The Digital Divide: Current and Future Research Directions - MISRC ...

such as EDI. This work is a start. But further modeling and empirical work are needed
to fully understand the role of subsidies and mandates in encouraging trading partner
adoption, particularly by small companies hesitant to adopt. This preliminary work
stimulates several important research questions. What are the social welfare implications
of increased adoption by smaller firms when larger trading partners subsidize or mandate
adoption of networking technologies? To what extent are smaller organizations at a
competitive disadvantage in these situations where network externalities play an
important role? How do these theories of interorganizational system deployment vary
with different technologies? What technical design features are important in determining
differences in system deployment?
Another important question to ask in this context is, to what extent are
organizations that lag behind necessarily at a disadvantage? Carr [2003] has asserted that
IT doesn’t matter. His argument is that that being a leading innovator is problematic,
since the technology has become ubiquitous. He recommends that firms should be
followers in ICT adoption. To what extent do firms actually gain advantage with early
adoption? What impact will the digital divide at the organizational level have on
economic stratification and corporate strategy within and between countries? How
quickly can lagging firms catch up with early adopters? In a competitive context, what
are the implications of the digital divide at the organizational level for online commerce?
RECOMMENDATION 9: Researchers should examine how the competitive
environment and trading partner involvement impact the organizational digital
divide.
Finally, how does the digital divide at the organizational level affect corporations
that operate across national boundaries? And, how does it impact those that engage in
offshore outsourcing of IT services? These last points regarding the firm’s global
position leads us to the third and final level of analysis in the impact of the digital divide
at the global level. Since multinational firms are a major source of technology transfer,
how firms that operate in multiple countries adopt technology should have a bearing on
the adoption rate of different countries as a whole.
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