The UK SMEs Experience of Broadband Diffusion

Broadband has been introduced to the business community as a fast and easy way of exploiting the Internet. The benefits of its use (fast reliable connection, always on) are widely advertised and broadband diffusion is one of the items at the top of the agenda for technology related policies worldwide. In this paper, we argue that broadband research within small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) has not been studied enough. We examine diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory as a possible theoretical approach to the area but we believe as it is the case with similar technologies that DOI needs to be supported by a socio-technical framework. Thus, we proposed a framework for the examination of broadband diffusion to SMEs using notions from the social construction of technology theory. An initial application of the framework shows perception gaps between SMEs and other groups that could explain the lack of full use of the internet by SMEs today. We use data obtained from a field work carried out to apply this framework. We believe that our research can be useful for Internet diffusion studies in general and broadband in particular.