The impact of cultural differences on technology adoption

This study examines the impact of Type I and Type II cultural differences on mobile phone adoption patterns. We use Hofstede's cultural dimensions to examine cultural differences of two countries (Type I: the U.S.; Type II: S. Korea) and employ the Bass diffusion model to delineate innovation and imitation effects on mobile phone adoption. The results show that in Type I culture innovation factor has a significantly higher level of effect on adoption than it does in Type II culture; and in Type II culture imitation factor has a higher degree of effect on adoption than it does in Type I culture. These findings imply that in individualistic cultures, people tend to seek information on their own from direct and formal sources, whereas in collectivistic cultures, people rely more on subjective evaluation of an innovation, conveyed from other-like-minded individuals who already have adopted the innovation.