Post-Access Barriers to Digital Market Reach: Motivational and Capability Non-Adoption in Thailand’s Near-Saturated Digital Economy

This study examines motivational and capability barriers to internet non-adoption in Thailand’s near-saturated digital economy. Using the 2025 Q4 ICT Household Survey conducted by Thailand’s National Statistical Office, the analysis focuses on 20,633 adult non-adopters who report either motivational or capability-related barriers. The dependent variable distinguishes capability non-adoption, defined as lack of skill or awareness, from motivational non-adoption, defined as lack of perceived need or privacy/security concerns. Weighted logistic regression with normalised population weights, PSU-clustered robust standard errors, and average marginal effects is used to estimate associations between household ICT access, age, education, employment, smartphone access, and barrier type. Motivational barriers account for 56.2% of the two-category non-adopter population and capability barriers for 43.8%. Although motivational reasons are the more common, household ICT access is positively—if modestly—associated with capability rather than motivational barriers (average marginal effect +1.7 percentage points): capability-constrained non-adopters are concentrated in connected households, the compositional signature predicted by the second-level digital divide. Age does not significantly moderate this association. Among older non-adopters, education, employment, and smartphone access are negatively associated with capability barriers, while household ICT access is not. The findings suggest that in post-access digital economies, household connectivity is insufficient for digital market inclusion; individual-level skills and device access become central to expanding effective digital market reach.