Internet Adoption and Usage in Bangladesh

Abstract

Like many developed and developing countries, Bangladesh has witnessed a phenomenal growth in accessing digital technology particularly using the Internet.Although facing many constraints in establishing an internet-dependent society, Bangladesh Government has paid utmost priority to develop the Information Technology usage pattern in her different sectors.Recently Bangladesh has been connected with information superhighway through submarine optic-fiber cable network that creates a favourable environment to increase Internet usage among various citizens.The study attempts to explore the effects of different factors influencing the adoption of Internet in Bangladesh.The Rogers model of Innovation Diffusion has been utilised as theoretical framework to measure the effects of the factors that account for adoption of the Internet, assuming the Internet as an innovation.A multiple regression analysis is carried out to determine the attributes that affect the intention to adopt the Internet, where adoption intention is considered as the explained variable.The study reveals that relative advantage, compatibility and complexity appear significant among the five attributes of innovation, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability considered as explanatory variables.