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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Jesse Weltevreden; Karlijn De Kruijf; Oedzge Atzema; Koen Frenken; Frank Van Oort |
| Abstract: | Business-to-consumer (b2c) e-commerce can be regarded as a disruptive process innovation that can make existing business models obsolete. B2c e-commerce provides retailers the possibility of a new service concept, new client interface and even delivery system. The history of retailing is replete of such innovations, like the introduction of department stores, mail order etcetera. It is only recently that researchers from various disciplines are examining the way retailers respond to b2c e-commerce as a major new innovation. Despite the growing attention from researchers to the adoption of b2c e-commerce by retailers, there is still little known about rate and extent of this innovation adoption process. Furthermore, studies concerning the diffusion of b2c e-commerce in retailing largely lack a geographical context. In this paper we examine the geographical pattern of b2c e-commerce adoption of shops in the Netherlands. A distinction is made between the two main stages in b2c e-commerce adoption that is the adoption of an active website and online sales. The main hypotheses hold that: (1) population density will positively affect the probability of adoption following the hierarchical diffusion theory and (2) the density of shops in the same sector will positively affect the probability of adoption due to inter-firm competition and imitation. In our analyses, we will control for size, sector and organisational form. For this paper we used a subset of the retail location database of Locatus that consists data of 23,312 shops in the Netherlands, which is 17 percent of all shops in the Netherlands. By a time-consuming procedure we searched for the Internet strategy of the individual shops in our dataset. To improve the accuracy, the data is currently re-examined by two trained coders. The subset contains location data of shops in nine retail categories: supermarkets; drug stores; perfume & cosmetic stores; ladies wear; family wear; menswear; book stores; CD stores; and computers stores that have adopted the Internet. Furthermore, the dataset distinguishes seven types of shopping centres: solitary urban locations; neighbourhood centres; city district centres; city centres; large-scale (peripheral) retail concentrations; business parks; and solitary peripheral locations. Other geographical classifications included in the dataset are: Zip code; municipality; and province. Given the variety of geographical levels in combination with the large number of cases, we will use multi-level analysis to investigate the relevance of geography for retail Internet adoption. We will include three geographical levels in the multi-level analysis: (1) shopping centres, (2) municipalities, and (3) COROP regions or provinces. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p228&r=ict |
| By: | Yan, Beiling |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) and of foreign outsourcing on the demand for skilled workers. One of the defining features of the Canadian economy in the last two decades has been an increasing wage gap between more- and less-skilled workers. Over the same period, there have been dramatic increases in expenditures on information and communication technologies and in purchases of foreign intermediate inputs. Using data for 84 Canadian manufacturing industries over the 1981-1996 period, we find that both ICT and foreign outsourcing are important contributors to the demand for skills. |
| Keywords: | Labour, Science and technology, Employees, Information technology |
| Date: | 2005–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp5e:2005035e&r=ict |
| By: | José Alberto Bayo-Moriones; Gilberto Carvalho-Vasconcelos; Fernando Lera-López |
| 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 |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p645&r=ict |
| By: | Randi J. Hjorthol |
| Abstract: | The development of “new” family structures, with an increasing portions of divorced parents choose joint custody of the children, and a differentiation and distribution of daily activities has opened the way for new and more flexible forms for information and communication technology (ICT) to coordinate the interaction between family members. The need for flexible transport to link together activities is also an issue. The point of departure for this paper is to examine the interaction between the uses of ICT, in particular mobile phones, physical mobility and social life in an increasingly differentiated and distributed daily life among families with children. The questions addressed are how different families use ICT to coordinate and maintain relationships in everyday life and how ICT and physical mobility interact within this context. The empirical analysis is based on in-depth interviews of 25 families in the Oslo region. The analysis of the interaction between the car and the mobile phone indicate that the one will not replace the other. It is rather such that they represent technologies that complement each other and can perhaps mutually increase use. While the car is an extension of the body and which increases the physical range of the individual, the mobile telephone increases one’s range of overview. To some degree the mobile telephone directs automobile use, in the sense that it may generate more trips since use of the mobile telephone means that there is not the need to plan daily activities. More of the activities are carried out spontaneously and daily life is more ad hoc, which also indicate more car uses. In the families of this study different time use arrangements are tied to the use of the car and the mobile telephone. At the one extreme we find the structured where all the activities are planned – both in time and space – and all the assignments are divided between the various members of the family. On the other hand we see families where everything is done spontaneously and there is very little planning aside from the fixed portions of life. The structured and ad hoc systems are two extremes on a scale where there are many alternative solutions. The families in this study represent positions between the extremes tending towards the ad hoc end of the spectrum. The car and the mobile telephone are devices that allow this type of organization, which seems to increase daily transport by car. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p569&r=ict |
