Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/52859 
Year of Publication: 
2002
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Discussion Paper No. 2002/89
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper shows how organizational, technical, and environmental factors affected firm decisions to adopt Internet technologies during the early years of the commercialization of the Internet. Organizations that had made prior investments in client/server networks had a higher likelihood of Internet adoption, however investments in proprietary or platform-specific client/server technologies raised the cost of switching from legacy systems. Small firms and those that were geographically concentrated were less likely to adopt. The study shows that organizations commonly adopted access and intranet technologies together, and suggests that low adaptation costs characterized the rapid diffusion of these early Internet technologies.
Subjects: 
technological change
diffusion
Internet
adoption
JEL: 
O30
O31
O33
ISBN: 
9291903035
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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