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Complementarity or Substitutability Between the Different Modes of Internet Access: A Property Rights‐Based Analysis on Cybercafés Offerings with Data from Cameroon
Author(s) -
Piaptie Georges Bertrand Tamokwe
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.41
H-Index - 18
ISSN - 1681-4835
DOI - 10.1002/j.1681-4835.2012.tb00393.x
Subject(s) - the internet , internet access , complementarity (molecular biology) , property rights , renting , probit model , diversification (marketing strategy) , business , mode (computer interface) , universal design , economics , microeconomics , computer science , marketing , econometrics , engineering , genetics , civil engineering , biology , operating system , world wide web
The aim of this paper is to see whether the preservation of cybercafés’ internet access offering could efficiently withstand the generalization of other internet access modes. To do this, we use the economic theory of Property Rights to show that, considering internet access as an economic good, it is possible to distinguish three internet access modes: the rental internet access mode, the usufruct internet access mode and the full ownership internet access mode. On this basis, the preservation of cybercafés’ activities depends inter alia on the hypothesis of an absence of substitutability between the rental access mode they offered and the two other access modes. This hypothesis is tested using a probit model on data from a survey carried out in three towns of Cameroon. The findings show there is room for substitutability between the cybercafés’ offering and the alternative internet access modes. The no substitutability hypothesis is then disproved. We conclude that cybercafés’ owners should contemplate further diversification strategies.