The digital divide in Europe's rural enterprises

The digital divide is a concept generally defined as an inequality in access and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) between individuals, households, businesses, geographic areas and countries, and reflects a number of differences between and within countries (OECD, 2001, p. 5). The aim of this paper is to analyse the main characteristics of the digital divide in Europe's rural enterprises. Using logit analysis, we examine the factors influencing the uptake of ICTs of 996 innovative firms from 10 European rural regions. Although significant portions of the divide can be attributed to north-south differences, national or even regional characteristics should be taken into consideration to arrive at a more meaningful and complete typology of the phenomenon. However, it appears that spatial attributes provide a more or less static view of the phenomenon. Sectoral, firm size, as well as network intensity, to mention only a few, considerations, could allow us a greater understanding, not only of causes, but also of processes leading to the alleviation, and quite often the permeating of the divide. Nevertheless, it appears that among the factors that influence the uptake of ICTs, the characteristics of human capital are the most significant ones. The paper is based on a research project (Labrianidis et al., 2002), financed by the European Union.