Title: Internet adoption and usage: evidence from Italian micro enterprises

Authors: Federica Pascucci; Silvio Cardinali; Chiara Gigliarano; Gian Luca Gregori

Addresses: Department of Management, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy ' Department of Management, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy ' Department of Economics, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Italy ' Department of Management, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy

Abstract: This study aims to fill a gap in the literature of internet adoption and usage within a micro enterprises (MEs) context. The aims of the research are twofold: a) to investigate the factors that influence the adoption of internet in MEs in developed countries; b) to characterise the MEs in term of internet usage and tools adopted and benchmark different typologies of them. After a thorough analysis of the literature, a research model is created. It consists of two parts. In the first part, four hypotheses are developed in order to investigate the different factors relevant to internet adoption (company size, geographical location, type of industry, and level of internationalisation). In the second part of the research, through a cluster analysis, we analyse the main differences related to internet usage. The statistical analysis was carried out on a sample of 600 Italian MEs. The research shows that the use of the internet is still not widespread. As shown from the regression analysis, the decision to use this technology is influenced by the size of the company, the sector it operates in, and the level of internationalisation, while location is not a significant factor. Cluster analysis shows three different groups of firms related to internet usage.

Keywords: micro-enterprises; digital marketing; internationalisation level; internet adoption; internet usage; firm size; geographical location; industry type; industrial clusters; Italy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.081440

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.30 No.2, pp.259 - 280

Received: 02 May 2016
Accepted: 02 May 2016
Published online: 08 Jan 2017 *

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