Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level
Several scholars have recently recommended a transition from focusing on Internet access (access divide) and Internet use (use divide) to the tangible outcomes of Internet use (outcome divide). This study evaluates the utility of this perspective in China for investigating digital inequalities acros...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2023-03-01
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| Series: | SAGE Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231159323 |
| _version_ | 1797871026602770432 |
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| author | Jun Wen Hadi Hussain Renai Jiang Junaid Waheed |
| author_facet | Jun Wen Hadi Hussain Renai Jiang Junaid Waheed |
| author_sort | Jun Wen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Several scholars have recently recommended a transition from focusing on Internet access (access divide) and Internet use (use divide) to the tangible outcomes of Internet use (outcome divide). This study evaluates the utility of this perspective in China for investigating digital inequalities across provinces. Despite having the world’s largest ICT market, digital disparities persist at the provincial, city, and county levels. This paper establishes an explanatory conceptual model of the digital divide (DD) at the provincial level and applies mapping through ArcGIS software to investigate spatial agglomeration. Spatial autocorrelation (Moran-i) is used to reveal high significance and multivariate analysis is used to investigate the key correlates. Among the provinces, a significant DD was found, which shows that provinces that are administratively sophisticated (such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandon, and Zhejiang) having a high digital development index score (IDI). Concomitantly, poverty-stricken regions and rural areas, mostly in southwest, central, and western China, have low IDI values. The factors found by this study to be most influential for improved ICT usage and outcomes are residential income (urban), e-government, literacy rate (secondary gross enrollment), and the working-age population. This indicates that socio-economic problems should be addressed first instead of institutional and innovational considerations. This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of the third-level digital divide (3-LDD) (ICT outcome) at the provincial level and utilize spatial analysis and mapping to supplement traditional methodologies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:37:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bff108e0700f4e6f999d83f685ce08cb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2158-2440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T00:37:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SAGE Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-bff108e0700f4e6f999d83f685ce08cb2023-03-14T13:05:22ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402023-03-011310.1177/21582440231159323Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial LevelJun Wen0Hadi Hussain1Renai Jiang2Junaid Waheed3Xian Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, ChinaXian Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, ChinaXian Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, ChinaXian Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, ChinaSeveral scholars have recently recommended a transition from focusing on Internet access (access divide) and Internet use (use divide) to the tangible outcomes of Internet use (outcome divide). This study evaluates the utility of this perspective in China for investigating digital inequalities across provinces. Despite having the world’s largest ICT market, digital disparities persist at the provincial, city, and county levels. This paper establishes an explanatory conceptual model of the digital divide (DD) at the provincial level and applies mapping through ArcGIS software to investigate spatial agglomeration. Spatial autocorrelation (Moran-i) is used to reveal high significance and multivariate analysis is used to investigate the key correlates. Among the provinces, a significant DD was found, which shows that provinces that are administratively sophisticated (such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandon, and Zhejiang) having a high digital development index score (IDI). Concomitantly, poverty-stricken regions and rural areas, mostly in southwest, central, and western China, have low IDI values. The factors found by this study to be most influential for improved ICT usage and outcomes are residential income (urban), e-government, literacy rate (secondary gross enrollment), and the working-age population. This indicates that socio-economic problems should be addressed first instead of institutional and innovational considerations. This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of the third-level digital divide (3-LDD) (ICT outcome) at the provincial level and utilize spatial analysis and mapping to supplement traditional methodologies.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231159323 |
| spellingShingle | Jun Wen Hadi Hussain Renai Jiang Junaid Waheed Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level SAGE Open |
| title | Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level |
| title_full | Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level |
| title_fullStr | Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level |
| title_full_unstemmed | Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level |
| title_short | Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level |
| title_sort | overcoming the digital divide with ict diffusion multivariate and spatial analysis at china s provincial level |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231159323 |
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