Espaces, organisations et TIC : les enseignements d’une comparaison intersectorielle

In this paper, we focus on the adoption process of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), trying to specify the influence of determinants related to the organizational and spatial structure of firms. For this purpose, our econometric study makes use of individual data of firms, concerning almost 5000 industrial French firms. This data provide information concerning the firms’ behavior in terms of ICT adoption, but also the different components of the firms’ internal and external modes of organization and their relations to space. We first examine the general conditions of ICT diffusion in the French productive system and then test the existence of sectoral specificities. Beyond the determinants traditionally examined in empirical studies concerning firms’ ability to innovate, results show that the organizational and spatial factors have significant impacts on ICT adoption. In the sectoral approach, they allow us to confirm specificities in particular regarding the influence of firms’ location(s) and spatial organization.