E-adoption: Italian case study

The digital divide can occur either as a "local" (within a given country) or a "global" (between developing and industrialized countries) phenomenon. Our study intends to analyze the digital divide in Italy and the factors contributing to this situation at territorial level (i.e., macro areas: North, Center, South) and at the provincial level. To do this, we used the registration of Internet domains under the ".it" country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) as a proxy. In particular, we analyzed domain names registered by firms. The analysis produced interesting results: the distribution of domains registered by firms in Italian provinces is more concentrated than the distribution related to income and to the number of firms, suggesting a diffusive effect. Furthermore, in order to analyze the factors that contribute to the presence of a digital divide at the regional level, a regression analysis was performed using demographic, social, economic and infrastructure indicators. The results show that Italian regions with good productive efficiency measured by the added value per employee and a high educational level measured by the number of firms specialized in the ICT service sale (Internet Service Provider) and by the number of employees devoted to research and development are the best candidates for the utilization of Internet. Our preliminary conclusion is that, far from being an "equalizer", Internet technology follows and possibly sharpens existing differences in economic opportunities within industrialized countries like Italy.