In his study on impacts of national culture and other national level factors on adoption of IT, Bagchi makes the conclusion that, “As long as cultural differences persist and nations look similarly dissimilar, cultural values will continue to influence the way IT is adopted and diffused in different nations” (Bagchi, 2001, p.332). This shows the importance of addressing the cultural dimension of ICT adoption in different cultures. He argues that, “If IT changes follow certain paths contingent on the cultural background of a society, those who are aware of the cultural background will be better prepared to understand the future development of ITs in that nation” (Bagchi, 2001, p.329). He echoes the same in a later study (Bagchi and Udo, 2007). However, many studies on adoption of IT/ICT have failed to address this critical dimension. It is for this reason that this study, using DOI and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension theories perspectives, investigated the social, cultural, institutional and technological factors affecting adoption of ICT for research communication in research institutions in Kenya.
Mere technological superiority of an IT product may not make it successful in every nation, because the attitudes and behaviours of the people using it, which are critical to its success, may vary widely from one nation to another (Bagchi, 2001). Child (1980, cited in Bagchi (2001)) found that even though organisations may look similar in structure, employees inside an organisation maintain their unique cultural practices. Hofstede (1980; 2001) found that national culture explained 50% of the variance in employees’ attitudes and behaviours at IBM, a multinational company.
Many IS researchers have used Hoefstede’s theory in studies on IT in different cultural settings. In a study incorporating the five cultural dimensions, Herbig and Muller (1992) described how outsourcing and adoption depend on cultural attributes, which led them to conclude that “technology follows culture” (p. 75) Straub (1994), in a comparative study focusing on the role of culture in the adoption of email and FAX in Japan and the US, found that Hofstede’s dimension of UA and the structural characteristics of the Japanese written language were related to Japanese knowledge workers’ tendency to favour FAX over email systems. He recommended for sampling from many nations over time in IT diffusion studies. Hence, this study is an effort to fill such a gap.
A comparative study by Mejias (1995) investigating the adoption and use of Group Support Systems (GSS) between the US and Mexico found that Hofstede’s dimensions explained some of the variance between the two countries. Also, in another study focusing on the relationship among cultural values, nationality, personal privacy and IT-related privacy regulations, Milberg, Burke, Smith and Kallman (1995) found that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions explained variations in attitudes toward personal privacy. However, a case study of computer-related activities in south-western Nigeria found that socio-economic factors played a more major role in IT system development than traditional culture (Korpela, 1996) (See summary of selected references in appendix A-5) .
Many studies on IT-related diffusion have dealt more with task, individual and organisational related factors than the national level culture and other factors (Bagchi, 2001). For example, Kwon Zmud (1987) and Prescott and Conger (1995) have provided models of IT adoption but do not mention national indicators like culture. Nor do Fichman and Kemerer (1999) mention
national culture interplay in their review of the extant literature on predictors of IT diffusion and assimilation. Yet there is a strong relationship between national culture and economic development as well as national culture and social and political systems (Inglehart, 1995, cited in Bagchi (2001, p.4). There is also a relationship between national culture, as well as other national-level factors and IT diffusion (Bagchi, 2001). Goodman (1991) says that “there are important historical, social, cultural and economic reasons for computing and telecommunication disparities (among nations) and, for better or worse, these differences make the world a more complicated and interesting place” (p.19). One example is the differences in the growth of computerisation in different national cultures, with some countries like the Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong) witnessing rapid growth while others like Africa have had low growth. Another case is the uneven adoption of mobile telephony across nations, which is not necessarily related to economic factors, as noted in a report (Intekom, 2000, cited in Bagchi, 2001) that stated 75% of people in Finland and Iceland used mobile telephones compared to about 40% in the US, despite the US economy being stronger than the Finnish at the time.
A number of researchers have shown the need to investigate national-level factors and the inter-relationships among these factors, for a detailed understanding of diffusion of innovations, especially IT innovations (Ali & Brooks, 2008, 2009; Ali, Brooks & Alshawi, 2008; Bagchi, 2001; Galivan & Srite, 2005; Nath & Murphy, 2004; Weisinger & Trauth, 2003). Rogers (1995, 2003) observed that societal cultural norms, personal preferences and biases influence adoption decisions. Lefevre and Lefevre (1996) noted that culture has a definite influence on IT but its role remains under-investigated. Prescott and Conger (1995) stress the need to integrate national culture into the Diffusion of Innovation theory because of increasing globalization. In a study on an Internet diffusion framework, Press, Burkhart, Foster and Goodman (1998) noted that national culture, language, morality and religion were cited as important factors by governments advocating strict control over the Internet. Bagchi (2001) shares the same views and add traditional values and social hierarchy.
In Japan, for example, the growth of Internet has been constrained by collective agreements, hierarchical administrative structures and language (Barlow, 1992, cited in Bagchi (2001). Another example is the case of the economically wealthy Middle East Islamic nations which
have lagged behind in IT infrastructure due, in part, to what Goodman and Green (1992) see as cultural differences, ‘where personal contact is preferred to colder and more abstract long distance ties…Middle Easterners rely very heavily on face-to-face communications’ (p.24; see also Bagchi, 2001, p.8). Inglehart (1995, cited in Bagchi, 2001) points that the orthodox Islamic nations have never really adopted IT which they associate with the Western lifestyle which is seen to be intrusive to traditional Islamic values. Although an exception is noted where in recent times the Internet is being used to access electronic repositories of religious texts and inscriptions and mobile telephones to view prayer times and Qiblah directions, research and development in IT have been largely ignored (Bagchi, 2001).