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Top1 Introduction
The internet remains the primary source of information in the new economy. The web offers several advantages, including better job prospect, cheaper communication, cost-efficient travel, seamless financial services, and entertainment. However, not everyone can access and use the internet, thereby creating disproportionate gains (Chauhan et al., 2018; Van Dijk, 2005). Such disparity constitutes the digital divide (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2015b, 2019). The digital divide is beyond the traditional focus on the distinction between those with access and those without access to investigating how differences in skills and usage shape the digital inequalities (Helsper et al., 2015; Robinson et al., 2015).
Most attempts at explaining the digital divide have been descriptive - associating variation in internet usage with sociodemographic factors (Robinson et al., 2015; van Deursen & van Dijk, 2015a). Contrary to such perspectives, people are not homogenous but are likely to share different needs and interact differently in society. Therefore, some individuals with access to the internet could choose not to use it because of other priorities and needs, which are not necessarily due to lack of means. This reasoning is in line with Selwyn (2006:275), who posited that people are not just ‘end-users with no role to play beyond accepting ready-made technological artefacts.' Hence, people have the rights to decide on whether to use or not to use a certain technology.
Studies have extended technological access to other types of access gaps including motivational, skills and usage (van Deursen & van Dijk, 2015b; Van Dijk, 2005). Studies have also determined that the access gaps are interdependently related, but the lack of theoretical premises for the interplay among these factors is noticeable. Thus, future studies are needed to offer systematic explanations of the mechanism underlying the interaction among the access gaps (Ghobadi & Ghobadi, 2015). Scholars have also called for the application of alternative models in explaining the attitudinal factors of technology adoption (Bagozzi, 2007; Boateng et al., 2016). Drawing on the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework, (Ojo et al., 2019) investigated the determinants of internet usage behaviour, but, the situational effect of opportunity was not examined. Accordingly, the present study aims to investigate how users’ perceptions of opportunity could influence the impacts of both ability and motivation on usage behaviours. This study considers opportunity as a situational factor, thereby extending the notion of physical access (Courtois & Verdegem, 2016; Matzat & Sadowski, 2012; Van Deursen et al., 2012) to the favourable conditions like time and other resources to access the internet (Ono & Zavodny, 2008; Siemsen et al., 2008; Venkatesh et al., 2008). Hence, the present study contributes to the digital divide literature, by investigating how individual’s perception of the enabling conditions could affect the cognitive and motivational factors of internet usage.