The effects of country characteristics, cultural similarity and adoption timing on the diffusion of wireless communications

Factors explaining the differences between countries' diffusion processes may be divided into three categories: country, culture and timing. In this paper, we construct a model, which examines the effect of these three factors on the diffusion of wireless communications in 64 countries. Bass diffusion model parameters and the adoption years of 25 countries are regressed with explanatory variables that represent the three above-mentioned categories: Wealth is used as a country factor, Hofstede's indices as cultural factors and lead-lag time as the timing factor. Findings suggest that the country's wealth and cultural similarity to the innovation center positively influence the country's early adoption. Moreover, a country's wealth positively influences the eventual penetration, and late, uncertainty-avoiding adopters have a greater coefficient of imitation.