| Abstract: |
Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been
proliferating through the entire business sector over recent decades. This
increasing digitalization is having a substantial impact on economic activity
and is continuously changing the nature of production processes and our
day-to-day working life. Since 2002, the ICT Survey carried out by the Centre
for European Economic Research (ZEW) has tracked the diffusion and use of ICT
in different industries within the German economy. Further surveys were
conducted at irregular intervals in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2015. The survey was
designed by ZEW's Research Department Information and Communication
Technologies. The data was collected via computer-assisted telephone
interviews (CATI) by infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences. The central
aim of the survey is twofold: Firstly, a representative picture of the use of
ICT by German firms is obtained. Secondly, taking account of a large set of
further firm characteristics it should allow an analysis of the consequences
of employing ICT and ICT-related projects with respect to different measures
of firm performance. |