The impact of competition policies on broadbased adoption of ICT

Abstract

ICT is a key driver of employment, growth, and innovation in various economic sectors (Schröder, des IfM Bonn, Wirtschaftsbeobachtung, & im Mittelstand, 2011). It therefore becomes important to understand the factors which impact on the adoption of ICT in order to facilitate adoption and bridge the digital divide between developed and developing markets in the interest of impacting inequality. A factor often overlooked in the literature is the impact competition policies have on the adoption of ICT. The broad research objective was to determine the impact, if any, of competition enhancing and competition restricting/protecting policies on the level of ICT adoption in various economies, thus providing governments and ICT organisations with the necessary understanding of the dynamics involved. The research objective required examining the relationship (using regression analysis) between the level of competition policies and the rate of ICT adoption. The literature review found that there is a theoretical link between the level and type of competition policies and the rate of ICT adoption. The statistical analysis found no relationship between these two variables indicating that competition policies does not have any impact on the rate of ICT adoption or that the influence of competition policy is rendered insignificant when compared to other forces influencing ICT adoption.