Understanding the drivers of broadband adoption: the case of rural and remote Scotland

S Howick () and J Whalley
Additional contact information
S Howick: University of Strathclyde
J Whalley: University of Strathclyde

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2008, vol. 59, issue 10, 1299-1311

Abstract: Abstract Broadband has been described as a transforming technology and is now widely available in many developed countries. However, broadband availability is not the same as broadband adoption. If the socio-economic benefits of broadband are to be realized, then adoption needs to be both understood and encouraged. This is particularly important in rural and remote areas. This paper explores the factors that drive broadband adoption in one particular rural and remote area; rural and remote Scotland. A causal model and a quantitative simulation model are developed indicating how the various drivers of adoption interact with one another. Both models show that past policy initiatives have impacted on the rate of adoption. However, the greatest impact could be achieved if future policy initiatives target those people who show no interest in adopting broadband. The paper concludes by suggesting that this work has implications for rural and remote areas all around the world.

Keywords: broadband; rural and remote Scotland; causal diagrams; system dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602486 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:59:y:2008:i:10:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602486

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/41274

DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602486

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald and Jonathan Crook

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Palgrave Macmillan, The OR Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().