Gender, age and income differences in internet usage among employees in organizations

Abstract

This paper reviews and discusses Internet issues and reports the findings of a survey concerning the impact of gender, age and income on employees' Internet usage in Turkey. Internet usage was categorized in two empirical factors, namely usage profile (reason for using the Internet, average daily use of the Internet) and usage patterns (average daily use of the Internet for communication/e-mailing/chat, information access/downloading/entertainment and electronic services). The survey was conducted among 200 employees from public and private sector organizations. The results indicated that gender has a positive impact on average daily time spent on the use of the Internet for communication/e-mailing/chat and information access/downloading/entertainment. Age has a positive impact on average daily use of the Internet in general and a negative impact on the use of the Internet for information access/downloading/entertainment. Income was not found to have an impact on empirical factors. Finally, gender, age and income do not have any significant impact on average daily use of Internet for electronic services such as e-commerce/e-shopping/e-banking/e-government. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.