ASSESSING THE UK POLICIES FOR BROADBAND ADOPTION Jyoti Choudrie Business School University of Hertfordshire De Havilland Campus College Lane Hatfield AL10 9AB Tel:0044 1707 284000 Jyoti.choudrie@btopenworld.com Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics Brunel University Uxbridge UB8 3PH United Kingdom Tel: 0044 1895 274000 Fax: 0044 1895 251686 Anastasia.papazafeiropoulou@brunel.ac.uk ABSTRACT Broadband technology has been introduced to the business community and the public as a rapid way of exploiting the Internet. The benefits of its use (fast reliable connections, and always on) have been widely realised and broadband diffusion is one of the items at the top of the agenda for technology related polices of governments worldwide. In this paper an examination of the impact of the UK government‟s polices upon broadband adoption is undertaken. Based on institutional theory a consideration of the manipulation of supply push and demand pull forces in the diffusion of broadband is offered. Using primary and secondary data sources, an analysis of the specific institutional actions related to IT diffusion as pursued by the UK government in the case of broadband is provided. Bringing the time dimension into consideration it is revealed that the UK government has shifted its attention from supply push-only strategies to more interventional ones where the demand pull forces are also mobilised. It is believed that this research will assist in the extraction of the “success factors” in government intervention that support the diffusion of technology with a view to render favourable results if applied to other national settings.