abstract
- Information and communication technology (ICT) is given to its ability to provide greater access to information and communication to the populations and the quality of service provided than the technological backbone required. The rural economy in most countries is regarded as that which requires intervention in order to foster sustainability and development. There have been many studies of both the value and the use of ICTs in rural small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), but there is a lack of more deep and comparative studies. To address this need, this paper presents a study that explore how SMEs in rural areas in Portugal (Alto Trás-os-Montes), Spain (Castilla y León) and Russia (Krasnodar) perceived the importance of ICT and identify the current state.