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

early twentieth century that led to broader rural economic development [Hudson, 1984],
there were calls at the close of the twentieth century for a policy encouraging universal
access to the Internet [Norris, 2001].
In 1995, the U.S. Department of Commerce began issuing a series of reports to
document the digital divide. These reports were based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s
Current Population Survey (CPS) supplements which periodically examine computer
ownership. The first of these studies found that computer ownership rose dramatically
with income, however, within an income category those located in rural areas were much
less likely to own computers than their urban counterparts [NTIA, 1995]. Similarly, the
study found that computer ownership lagged for minorities, seniors, and those with less
education. Subsequent studies released over the next few years showed increased
adoption of personal computers and the Internet, but with the same gaps occurring in
certain demographic categories [NTIA, 1998; 1999; 2000; 2002; and 2004]. The
dynamic nature of the divide is evident by the fact that the gender divide, which was
quite prevalent in the early report, has since closed.
The politically charged nature of the debate increased the need for further
measurement and analysis of the existence and impact of the digital divide. In the
following subsection, we highlight much of the research at the individual level of analysis
that has been conducted over the past decade, with a particular focus on the results
relevant to managers and businesses. We discuss the first order effects of the digital
divide regarding who has access and then examine the second order effects of inequality
of usage for those that do have access to the technology.
3.2 Overview of Research on the Individual Digital Divide
3.2.1 First Order Digital Divide
Many of the studies on the digital divide have taken the sociological, public
policy and diffusion of innovations theoretical perspectives in asking research questions
such as: Who has adopted ICT tools? What might be the sociological implications of the
digital divide? And how might government bodies take action to bridge the divide?
Research addressing these questions began with basic measurement studies to chronicle
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