Cultural Factors in a Mobile Phone Adoption and Usage Model

Judy van Biljon (University of South Africa, South Africa)

Paula Kotzé (University of South Africa, South Africa)

Abstract: In human-computer interaction and computing, mobile phone usage is mostly addressed from a feature-driven perspective, i.e. which features do a certain user group use, and/or a usability perspective, i.e. how do they interact with these features. Although the feature driven and usability focus carry value, it is not the full picture. There is also an alternative or wider perspective: mobile phone use is influenced by demographic, social, cultural, and contextual factors that complicate the understanding of mobile phone usage. Drawing on concepts and models from sociology, computer-supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction and marketing, we researched the influence of culture on mobile phone adoption using interviews and two surveys. The contribution of this research is a model that includes culture as one of the factors that influence mobile phone adoption and usage. The proposed model represents the influence of mediating factors and determining factors on actual mobile phone use. The proposed model has been evaluated from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

Keywords: computer-supported cooperative work, determining factors, human-computer interaction, human-computer interaction marketing, mediating factors, mobile phone usage, sociology, usage intensity, usage variety and usage breath

Categories: H.1.2, J.4