Technology Adoption in the Caribbean Tourism Industry by Andrew Spencer

Author:Andrew Spencer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030615840
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The respondents were somewhat satisfied with the technology infrastructure on the island and mentioned that it was provided at a reasonable cost. However, in their view, many Jamaicans were simply not interested. “The technology is available but I just don’t think we are that kind of society. We thrive on personal contact.” This evidence corroborates with the annual e-Readiness survey that is conducted routinely, and compiled and published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which is the business information arm of the Economist Group; publisher of The Economist magazine. In Jamaica’s third appearance in the 2007 EIU report Jamaica’s overall score improved marginally from 5.03 to 5.05 but Jamaica’s ranking fell three places from 43 to 46. Trinidad appeared in the report several years later and ranked below Jamaica while the Bahamas was not a participant.

Broadband affordability and penetration have now garnered much attention in the survey. According to past data, Jamaica ranking in the area of telephone and narrowband penetration was exemplary. However, their performance in the area of Connectivity and Technology Infrastructure declined with the removal of the above category. Additionally, Jamaica’s score decreased in the Consumer and Business Adoption category due to the revamping of the criteria in this group which would assess the number and level of online commerce and government services rather than the availability of finance and IT personnel. Of particular interest online commerce for travel services is virtually non-existent, this therefore needs to be addressed. This however is not an issue of access and as such the access divide purported by the theorists above fails to explain the adoption levels in firms. The digital divide which was conceptualized in Chapter 1 outlines there are also instances of unequal access to technology within societies. The evolution theory on the digital divide highlights issues of access stemming from inequalities that are economically driven,3 politically driven,4 and socially driven.5 However, while the perception of economically driven inequality was revealed by the data, this did not differentiate high technology adopters from low technology adopters. Nonetheless, access to technological resources, while less when compared to developed countries, was equal within the business landscape for Jamaican companies. James (2004) postulations indicate that increasing access reconciles the gap between users. He argues that there exists innovative utilization of technologies in some developing countries despite individual access being limited in some countries. This leaves Rogers (2003) position unchallenged which posits that significant focus has been given to the access divide, marginalizing the content divide, and learning divide which will present a disadvantage for some. The key insight provided by this argument is the issue of aligning content to the audience needs.

A rational as to the differences in firm behavior is provided by the content and learning divides but there were other contributory factors. For example, slight differences were found in terms of the learning divide, which reflected the skills and competencies of the employees. It was concluded that this is a human resource issue and thus, would be more suited for resource-based discussions.

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