Regional Tourism Networks: The Nexus Between ICT Diffusion and Change in Australia

This article reports the outcomes of a study on the nature of the change process when a regional tourism network seeks to adopt e-commerce. The study builds on Rogers’ seminal work on the diffusion of innovations and makes a unique contribution to existing ICT diffusion studies by its focus on the nature of the network links and by its application of an action-oriented methodology to untangle the effects of the embedded network structure. The study suggests a strong relationship between diffusion and network positioning, both in terms of place (status and position in the network) and space (the geographic make-up of the network). Diffusion additionally hinged on network cohesion and actors’ trust in and engagement with the network.