Digital Inequality in the Use of Mobile Business Supporting Features

Today, Internet has become an essential part of peoples’ daily lives. As the advancement of Internet technology, the phenomenon of digital inequality has received substantial attention. This study extended research on digital inequality to the field of mobile business. The paper aimed to investigate the impact of digital inequality in the use of mobile business supporting features in China. To address this, an empirical study with 258 subjects was carried out. The results indicated that perceived ease of use had a significant positive effect on the use of mobile business supporting features, while perceived risk had a significant negative effect on the use of mobile business supporting features. Furthermore, this study also revealed that socio-economically disadvantaged individuals were more likely to be influenced by perceived risks, while socio-economically advantaged individuals were more likely to be influenced by the utilitarian motivations

Factors Influencing Digital Inequality: A Scoping Review

Two decades have passed since seminal work on the dimensions of digital inequality (DI) appeared. Since that time, digital inequalities have grown and taken on different forms. However, the research on conceptualizing and measuring DI has not progressed significantly. Particularly, there is a lack of robust theories to tackle the growing societal problem of DI, which is closely linked to a complex set of individual and institutional factors. Along these lines, by following a five-stage scoping review process, the current landscape of DI is mapped in this work. In addition, the key factors influencing DI are identified. As a result, a robust base for the development of a conceptual framework for further DI research is provided. The proposed framework can be validated empirically and also used to investigate the DI phenomenon in various contexts and levels