Demand-side broadband policy in the context of digital transformation: An examination of SME digital advisory policies in Wales.

Increasing attention has been paid to the potential for demand-side policies to stimulate use of broadband networks. Such policies form part of the increasing digitalisation of the economy and wider society. This is an area where governments are also facing challenges in their efforts to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their policies. The paper sheds light on the impact that the transition towards digital has had on demand-side policies supporting the adoption of broadband and digital technologies by SMEs, and draws out the implications for policy, using a case study of Wales in the UK over a ten-year period. It shows that digitalisation has seen policy mechanisms and messages evolving as policy makers have created a more integrated and multi-channel approach to the delivery of advisory support to SMEs, but that the emergence of multiple types of actors (large digital platform businesses) and ongoing digitalisation are adding complexity to policies and their interaction with other forms of public and private business support. • Examines demand-side advisory policies for SMEs through a longitudinal case-study of Wales. • Develops a novel framework to study policy mechanisms, messages, actors and digital transition in SME advisory policies. • Identifies the emergence of greater complexity in demand-side policy design and delivery, and SME needs. • Shows the emergence of blended models of online and offline SME advisory policies and the emergence of new policy messages. • Provides policy implications focusing on how policymakers might respond to digital transition in demand-side policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]