J. Choudrie, Willem-Paul Brinkman, R. Pathania. Diffusion theory and the digital divide in e-services: An empirical investigation of two local areas in the UK. In Proceedings of ECIS2006. 2006.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the translation of the national policies at local levels in order to
draw some conclusions about the impact of the strategies upon an equitable distribution of an esociety
in terms of ethnicity and disadvantaged groups, such as the elderly and disabled. Three data
gathering activities were conducted in the UK local areas of Hillingdon and Medway: a survey that
included 620 completed responses from the citizens; focus group discussions in both locales and
interviews with the local government managers responsible for the local e-government initiatives. To
ensure a high response rate from the ethnic groups and disabled citizens the snowball data gathering
strategy was employed. The findings of this study illustrate that by employing the diffusion theory of King
et al, the local government policies are reducing the digital divide. However, the danger does exist that in
pursuit of providing an equitable distribution of an e-society a novel and diverse form of digital divide, a
rural and urban and diverse ethnic groups divide could occur. This research should offer a substantial
contribution to various stakeholders including government agencies, management consulting firms,
Internet Service Providers and IT organisations who may want to identify areas where e-government
services can still be improved. This will also assist government agencies to