Study of the Role of Individual, Cultural, and Organizational Factors in Acceptance of Information Technology Among Students of Urmia University

Abstract

Background Nowadays, the use of information technology to be consistent with environmental change and gain flexibility is necessary. The use of IT in the education system or any other system and organization has different effects. Understanding these factors will facilitate the use of this technology. This study investigated the relationship between individual, cultural, and organizational factors and acceptance of information technology among students of Urmia University. Methods This correlational descriptive study was conducted at Urmia University in 2014. The statistical population comprised 1500 students. A sample of 200 students were selected among literature, engineering, physical education, and art students using relative stratified sampling method. We used two types of questionnaires with 85 items for gathering the data. The reliability of individual, cultural, and organizational questionnaire was 85% and the reliability of IT questionnaire was obtained as 88%. Validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by a panel of experts and the supervisor. Analysis of the data was done using “SPSS" version 20 and multiple regression method. Results The results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between all the organizational factors and IT adoption, while no significant relationship was found between two culture components (manhood/womanhood and ambiguity aversion) and IT adoption. Also, in terms of individual variation, there was not any relationship between computerized stress and IT adoption (P = 0.406). There was a positive relationship between computerized self-efficiency and IT adoption. Conclusions Universities have realized the importance of IT and its effective role in increasing productivity, decreasing face-to-face communication, increasing the rate of work done outside the university, and saving time required to do things; thus, they have convinced own and their organization to use this technology. If students have more experience in using computer, they will have more efficacy and therefore less stress in working with computer.