Digital technology: a vehicle for making rural businesses competitive

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine if rural firms can utilize technology to communicate with their customers, compete for business, reduce costs, and improve operations to maintain competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach – Businesses in the service area were anonymously surveyed to identify the perceived needs and benefits the firms had concerning digital technology. The various business sectors such as manufacturing, retail, construction, wholesale, financial services, healthcare, and food services were juxtaposed with there data to see if there were any correlations between the needs and perception of the categories of business and size of the businesses. The total number of respondents was 309, from five counties in three contiguous states located in Appalachia.Findings – This study revealed answers to the following research questions: what percentage of annual business revenue is spent to improve technology? Does the business use computers and does it vary by industry and si...