Demographics, attitudes, and technology readiness: A cross-cultural analysis and model validation
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the cross-cultural validity of the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) (Parasuraman, 2000) and explore how demographics and attitudinal variables may help to explain adoption and use of technology-based products and services.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on surveys conducted with probabilistic samples from two culturally distant countries, the USA and Chile.
Findings
Results support the TRI’s cross-cultural validity. They also suggest that demographic variables do matter when explaining people’s willingness to adopt new technology, with education being the most consistent predictor. Moreover, some of the findings seem to challenge the attitude-behavior consistency implied by conventional theory – while attitudinal variables are better predictors of pro-technological behavior in the USA, with technology-related insecurity being the most important of four attitudinal dimensions included in the analysis, demographic variables perform as better predictors in Chile, with educational level outperforming age and gender.
Originality/value
This is the first-ever cross-cultural test of the TRI using actual consumer samples from two culturally very different countries.
Keywords
Citation
Rojas-Méndez, J.I., Parasuraman, A. and Papadopoulos, N. (2017), "Demographics, attitudes, and technology readiness: A cross-cultural analysis and model validation", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 18-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-08-2015-0163
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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