Cross Cultural Study: Perception, Usage, and Adoption of Technology

The primary goal of the project was to understand the cultural similarities and differences in perception, adoption and usage of technology across three cultures (US, India and China) in the domain of home entertainment. The methodology used for this research project includes a combination of “etic” and “emic” studies of the cultures. The etic perspective is based on literature review of various behavioral models and cross-cultural theories. The emic perspective is based on ideation sessions in each country and an ethnography study that revolved around perception, adoption and usage of technology by participants representing the target group. The study resulted in an understanding of the cultural aspects within the domain of home entertainment, which ranged from “expected cultural trends” to “unexpected cultural trends”. These observations were used to synthesize a framework which can be used by designers and innovators to identify opportunity spaces/concepts that have a greater likelihood of success in a specific culture or across several cultures. The insights gained from this study indicated that it is important for cross cultural explorations, to focus on “unexpected cultural behavior”. Unexpected cultural behavior is a likely indication of change that the culture has undergone or is in the process of experiencing. A three step process (SL method-developed at HFI) was used to understand the unexpected behavior observed for the sample population being studied and its relevance to the domain. Author