Presentation to the DCMS. 10th November 2021

1. Digital Adoption in rural SMEs:
barriers, drivers and
opportunities
Dr MariaWishart
NICRE and Enterprise Research Centre

2. Business Futures data set
• Data collected Q4 2020 via Computer AssistedTelephone Interview (CATI) survey
• 1,019 UK private sector firms with between 7 and 249 employees
• Range of Sectors:Agriculture, Manufacturing, Construction,Wholesale Retail &Transport, Business Services,
Other Services
• England, Scotland,Wales, Northern Ireland
• 804 firms data matched for rural vs urban comparison
• 24% rural, 76% urban
Fostering an enterprising countryside

3. Attitudes towards digital adoption in rural SMEs
Rural firms approach digital technologies differently from urban firms
• Rural firms 10% less likely to report having a digital strategy than their urban counterparts (51% vs 61%)
• Rural firms 10% less likely to say they have the skills to introduce new technologies than urban firms
79%)
• 76% of rural firms compared to 82% of urban firms report that they keep up with the latest technologies
• 57% of rural firms compared to 51% of urban firms said that they felt that their business could be
without digital technologies.
Fostering an enterprising countryside

4. Digital adoption in rural SMEs
Lower levels of adoption of digital technologies in rural firms
• Consistently lower levels of adoption of digital technologies in rural firms:
• 31% of rural vs 39% of urban firms had adopted Computer Aided Design
• 58% of rural compared to 67% of urban firms had adopted video conferencing
• 42% of rural vs49% of urban firms had adopted CRM software
• Both rural and urban firms that had adopted digital technologies reported that their business model had
evolved or changed as a consequence
• But rural firms more likely than urban firms to assert a partial change (51% vs 59%) than a significant
(12% vs 17%).
Fostering an enterprising countryside

5. Barriers to digital adoption in rural SMEs
Rural firms experience different barriers to digital adoption than their urban counterparts
• 42% of rural firms compared to 31% of urban firms cited broadband capacity as a major obstacle to
digital adoption.
• Rural firms 10% more likely to point to internal resistance to change as an obstacle to digital adoption
urban firms (39% vs 29%)
Fostering an enterprising countryside
31%
31%
36%
39%
39%
42%
31%
32%
33%
40%
29%
31%
Lack of funds for purchasing
technology
Potential impacts of cyber risk
Compatibility with existing
equipment
Lack of digital skills in the workforce
Internal resistance to change
Broadband capacity
Urban Rural