Understanding the Influence of Espoused Culture on Acceptance of Online Services in a Developing Country

The acceptance of any technology in developing countries cannot be taken for granted given the fact that these technologies are imported from developed countries and may have been designed without any consideration of the cultural values of the developing countries. Information Technology acceptance and the influence of espoused national cultural values on its acceptance have been investigated in the developed countries, but such studies are rare in developing countries. The present study surveyed 201 Nigerians using constructs from established models with the aim of understanding the influence of some espoused national cultural values on acceptance of online services. The results indicate that espoused national cultural values seem to moderate the effect of some of the independent variables. In particular, Power Distance has a positive influence on "perceived usefulness-satisfaction" relationship; Masculinity/Femininity has a negative influence on "ease of use-satisfaction" relationship and a positive influence on "information/system quality-satisfaction" relationship. Individualism/Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance also indicate significant moderating effects on the relationship of "information/system quality-satisfaction." The resulting model is fairly significant with R^sup 2^ = 0.67 for user's satisfaction and R^sup 2^ = 0.51 for users' behavioral intention to continue to use the online services. The implications of the findings are discussed. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]