplated policy responses will necessarily differ based on these varying underlying reasons. For example, the inability to access the Internet based on the unavailability or high cost of broadband requires a different policy response than that required to address the reluctance to use it due to lack of perceived utility, lack of digital skills, or fear of technology [Neogi and Brocca, 2011].

Broadband Adoption and Use in Canada and the US: Is the Digital Divide Closing?

Despite the pervasiveness of the Internet by 2010, 21% of Canadian households and some 29% of American households did not go online. The digital divide based on location (urban versus rural) persists, although it is narrowing. Although the digital divides based on income, education and age have been narrowing since the last several years, a concern remains as to whether the rates of closure are economically desirable or politically acceptable. Of at least equal concern is the “Adoption Gap,” between those individuals and households to whom Internet access is available, and those who actually choose to adopt and use it.Drawing upon data collected through the Statistics Canada Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS)-Internet Use Supplement, as well as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission’s (CRTC) annual Communications Monitoring Report, this paper examines the patterns of broadband Internet adoption and use in Canada and the U.S., paying special attention to the characteristics of those Canadians and Americans who did not use the Internet in 2009 and 2010. It further examines the reasons reported for not using the Internet and discusses their implications. The policy response will necessarily differ when attempting to address these differing underlying reasons. For example, the inability to access the Internet based on the unavailability or high cost of broadband requires a different policy response than that required to address the reluctance to use it due to lack of perceived utility, lack of digital skills or fear of technology.

Consumer Adoption of Fiber to the Home Internet in the Netherlands

This research presents an exploratory study on the adoption of Fiber to the Home services in the Netherlands. Since the emergence of the Internet, broadband is being viewed as the most significant evolutionary step (Choudrie & Dwivedi, 2004). The enhanced bandwidth capacity of broadband enables rapid communication, the exchange of richer content and support emerging applications (Ahn & Shanton, 2004). Individual users benefit through the convenience offered by the “killer attributes” - increased speeds of downloads, always-on connectivity, reliability of service and networking capabilities for multiple users (Wales, Sacks & Firth 2003). Despite the fact that there is many research conducted in the field of broadband Internet adoption. There is a gap in the field of Fiber to the Home Internet adoption in the Netherlands. This research is an initial and exploratory study of an emerging issue of Fiber to the Home Internet adoption in the Netherlands. The study focuses on two main objectives; identification of the factors that lead to Fiber to the Home Internet adoption and determine the factors influencing adoption or rejection of broadband.