| By: | Allard Bruinshoofd; Leo de Haan |
| Abstract: | Did ICT firms behave very differently from non-ICT firms during the global ICT boom-bust cycle on the stock markets? To answer this question we analyze the financial behavior of a sample of North-American and Western European firms during 1991-2002. We document that ICT firms are indeed what they are always said to be: relatively information intensive and risky firms. We show that they therefore hold more precautionary cash and have lower leverage targets. Though ICT firms issued more equity and debt during the boom, this was broadly unrelated to stock market conditions, in contrast to the prediction of the market timing view. ICT firms did not build up excessive cash reserves that lead to overinvestment. All in all, the financial management of ICT firms has not been all that different from non-ICT firms. |
| Keywords: | Cash Management; Market Timing; Capital Structure; ICT |
| JEL: | C33 C43 E41 G3 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:077&r=ict |
| By: | Raffael Argiolu; Ilona Bos |
| Abstract: | The development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) has taken a leap in the past decade. Under strong influence of improved Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries, automotive suppliers and scientific institutes have put much effort on developing a range of ICT based applications for vehicles to drive safer, more comfortable, to make more efficient use of current and future infrastructure and to manage fleets more accurately. These improvements in transport services might improve the attractiveness of nearby locations. These locations (office, residential, leisure zones etcetera), might attract more activity as they appear to benefit from increased accessibility. Therefore, the expectation that ITS concepts will, in the long term, have significant spatial effect on the location pattern of, in particular, office keeping organisations, is plausible. This paper focuses on the impact of ITS concepts on location preferences of office keeping organisations. To measure this impact a stated preference experiment has been conducted in the Netherlands and involves office keeping organisations in selected city regions. The paper describes the first results of a model describing the attractiveness of location profiles, which are based on location preference attributes, and the role of ITS in these profiles. Three ITS concepts, which are selected and based on previous research are introduced as ‘new’ attributes within the location profiles. The estimated model was used to test two hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that the introduction of these ITS attributes will change the preferences of office keeping organisations regarding locations. The second hypothesis is that if preferences will change, the ITS attributes have a significant contribution to the preference model; at least for some categories of organisations. Further, the paper describes in what cases we should accept or reject these hypotheses. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on the role of ITS in location attractiveness and the validation tools which are available to validate the preference model. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p545&r=ict |
| By: | Olivier Gossner (Paris-Jourdan Sciences Économiques); Abraham Neyman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Penélope Hernández (Universidad de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | We study a repeated game with asymmetric information about a dynamic state of nature. In the course of the game, the better informed player can communicate some or all of his information with the other. Our model covers costly and/or bounded communication. We characterize the set of equilibrium payoffs, and contrast these with the communication equilibrium payoffs, which by definition entail no communication costs. |
| Keywords: | Repeated games, communication, entropy |
| JEL: | C61 C73 D82 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2005-06&r=ict |
| By: | Thierry Penard (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - http://crem.univ-rennes1.fr/ - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université Rennes I;Université de Caen); Nicolas Poussing (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - http://crem.univ-rennes1.fr/ - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université Rennes I;Université de Caen) |
| Abstract: | L'objectif de cet article est d'étudier le rôle d'Internet dans la formation du capital social. L'usage d'Internet a-t-il un impact sur la nature et l'intensité des investissements d'un individu dans des réseaux sociaux formels et informels ? Cette question est d'abord examinée d'un point de vue théorique à l'aide d'un modèle microéconomique d'investissement en capital social. Puis, à partir de données luxembourgeoises nous tentons d'identifier empiriquement les déterminants de l'investissement en capital social hors Internet et via Internet. Nous mettons en évidence un effet positif de l'usage d'Internet sur l'engagement dans des réseaux sociaux. Par ailleurs, nous montrons que la majorité des investissements en capital social via Internet viennent en complément des investissements hors Internet (investissements directs), sauf pour les individus ayant connu une mobilité ou une rupture dans le passé (géographique, professionnelle, affective). Ces derniers semblent tirer des bénéfices importants de l'usage de l'Internet, pour entretenir ou renouveler leur capital social. |
| Keywords: | Capital social, usage d'Internet, fracture numérique |
| Date: | 2006–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00008317_v1&r=ict |