Heterogeneity and diffusion in the digital economy: Spain's case

Abstract

The traditional Bass model (Bass, 1969) for the adoption and diffusion of new products has customarily been used to gauge the speed at which new products were adopted in a market by estimating innovation (p) and imitation (q) parameters. Rogers (2003) proposed that certain factors influence the diffusion of such products, including the educational level and age of consumers. In this article we estimate the coefficients of innovation and imitation for adopting internet, e-commerce and online banking in Spain’s case, while controlling for heterogeneity of individuals according to educational level and age. We thus find that individuals with very different p and q coefficients can coexist in one market. We then verify that the processes of an ageing population and educational improvement in Spain could give rise to long term effects on Spain’s overall innovative and imitative capacity as a result of its socio-demographic mix.