# A Statistical Analysis of Industrial Penetration and Internet Intensity in Taiwan +
## 6 Conclusions
The variable of industrial penetration has a negative marginal effect on the extent to which the manufacturers use the internet, indicating that there exists a substitute relationship between the extent to which the manufacturers use the internet and the level of industrial penetration. Such results confirm the research by [17] [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2007), who used US information technology-related manufacturing and service industry data, and [18] [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2008), who used French manufacturing data. 4. The more competitive is the industry, manufacturers will increasingly need to use the internet to communicate and trade with other entities, and to increase their competitiveness. The empirical findings agree with those of [18] [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2008) and [21] [PERSON] et al. (2011), who used French manufacturing industry data. 5. The export intensity has the greatest marginal effect on the extent to which manufacturers use the internet, indicating that international competition has a relatively large influence on internet intensity. The second and third largest effects are the manufacturers' expenditure on computer equipment and the contagion effect, both of which have a positive marginal effect on the degree to which manufacturers use the internet, thought that the magnitudes for both marginal effects are quite small. 6. As the industries are different, the empirical results for the individual industries based on the two-digit level classifications are quite varied. In terms of the degree of industrial penetration, two industries, namely (09) Beverages and (32) Furniture have the largest positive (2.376) and smallest negative (\(-1.458\)) marginal effects on how manufacturers use the internet, respectively, for traditional industries; (27) Plastic Products and (30) Motor Vehicles and Parts have the largest positive (5.550) and smallest negative (\(-12.628\)) marginal effects on the ways in which manufacturers use the internet, respectively, for technology-intensive industries; (20) Medical Goods and (21) Rubber Products have the largest positive (\(21.886\)) and smallest negative (\(-1.367\)) marginal effects as to how manufacturers use the internet, respectively, for basic industries. 7. The marginal effect of localized penetration on how the manufacturers use the internet also varies widely. The largest positive and smallest negative values for the traditional industries are, respectively, \(0.0266\) for (08) Food and \(-0.0018\) for (11) Textiles Mills; the largest and smallest values for technology-intensive industries are, respectively, \(0.0527\) for (26) Electronic Parts and Components and \(-0.0249\) for (27) Plastic Products; the largest and smallest values for basic industries are, respectively, \(0.0578\) for (21) Rubber Products and \(-0.0216\) for (24) Basic Metal. 8. Industries with a higher degree of export intensity and with a greater reliance on exports will have a higher degree of internet intensity among those manufacturers that use the internet. The results indicate that exports of export-oriented industries, such as (08) Food, (26) Electronic Parts and Components, and (22) Plastic Products, have the largest marginal effects for traditional, technology-intensive and basic industries in Taiwan, respectively. Further to what has been investigated in the paper, internet technology has rapidly replaced long-distance non-electronic communications, and has also reduced the costs of relaying information over long distances. The empirical results that have been presented above have demonstrated clearly the relationship between industrial penetration and internet intensity, specifically that the lower the level of industrial penetration, the greater the degree to which manufacturers will use the internet. For future research, we intend to evaluate the economic performance of firms for which their location is far removed from others, while using internet technology to advance their business operations.