Complementarity and substitution between physical and virtual travel for instrumental information sharing in remote rural regions: A social network approach

The results suggest path dependency between physical and virtual travel in remote rural areas. The implication for transportation policy is that physical mobility is a precondition for the creation of virtual information-sharing links. Instrumental communication relationships that do not socially require regular physical co-presence can be partially substituted by virtual travel only after virtual links have been created through physical mobility. Therefore, in contrast with general expectations, mobile telephony in remote rural regions is more practical if the transportation infrastructure is adequately developed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential contribution of the sociocentric network perspective to transportation research.