Details
| Translated title of the contribution | Digital Divide, Websites von Handwerksunternehmen und städtisch-ländliche Disparitäten: empirische Erkenntnisse aus einer Web-Scraping Analyse |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Pages (from-to) | 69-99 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Journal | Review of Regional Research |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 21 Jul 2022 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2023 |
Abstract
Following the “death of distance” postulate, digitalization may reduce or even eliminate the penalty of firms being located in rural areas compared with those in urban agglomerations. Despite many recent attempts to measure digitalization effects across space, there remains a lack of empirical evidence regarding the adoption of digital technologies from an explicit spatial perspective. Using web-scraping data for a sample of 345,000 small firms in Germany, we analyze the determinants of website prevalence. Comparing urban with rural areas, we show that running a website—as a proxy for the degree of digitalization of the respective firm—is highly dependent on location, whereby firms in urban areas are almost twice as likely to run websites compared with those located in rural areas. Our county-level analysis shows that a high population density, a young population and a high educational level have a positive and significant association with the probability that firms run websites. Surprisingly, we find a negative and significant association of gross domestic product per capita with website prevalence, which is driven by urban regions. There are no differences between urban, semi-urban and rural areas in terms of website up-to-dateness as well as social media prevalence. We conclude that there is a substantial digital divide and discuss policy implications.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Social Sciences(all)
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
- Economics and Econometrics
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In: Review of Regional Research, Vol. 43, No. 1, 04.2023, p. 69-99.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital divide, craft firms’ websites and urban-rural disparities
T2 - empirical evidence from a web-scraping approach
AU - Thonipara, Anita
AU - Sternberg, Rolf
AU - Proeger, Till
AU - Häfner, Lukas Peter
N1 - Funding Information: In addition, we acknowledge the funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture within the Lower Saxony “Vorab” of the Volkswagen Foundation (grant number ZN3492) and the support by the Center for Digital Innovations (ZDIN). Funding Information: The results of this study are based on the project “Digital Transformation of SMEs in the Crafts Sector of Southern Lower Saxony” by the Institute for Small Business Economics. The project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund as well as by the state of Lower Saxony (grant number ZW 6‑85017668). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Following the “death of distance” postulate, digitalization may reduce or even eliminate the penalty of firms being located in rural areas compared with those in urban agglomerations. Despite many recent attempts to measure digitalization effects across space, there remains a lack of empirical evidence regarding the adoption of digital technologies from an explicit spatial perspective. Using web-scraping data for a sample of 345,000 small firms in Germany, we analyze the determinants of website prevalence. Comparing urban with rural areas, we show that running a website—as a proxy for the degree of digitalization of the respective firm—is highly dependent on location, whereby firms in urban areas are almost twice as likely to run websites compared with those located in rural areas. Our county-level analysis shows that a high population density, a young population and a high educational level have a positive and significant association with the probability that firms run websites. Surprisingly, we find a negative and significant association of gross domestic product per capita with website prevalence, which is driven by urban regions. There are no differences between urban, semi-urban and rural areas in terms of website up-to-dateness as well as social media prevalence. We conclude that there is a substantial digital divide and discuss policy implications.
AB - Following the “death of distance” postulate, digitalization may reduce or even eliminate the penalty of firms being located in rural areas compared with those in urban agglomerations. Despite many recent attempts to measure digitalization effects across space, there remains a lack of empirical evidence regarding the adoption of digital technologies from an explicit spatial perspective. Using web-scraping data for a sample of 345,000 small firms in Germany, we analyze the determinants of website prevalence. Comparing urban with rural areas, we show that running a website—as a proxy for the degree of digitalization of the respective firm—is highly dependent on location, whereby firms in urban areas are almost twice as likely to run websites compared with those located in rural areas. Our county-level analysis shows that a high population density, a young population and a high educational level have a positive and significant association with the probability that firms run websites. Surprisingly, we find a negative and significant association of gross domestic product per capita with website prevalence, which is driven by urban regions. There are no differences between urban, semi-urban and rural areas in terms of website up-to-dateness as well as social media prevalence. We conclude that there is a substantial digital divide and discuss policy implications.
KW - Digital divide
KW - Digitalization
KW - Rural
KW - Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
KW - Urban
KW - Web-scraping
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134630427&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10037-022-00170-5
DO - 10.1007/s10037-022-00170-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134630427
VL - 43
SP - 69
EP - 99
JO - Review of Regional Research
JF - Review of Regional Research
SN - 0173-7600
IS - 1
ER -