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some of his current research, Professor Sanjeev Dewan is studying
the global digital divide in access to information technology,
between developed and developing countries. While supervising
the dissertation of Dale Ganley (now graduated and at Michigan
State University) with Kenneth Kraemer, Dewan started to examine
the digital divide across successive generations of focal
information technologies, from mainframes to PCs and the Internet.
The research indicates that while there is a significant gap
in IT penetration between the two groups of countries, there
are indications that the divide is starting to narrow. An
important factor driving the narrowing of the divide is complementarity
in the diffusion processes of PCs and the Internet, reflecting
the fact that each technology is more valuable in the presence
of the other. What is interesting is that this inter-technology
complementary effect is stronger in developing countries relative
to developed countries. This might be due to greater intensity
of use (e.g., more users per PC or Internet connection), deployment
of alternative low-cost versions of the technologies (such
as network PCs and wireless local loops), and a greater degree
of technology clustering, wherein multiple compatible technologies
are diffusing all at the same time. These findings have policy
implications for how developmental programs can be structured
to further promote IT penetration in developing countries.
The importance of understanding the digital divide and its
implications for business and public policy motivated Dewan
to partner with Professor Fred Riggins of the Carlson School
of Management to co-chair a joint MISRC/CRITO research symposium,
titled The Impact of the Digital Divide on Management
and Policy – Determinants and Implications of Unequal
Access to Information Technology, in August 2004 at the
University of Minnesota (see link: http://www.misrc.umn.edu/symposia/dd/).
The collaboration brought together researchers and scholars
who are studying the determinants and impacts of the digital
divide at different levels: global, organizational and household.
The program included presentations based on research from
CRITO’s own Ganley, Kraemer, and Dewan on “Measurements
and Determinants of the Global Digital Divide,” as well
as Alladi Venkatesh’s work with Donna Hoffman and Thomas
P. Novak entitled, “Has the Internet Become Indispensable?”
The purpose of the symposium was to encourage further research
that could affect how firms compete globally, the creation
of the information age organization, and the diffusion of
online commerce, strategies for offering online services,
and policies for promoting access to IT and the Internet.
Now Professors Dewan and Riggins are guest editing a special
issue of the Journal of the Association of Information Systems
(JAIS) on the digital divide. The issue will contain six articles
presented at the symposium, along with an introductory survey
article co-authored by Riggins and Dewan, “The Digital
Divide: Current and Future Research Directions.” Look
for the issue to come out in early 2006 at http://jais.isworld.org/contents.asp.
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CRITO Review > Sanjeev Dewan