Modeling and evaluating telecommunication industry's "internet-and-digitized" development

This paper systematically investigates telecommunication industry’s “internet- and-digitization” development situation. Based on existing literature and the unique characteristics of telecommunication industry, we build a comprehensive model to depict the level of “internet-and-digitization” development by five key dimensions: market size, informational investment, technological innovation, internet application, and internet penetration. We propose that this five-dimensional model can capture the key components of “internet-and-digitization” development in this digital era. By using Beijing’s telecommunication data, we empirically test our conceptual model and explore the current development level of telecommunication industry’s “internet- and-digitization” progress. Results show that Beijing’s telecommunication industry has great potential in expanding online market size as well as activating technological innovation. We also suggest that bigger telecommunication firms should pay more attention to “internet-and-digitization” development, especially on internet application and penetration dimensions. Finally, theoretical contributions, managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.