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The Global Digital Divides pp 235–274Cite as

United States Digital Divide

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Abstract

The United States is a technology powerhouse and has the largest global economy, although its ICT utilization does not rank it in the top 15 worldwide. Our U.S. conceptual model posits that fourteen independent factors are associated with eight dependent ones. Several unique factors for states are overall freedom index, election performance index, and Putnam’s social capital index. Spatially, cluster analysis shows the U.S. to have four clusters of states with no single, high outliers as in China, India, and Japan. The two clusters with higher use include one that includes much of the northeast and New England, plus California, Alaska, and Hawaii and a second centered in the Rocky Mountain and upper Midwestern states. The central and lower South cluster has the lowest levels. Findings show that social capital, education, societal openness, urbanization, and ethnic factors are associated with use of ICTs. The State of Georgia case exemplifies that government can stimulate a state’s technology through proactive programs, while a Nebraska case examines small enterprise challenges in ICT in view of our findings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, USA

    James B. Pick & Avijit Sarkar

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  1. James B. Pick
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  2. Avijit Sarkar
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Correspondence to James B. Pick .

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Pick, J.B., Sarkar, A. (2015). United States Digital Divide. In: The Global Digital Divides. Progress in IS. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46602-5_8

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