Dimensions of national culture and corporate adoption of IT infrastructure

Corporate adoption of information technology (IT) infrastructure is a criti cal management issue that may be affected by national culture. Prior resear ch has shown that dimensions of national culture affect development of nati onal IT infrastructure as well as adoption and impact of IT applications. T his study explores the impact of two dimensions of national culture (uncert ainty avoidance and power distance) on the adoption of a type of IT infrast ructure (frame relay). A multinational survey was carried out, and it yield ed useable responses from 153 businesses from 24 countries. The results dem onstrated that businesses from higher uncertainty avoidance countries were less likely to adopt frame relay. A one-point increase in Hofstede's [15] u ncertainty avoidance index for the country of incorporation was associated with a 3% lower likelihood of adopting frame relay. Power distance was not significantly correlated with adoption of frame relay, These results highli ght the relevance of dimensions of national culture as factors affecting co rporate adoption of IT infrastructure. Implications for practice and furthe r research are presented.