Spatial diffusion of information and communication technologies (on the example of the spread of the bar code in Wielkopolska voivodeship)

Abstract

With advances of globalisation at the close of the 20th century, economic development started to rely more and more heavily on innovation in information and communication technologies (ICT). Through progress in this field, there appeared new possibilities of communicating, and acquiring and processing information. The application and practical use of information and communication technologies began to determine the competitiveness of businesses, regions, and states.Most of the works on the growing role of ICT in the economy published to date have employed an approach developed within economic sciences; they have largely been analyses of a dynamic nature. The spatial aspect has often been ignored. The concept that fills the gap is the theory of the spatial diffusion of innovation employed in the geographical sciences. The present article seeks to reconstruct the spatial diffusion of ICT in the enterprises of Wielkopolska voivodeship, using the EAN bar code in the years 1990-2002 as an example. The analysis showed the mechanism of ICT spread and provided a basis for a typology of communes by the rate of adoption of this type of technology. In this way, areas were identified in which innovation appears in the initial period of the spatial diffusion process, i.e. the most innovative ones, and those where innovation appears at a later time, i.e. lagging behind.