A firm-level analysis of differences between adopters and non-adopters of ICT

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies investments have drastically modified the competitive markets due to the impact on firm performance and productivity. This paper aims to analyse the differences between ICT adopter firms and non-adopter firms. OLS regressions and ordered logit models provide the methodological approach. From data based on a questionnaire survey to 327 Spanish firms in 2002, the empirical results indicate the essential role played by some variables in the ICT adoption. The results confirm, for example, the influence of variables such as firm size. The role of human capital and competitive strategies based on product and service quality are relevant in ICT adoption. The paper is organised as follows. First, the section 1 introduces the paper. The section 2 provides the establishment and explanation of the theoretical hypotheses. This section is followed in the section 3 by the methodology adopted in this study, including both the model and the data sources employed in the estimations. Some basic statistics and the results of the model estimations are presented and interpreted in the penultimate section, before concluding the paper with some remarks on the findings and important implications in the ICT adoption