ICTs : Reshaping the Voluntary Sector? 1998-1999

<P>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</P><br>This research has been shaped by the overarching aims both to begin to map the extent to which voluntary organisations are adopting Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and, more particularly, to gain insights into, and to begin to understand and to articulate, the social conditions shaping ICT supported strategic innovations around mission critical and business critical activities within these organisations. It has been shaped, too, by the aim to contribute to theories of institutionalism as these apply explicitly to the voluntary sector within the information society.<br>
The specific research objectives are as follows:<br>
to map the adoption and application of ICTs within a sample of UK voluntary organisations;<br>
to examine the extent to which ICTs are being used to support innovations around key mission critical and business critical activities;<br>
to understand the social conditions shaping ICT supported innovations within these organisations, and in doing so to understand the reasons for different patterns of uptake where these occur;<br>
to evaluate the significance of ICTs in supporting mission critical and business critical activities within these organisations, including, for example, their contribution to organisational independence and autonomy, deliberative and political participation.<br><B>Main Topics</B>:<BR><br>The dataset is based upon a largescale questionnaire survey of UK voluntary organisations with incomes ranging from 250,000 pounds per annum to incomes in excess of 11 million pounds. The organisations span a range of fields of activity (e.g. social welfare, conservation, animals) and types of activity (e.g. service provision, campaigning). The dataset permits the uptake and application of information and communication technologies to be examined for association with key variables which include level of organisational income, field of activity, type of activity, and employment of ICTs professionals within the organisations.