The demand for pay service on cable television

A probability model is developed for consumer choice among three television programming options, free over-the-air television, basic cable television service, and pay cable serve which consists of basic service plus a single channel of premium entertainment programming. Estimating equations for the demand for pay service are derived from the probability model and then estimated by applying regression techniques to data from a large sample of U.S. cable systems. The estimated parameters of the demand equation show that the demand for pay service is affected by the prices charged for both basic and pay service, by demographic characteristics of the households served by a cable system, and by the quality of programming offered on both basic and pay services. The demand estimates suggest that the introduction of pay service has substantially enhanced the likelihood of profitable operation for cable systems in major television markets.     

Potential user factors driving adoption of IPTV. What are customers expecting from IPTV?

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), the convergence services of television and Internet, is being rapidly developed around the world. The advent of digital technologies has changed the convergence market dramatically with the wide diffusion of the convergent services. Using the Technology Acceptance Model as a conceptual framework and method of logistic regression, this research analyzes the demand for IPTV by drawing data from 452 consumers. Individuals' responses to questions about whether they accept IPTV are collected and combined with observations of their socio-economic status and intrinsic/extrinsic factors modified from the Technology Acceptance Model. Results of logistic regression show two variables (intrinsic and extrinsic factors) that seem to explain what influences consumer behavior towards adopting IPTV. Overall, the logistic regression model explains over 50% of the variance in the IPTV adoption. The variances shed light on the multi-open platform environment that IPTV will forge.     

Factors and sustainable strategies fostering the adoption of broadband communications in an enlarged European Union

The paper presents the results of a study that attempts to identify the main components that influence the development of broadband communications and access services, along with the analysis of sustainable strategies for fostering its further development. The paper briefly provides the appropriate combination of the relevant factors, methods and technologies for faster adoption of broadband communication technologies, contributing to adoption and enabling more rapid social cohesion and the regional inclusion of the new member states. Three identified factors, based on the data from 2004, can be interpreted as a group of enablers and means, indicators of e-service usage and the information and communication technology sector environment. An appropriate combination of the proposed actions could be a valuable guide in planning and developing broadband adoption strategies in different European regions or countries.     

Effects of economic conditions and policy interventions on OECD broadband adoption

The positive effects of broadband networks and services on productivity and economic growth are well established. Looking at broadband as an engine of economic prosperity, the OECD and its member states are seeking to foster its widespread adoption. However, which public policies best promote the adoption of broadband remains controversial. This article contributes in two ways to this discussion. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the factors that influence broadband adoption and uses an econometric approach that is well-suited to overcome the challenges of modelling broadband adoption. This framework allows drawing more robust and nuanced policy recommendations.     

The impact of regulation and competition on the adoption of fiber-based broadband services: recent evidence from the European union member states

Fiber deployment of next-generation high-speed broadband networks is considered to be a decisive development for any information-based society, yet investment activities and especially the adoption of fiber-based broadband services take place only very gradually in most countries. This work employs static and dynamic model specifications and identifies the most important determinants of the adoption of fiber-based broadband services with recent panel data from the European Union member states for the years from 2004 to 2012. The results show that the more effective previous broadband access regulation is, the more negative the impact on adoption, while competitive pressure from mobile networks affects adoption in a non-linear manner. Finally, we also find evidence for substantial network effects underlying the adoption process.     

ICT services and small businesses’ productivity gains: An analysis of the adoption of broadband Internet technology

We analyse the impact of the adoption of broadband Internet technology on the productivity performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We distinguish access to the broadband infrastructure from the adoption of complementary services, i.e., different types of broadband software applications. The empirical analysis considers a sample of 799 firms observed from 1998 to 2004 that are representative of the population of Italian SMEs. Our econometric estimates indicate that the impact of the adoption by SMEs of basic broadband applications is negligible (or even negative). Conversely, SMEs are found to benefit from adopting selected advanced broadband applications depending on several contingent factors: (i) their industry of operations (services vs. manufacturing); (ii) the relevance of the specific broadband software applications for SMEs’ industry of operation; and (iii) the undertaking of complementary strategic and organisational changes.     

Fiber in the backbone! The impact of broadband adoption on firm growth in network markets

This article examined the relationship between the adoption of technology, via the deployment of broadband, on revenue growth, which is an important measure of financial performance, of the deploying firms using panel data for all of the major local exchange carriers in the US telecommunications industry from 1988 to 2001. The sector is an important network market context where the implications of deployment have substantial salience. The results show a positive relationship between broadband deployment and carriers’ revenue growth. This result implies that encouraging the adoption and deployment of broadband technologies in addition to the benefits of the consumers and firms at the receiving end of the new technology create the potential for better financial performance for the deploying firms. These results also imply that steps that can be taken to provide incentives that will hasten the further deployment of broadband will result in gains in financial performance within the sector.     

