The cultural challenges of adopting IT in developing countries: An exploratory study

National culture is only one of many factors, including economical, political, social, education and skilled levels, size and location, that may influence the infusion of IT into a country or a region. However culture is probably the most difficult of these factors to isolate, define and measure. Despite its importance to the success of IT projects, culture is not featured prominently in the research literature. For this reason we have conducted an exploratory study into the influence of culture on the adoption and use of IT in two developing regions in comparison with a developed, Western country. In this paper we report some preliminary findings of this study, discuss issues related to the cultural impact of IT and suggest directions for future research. The study shows that culture clashes must be anticipated whenever foreign technology is introduced and that each country must have a sensible IT policy that will choose the best technology for their culture while ensuring that the adoption of IT does not destroy their cultural heritage.