Digital Readiness and the Evolving E-Commerce Divide in ASEAN: A Composite Index Analysis, 2013–2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65166/gda5dq22Keywords:
digital readiness, digital divide convergence, ASEAN, e-commerce readiness, digital marketing, GDP per capita, urbanizationAbstract
This study examined digital and e-commerce readiness across all ten ASEAN member states from 2013 to 2023, using a composite Digital Readiness Index (DRI) constructed from three World Bank World Development Indicators: Internet Use, Mobile Cellular Subscriptions, and Fixed Broadband Subscriptions, each rescaled to a common 0-100 range and averaged. The region-wide average DRI rose from 37.7 in 2013 to 63.5 in 2023, with every country recording a gain; Myanmar posted the largest increase (+44.0), consistent with documented technological leapfrogging, while Singapore, already near the ceiling of the index, recorded the smallest (+7.5). The coefficient of variation of DRI across the ten countries nearly halved over the period (.609 to .296), indicating substantial sigma convergence; however, decomposing this result by component showed that while Internet Use and Mobile Subscriptions converged sharply, Fixed Broadband remained three to four times more unequally distributed than the other two indicators throughout, indicating an uneven rather than uniform narrowing of the regional digital divide. Pooling all available country-year observations (N = 110), DRI was strongly and significantly correlated with both GDP per capita, r(108) = .69, p < .001, and urban population share, r(108) = .77, p < .001. These findings suggest that ASEAN's digital transformation has been broad-based but structurally uneven, with practical implications for how marketers sequence digital and e-commerce market entry across the region. The study is correlational and based on publicly available macro-level indicators; e-commerce-specific outcomes were not directly measured. Recommendations for practice and future research, including a weighted or purpose-specific readiness index and a formal panel-econometric extension, are discussed.
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