A spatial taxonomy of broadband regions in the United States

The steady growth of broadband penetration in the United States is indicative of a major shift in advanced data services and last-mile infrastructure in the deregulated telecommunication environment. Although there are concerns with the equitable provision of broadband services in urban, rural and remote areas, the diffusion process has also created a unique landscape of broadband availability that reflects elements of competition, federal policy, local government initiatives, technological limitations and location. This paper explores the dynamic and diverse spatial landscape of broadband availability in the United States at the zip code level, for 2004. In addition, this study provides a multivariate, spatial taxonomy of broadband regions, highlighting their socioeconomic and demographic differences.     

The usage of VoIP services and other communication services: An empirical analysis of Italian consumers

This paper examines the early stages of VoIP usage by analyzing the relationship between the usage of VoIP services and other voice and non-voice communication services in Italy. In doing so, it aims at filling the gap in the empirical literature on the diffusion of VoIP among consumers and aims at investigating the relationship between VoIP adoption and the usage of telecom and Internet-related services. It relies upon a survey carried out among consumers in Italy in 2006. The use of VoIP is negatively associated with the usage of other voice communication services — mobile communications in particular, but shows some degree of complementarity with other non-voice (Internet-based) communication services, suggesting that familiarity with the web plays a significant and positive role in explaining the adoption of VoIP applications. Furthermore, individual users' technical skills, job position and communications' habits also matter in determining the adoption of VoIP.     

Broadband adoption and content consumption

We explore how broadband access drives changes in the quantity and diversity of consumption of online content by using panel data that describes household Internet usage before and after broadband adoption. Our data suggests that on average, broadband adoption increases usage by over 1300 min per month. We also find that information consumption becomes more evenly distributed within the population, driven in part by post-adoption usage gains of almost 1800 min per month among individuals who were in the lowest usage quintile before adopting broadband. After adopting broadband, this pre-adoption lowest-usage quintile consumes content in greater quantities than users in neighboring quintiles, passing both the second and third quintiles in terms of absolute usage. This suggests that these users may have had strong preferences for high-bandwidth content that was too costly to consume in a narrowband environment. We also show that broadband adoption increases the variety of content that users consume although many of these gains appear to be associated with an increase in the variety of sites visited within previously visited content categories rather than an expansion in the types of content consumed.     

An empirical study of broadband diffusion in rural America

In this study we examine the factors that will encourage broadband adoption in rural areas. Using data on rural Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) we find that low density, high cost markets decrease the ability of the telecommunication service providers to offer DSL, but other factors also play a role. Demand for broadband has become more inelastic over time, marginal increases in speed alone have lost their appeal to customers, and the inclusion of video in a broadband package improves broadband take rates and willingness to pay. Small income elasticities reinforce our finding that broadband has become a necessity. Our analysis shows that price subsidies may not be effective in providing a large boost in demand, but policies that lower the cost of providing video may stimulate broadband adoption indirectly if the savings lead to more affordable bundled communications multimedia packages that users want.     

A discrete-time hazard model of the adoption of legislative television: evidence from the US Congress, 1961–1986

The present study examines the probability of the adoption of legislative television over time (1961–1986) in the US Congress using a discrete-time hazard model. Against a theoretical construct where political services are modelled as search/experience goods, evidence is provided suggesting that constituent homogeneity, relative power struggles involving the legislative branches of Congress and the White House, and the potential prowess of legislators in Congress regarding skilful use of television are all important facets in this probability model. Use of alternative data sources and statistical techniques, such as those presented here, works to provide a greater foundation of knowledge regarding the relationship between representative democracy and modern means of communication.     

Evaluating the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s BTOP on broadband adoption

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) spent $4.7 billion during 2009–2013 to, inter alia, increase broadband adoption in underserved communities. We characterize the BTOP grants and examine the impact of the awards on broadband adoption. Econometric specifications controlling for award endogeneity related to observed and unobserved county-level factors find that spending is apparently associated with increased broadband adoption. Further investigation, however, reveals that the impacts of spending are nonlinear and even nonmonotonic over the range of county-level BTOP spending in the data. Controlling for trends to reduce the potential for spurious correlation between spending and outcomes removes most of the significance of the results. We conclude with three lessons for policymakers derived from the uncertain outcomes of BTOP spending found in our exploration.     

