Measuring the gap – Measuring diffusion

Introduction

• Significant progress has been made in recent years in measuring firms’ intangible investments and their productivity effects. However, measures of the diffusion and implementation of digital technology practices across populations of firms are much less well developed and often provide only a partial view of the process of pre-adoption, adoption and implementation. This means it is difficult to benchmark or calibrate the impact of policy initiatives, such as Made Smarter or other similar measures, designed to promote digital take up and implementation.
• Taking its inspiration from multi-dimensional models of high-performance work practices (HPWP) developed in the HR literature and the management practices literature this project aims to develop a suite of diffusion indicators and pilot test their links to firm level productivity. The focus here will be on (a) developing usable metrics (b) examining their distribution and relationship to key firm characteristics such as age, sector and size and (c) relating these to productivity.
• The outcome should be three measurement scales for ‘digital readiness’, ‘digital adoption level’ and ‘digital implementation’ of proven reliability which can be used in other studies and policy analysis.

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