ICTs Adoption in SMEs Located in Rural Regions: Case Study of Northern of Portugal and Castela and Leão (Spain)

Abstract

ICTs are one of the most important values for the economic growth. Technology, information, and knowledge have an important impact in peripheral regions when they want to participate in the global market. Exist a lot of discussion about the digital divide between countries but little in relation to the regions and especially Less Favoured Regions (LFR). There is clear evidence that these internal disparities can lead to the continued marginalization of people and regions “disconnected” from global information networks, which support the modern economy and causing strong inequalities. By other side, data available about the ICT use are normally from central regions and not Rural and Less Favoured Regions. With this study, we made a study to understand the ICT use by small enterprises and entrepreneurs from peripheral regions from Portugal and Spain: 5 Spanish regions (Leon, Zamora, Salamanca, Valladolid, Avila) and 2 Portuguese (Alto Tâmega e Terras de Tras-os-Montes). For that, 433 surveys were carried out (170 in the Portuguese regions and 263 in Spanish areas), included in project COMPETIC (COMPETIC (0381_COMPETIC_2_E) - Co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER) by the Program Interreg V-A Espanha-Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020).