Internet diffusion and knowledge intensive enterprises in the Victorian wine cluster: wineries are the laggards

For the period between 1995 to 2000, some 6,000 records were analyzed to study the diffusion of the Internet (email and web sites) in four sectors of the Victorian wine cluster; suppliers, distributors, wineries and wine industry associations. Diffusion of these two Internet facilities indicates that 40% of Victorian wineries have adopted email and 15% have a web site. Internet adoption by wineries trails the other cluster sectors, even though wineries are the dominant participant hence, the question that may arises as a result of these findings, is whether e-commerce readiness is being compromised in this important Australian export sector. Other findings indicate that both large and small wineries significantly trail comparable National Office for Information Economy (NOIE) figures for Internet adoption by business.