Title: A study of Mobile Instant Messaging adoption: within-culture variation

Authors: Zhenhua Liu, Qingfei Min, Shaobo Ji

Addresses: School of Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. ' School of Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. ' Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada

Abstract: This paper examines how national culture values influence technology adoption at individual level, within-culture, in case of Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) adoption. Four cultural dimensions were examined: uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, high/low context and time perception. On the basis of 837 samples, data analysis shows that uncertainty avoidance and collectivism moderate the relationship between individual|s subjective norm and behavioural intention; uncertainty avoidance positively affects individual|s innovativeness; context and time perception affect Perceived Usefulness (PU) and have no effect on the relationship between Perceived Enjoyment (PE) and intention. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: mobile communications; MIM; mobile instant messaging; diffusion; individual use; national culture; cultural values; technology adoption; uncertainty avoidance; collectivism; behavioural intention; innovativeness; context; time perception; perceived usefulness; perceived enjoyment; m-commerce; mobile commerce.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2011.040607

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2011 Vol.9 No.3, pp.280 - 297

Published online: 07 Jun 2011 *

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