Internet Adoption at the User Level: Empirical Evidence from The Gambia

Abstract

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) are used to investigate technology adoption. However, its application in Sub-Saharan Africa is rare and barely extended to the validation phase. In this paper, we introduce six new moderating factors for UTAUT core determinants and two other direct determinants of Internet adoption. The objective of this approach is to identify relevant elements of Internet adoption at the user level in The Gambia. Moderating factors are interacting terms used when the relationship between independent and dependent variable is weak, inconsistent or non-existent. A case study research design was employed and the data were gathered in Autumn of 2012. A total of 200 questionnaires were administered to randomly selected students from the University of the Gambia. The students represented all administrative regions of the country. Our results suggest that Internet adoption at the user level in The Gambia can be viewed as a three-layered pyramid. It consists of seven moderating factors (age, gender, experience, voluntary use, friends' influence, Internet service providers and regulators), four indirect determinants (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions) and three direct determinants (education, behavioral intention and income). This paper proposes an Internet adoption framework. We recommend it to be tested and validated in other African countries in order to determine its applicability.

Keywords:

• Internet adoption
• moderating factors
• indirect determinants
• direct determinants

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Graduate School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences (COMAS) and the department of Computer Science and Information Systems of the University of Jyväskylä for jointly sponsoring the PhD data collection visit to The Gambia. We extend our immense gratitude to The Gambia Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority. As a host institute for the research visit, they provided the researcher with a car, fuel and a dedicated driver at the company's expense for the entire duration of the data collection visit. We are also thankful to Mr. Edrissa Jobe, the CEO of the host institute and his entire staff for their exceptional support during the data collection period. We are grateful to the Vice Chancellor of the University of the Gambia (UTG) Professor Muhammad Kah for conducting this research at his university. Last but not least, we are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their contribution in improving this paper.

Notes on contributors

Almamy Touray is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He obtained MSc. in Computational Engineering (Information Technology) from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and a BSc. (honors) in Computer Science from Usamnu Dandofiyo University in Nigeria. Almamy worked for The Gambia Telecommunications Company Limited (GAMTEL) as the Network Administrator and Manager of Networks and Systems Security, respectively. He also served as an adjunct lecturer at the University of The Gambia where he lectured Computer Architecture, Computer Networks, and Telecommunications and Data Networks. Almamy s research interests include Internet diffusion, adoption and domestication as well as ICT and development.

Airi Salminen is a Professor of Digital Media in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Jyväskylä, in Finland. She has been the head of several research projects where research has been tied to ICT development efforts in major Finnish companies and public sector organizations. Long-term research collaboration with the Finnish Parliament and Government has produced a great number of research articles as well as practical results in the information management environment of the Parliament and Government. She has worked for three periods at Canadian universities: first as a Visiting Research Associate at the University of Western Ontario and later as a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Waterloo and Toronto. Her current research interests include ICT for development, enterprise content management, structured documents, and e-government.

Anja Mursu works currently as an advisor for the consultancy company Salivirta & Partners in Finland. She obtained her PhD in Information Systems in 2002 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She worked for the research projects (at the University of Eastern Finland) first as a researcher and then as a research leader for nine years. Her research interests were in activity driven information systems development, and sustainability and usability of information systems. Her research partners came from Nigeria, South Africa, and Mozambique (INDEHELA-project).