Households technology adoption and use patterns: the case of digital terrestrial television in six Italian regions

The paper explores the technology adoption and use patterns of households. Many theories are focusing on the adoption; however, some studies show that the adoption mechanisms in households are still unknown. Before any sound theoretical proposals could be made, additional exploratory studies in this field are necessary to discover the relations between use behaviour and adoption determinants. To demonstrate this, our exploratory study uses the case of digital terrestrial television (DTT) introduction in Italy. The study incorporates exploratory factor analysis to identify dimensions of DTT adoption and use. These dimensions were further investigated through their relations with demographic variables of primary decision-makers in households. We found that DTT adoption and use relate to household characteristics in a relatively complex way, but clear systematic use patterns are evident. These patterns can serve as an empirical evidence to further develop theories in this field.     

Exploring additional determinants of fixed broadband adoption: policy implications for narrowing the broadband demand gap

Using data from the survey ‘Aspects of daily life’ conducted on Italian individuals in 2014 by the Italian Institute of Statistics, we propose new evidence on the factors that encourage the adoption of fixed broadband, a topic relevant for the reduction of the so-called broadband demand gap. We estimate a probit model through the two-step Heckman procedure for the selection bias, and find that, besides the already studied socio-demographic determinants, Internet-capable devices other than personal computers, as well as recreational (essentially video contents) and cloud-related uses of the Internet, have a relevant positive role. Policies aimed at fostering the diffusion of smart homes and more generally of the Internet of things at the residential level might be very effective in favouring fixed broadband adoption, provided that the network be neutral, not discriminating between data based on their contents and/or the destination device, and that possible foreclosing behaviours in the access to (premium) contents be properly and promptly addressed.     

Timing and determinants of local residential broadband adoption: evidence from Ireland

This article examines the time path of broadband adoption for households in areas that are offered broadband service for the first time and the socioeconomic characteristics of broadband users generally. Using cross-sectional data on broadband take-up and socioeconomic characteristics of small areas in Ireland, linked to GIS data on ADSL availability over time, I find that local penetration growth rates are elevated immediately after service is offered. Local growth rates then decline towards the national average, reaching it after about 3.6 years. The article also includes estimates of the effect of various household characteristics on adoption, finding effects broadly consistent with the previous literature. Simultaneity in demand and supply are addressed using 2SLS regression.     

Who you are or whom you know? Consumption interdependences in social networks

This paper presents an analysis of whether a consumer's decision to switch from one mobile phone provider to another is driven by individual consumer characteristics or by actions of other consumers in her social network. Such consumption interdependences are estimated using a unique dataset, which contains transaction data based on anonymized call records from a large European mobile phone carrier to approximate a consumer's social network. Results show that network effects have an important impact on consumers’ switching decisions: switching decisions are interdependent between consumers who interact with each other and this interdependence increases in the closeness between two consumers as measured by the calling data. In other words, if a subscriber switches carriers, she is also affecting the switching probabilities of other individuals in her social circle. The paper argues that such an approach is of high relevance to both switching of providers and to the adoption of new products.     

Predicting early adoption of successive video player generations

Early adopters play an important role in the innovation diffusion process. Over the past decades, many factors have been identified as predictors for early adoption of innovations. Less attention has been paid to the relationship between the early adoption of one generation of a specific product and the early adoption of successive product generations. This paper analyzes how early adoption of a new product generation depends on ownership, purchase experience and adoption times for previous generations of the same product. The paper develops predictive models of early adoption for four generations of video player products, based on a survey among 815 Australian consumers. The model allows the testing of various hypotheses. It is shown that previous generation variables outperform conventional socio-demographic and psychographic variables in predicting early adoption but also that the two variable types complement each other. The best predicting models include both previous generation and socio/psychographic variables. It is concluded that previous generation models have substantial merits for new product forecasting as they are more parsimonious than conventional models and the data required to estimate them is relatively easy to obtain.     

E-commerce transactions,the installed base of credit cards,and the potential mobile E-commerce adoption

Mobile e-commerce (m-commerce) relaxes consumers’ temporal and geographic purchasing constraints and encourage the establishment of omnichannel markets. It is often argued that rapid increase in smartphone penetration is the primary driver of m-commerce adoption, whereas others contend that early adoption of m-commerce applications are mostly by “relatively heavy” Internet commerce users. Brynjolfsson et al. (2013) argue that rapid increase in smartphone penetration is the primary driver of m-commerce adoption, whereas Einav et al. (2014) contend that early adoption of m-commerce applications are mostly by ‘relatively heavy’ Internet commerce users. This article explores strength of the influences within a nested multiple-service framework, where the reduced-form econometric analysis allows for interdependency between m-commerce and e-commerce services, and the installed base of credit cards. The results reveal a complex situation in which credit cards facilitate e-commerce services, whereas m-commerce adoptions are driven by prior e-commerce and online transaction activity. Also, higher respondent incomes are negatively associated with proposed m-commerce adoption. Surprisingly, privacy concerns do not affect proposed adoption independently; however, an interaction term suggests privacy remains an adoption barrier for the older persons.