internet adoption and usage in bangladesh - jst

Japanese Journal of Administrative ScienceVolume20,No.1,2007,43-54.経営行動科学第20巻第1号,2007,43-54.

Research Note

研究ノート

Internet Adoption and Usage in Bangladesh

Md.Shah Azam

(University of Rajshahi,Bangladesh)

Like many developed and developing countries,Bangladesh has witnessed a phenomenal

growth in accessing digital technology particularly using the Internet.Although facingmany constraints in establishing an internet-dependent society,Bangladesh Government has

paid utmost priority to develop the Information Technology usage pattern in her differentsectors.Recently Bangladesh has been connected with information superhighway through

submarine optic-fiber cable network that creates a favourable environment to increase

Internet usage among various citizens.The study attempts to explore the effects of different

factors influencing the adoption of Internet in Bangladesh.The Rogers model of Innovation

Diffusion has been utilised as theoretical framework to measure the effects of the factors

that account for adoption of the Internet,assuming the Internet as an innovation.A multiple

regression analysis is carried out to determine the attributes that affect the intention to adopt

the Internet,where adoption intention is considered as the explained variable.The study

reveals that relative advantage,compatibility and complexity appear significant among the

five attributes of innovation,relative advantage,compatibility,complexity,trialability,and

observability considered as explanatory variables.

Keywords:Rogers model,innovation,adoption,diffusion.

INTRODUCTION

Technology innovation and its adoption declining the

older one is a common phenomena.It is observed

as the nature of technology to provide completely or

comparatively new and sophisticated benefits and

services to the user replacing the foregoing technology.

Adoption and usage of an innovation largely depends

on its nurture and the perception of the user on different

attributes of the innovation.

In recent years,developing countries including

Bangladesh have witnessed a phenomenal development

in the technology-dependent communication medium,

which is Internetl.In both developing and developed

countries,Internet is growing rapidly as a strong and

popular medium of communication2.Internet is not used

only to meet the users information needs.It has already

been widened its scope in introducing many services.

Business activities are also considered to be operated

through Internet,popularly known as e-commerce.3 The

Internet is revolutionizing every aspects of business

throughout the world.Although the quantum of business

done through Internet is small,it is growing exponentially

(Khatibi and Thiagaraj an,2000).Internet is the fastest diffusionary Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) innovation till to date.

For instance,it took just ten years for the web-based

Internet to reach 50% of American Homes,compared to

52 years taken by telephone.It took only three years for

the Internet to reach 50 million users.By contrast,it took

38 years for television to have 50 million users.During

1999,the number of Internet users increased by one

million every month(Dholakia,Dholakia and Kshetri,

2003).

ITU figures for 2000 and 2001 to show the geographical

distribution of the growth in the Internet population.The

1 Internet refers to the physical network that links

computers across the globe.It consists of theinfrastructure of network servers and wide area

communication links between them that are used tohold and transport the vast amount of information on

Internet.2 A voluminous statistics show that the growing trend

of Internet in developing countries is higher than thatof in developed countries.

3 E-commerce is the procedure to perform every

business operation from production to distribution andsales through Internet.

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研究ノート経営行動科学第20巻第1号

data shows that growing shares of new Internet users

are in developing countries.Another study predicts that

by 2005 there will be 941.8 million Internet users in the

world,or almost twice as many as the end of 2001,and

that the largest number of users will be concentrated

in Western Europe and Asia/Pacific excluding Japan.

The worlds Internet population was observed 387531

thousand in 2000,493020 thousand in 2001 and

591567thousand in 2002.The shares of the developing

countries are 93161thousand,1305717 thousand and

189882 thousand respectively.The change is observed in

developing countries 39.5% and in developed countries

12.4% in 2001-2002 and 21.4% in developed countries

and 45.7% in developing countries in the year 2000-2001

(UNCTAD,2002 and UNCTAD,2003).At the end of2003,nearly 676 million people (or 11.8 per cent of the

total population of the world) had access to the internet;

this represents an increase of 49.5 million people or 7.8

per cent compared with the figures at the end of 2002

(UNCTAD 2004).Internet user per 10000 observed4495 in 2003 and 4474 in 2002 show .48% growth

in developed countries while 501 in 2003 and 429 in

2002 show 16.78% growth in developing countries.

The increasing trend of the population of Internet and

the volume of Internet dependent economy force the

developing economy to adopt the Internet in different

aspects.

The situation of Bangladesh in participating in the

increasingly networked world is not satisfactory,

though government and non-government institutions'

participation and initiatives are countable.Bangladeshhas started achieving its ICT growths in 1990s though

she has the experience since 1960.Bangladesh govt.has

taken a number of big steps to motivate the growth of

ICT industries.It reduces almost 100% import duties

from the computer hardware and peripherals in 1998.

This encourages the people of many corners of the

country to enjoy the usage of computer with lower cost.

Bangladesh was in the process of being connected with

the world's information super highway through submarine

optic fiber cable during past few years (Internet Fair,

2004).In May 21,2006 Bangladesh has been officially

connected with world's information super highway

through submarine optic fiber cable network.This creates

enormous opportunity for Bangladesh to get access in

Internet and to use it in various functions ranging from

simple e-mail operation to online transactions.Amid

of those development ITU4 Ranked Bangladesh's ICT5

development in 136 among 178 countries of the globe.

Besides this,Bangladesh's ICT position is 6th among the

seven SAARC6 countries.Bangladesh is a strong member

of developing countries.Inadequate infrastructure,

outdated telephone systems,limited access to telephone

and computer,poor service quality with high price,

lack of qualified personnel,low per capita,low level of

literacy and IT skill,and cultural and language barrier,

hinder her adoption of Internet,though she has the

potentials to use Internet technology in developing hereducation,business,and services.As the most influential

and advanced part of her citizenry,university academics

can adopt first and then disseminate the ideas and

practices of Internet technology to many other sectors.The context above poses the question of whether

Bangladesh can gain advantages of the IT world in using

the Internet.This brings in the rationale of undertaking

a study inquiring the issue adoption of Internet in

Bangladesh.The study,thus,looks at the status and mode

of Internet use in Bangladesh and explores the effects of

different factors influencing adoption of Internet as aninnovation.

ORIGIN OF INTERNET AND

ITS DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH

Internet has existed since the late 1960s when a limitednumber of computers were connected in the United States

to form the ARPANET7.This was mainly used to enable

academics and military personnel to exchange defense

information.Recent dramatic growth in the use of Internet

has occurred because of the development of World Wide

Web.This became a commercial proposition in 1993.

In Bangladesh it has come into operation commercially

in the mid-90s.In early 90s,Bangladesh had access to

e-mail via Bulletin Board Systems(BBS).On June 6,

1996 the VSAT base data circuit was commissioned

4 International Telecommunication Union recently ranked 178 countries of the world considering theirICT initiatives and development.

5 ICT is used to mention the Information andCommunication Technology.

6 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,member countries are Bangladesh,India,Maldives,Nepal,Pakistan,Srilanka and Bhutan.

7 Advanced Research Project Network.

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for the first time in the country.Bangladesh Telegraph

and Telephone Board(BTTB)granted licenses to two

Internet Service Providers,Information Services Network

(ISN) and Grameen Cybernet to install VSAT (VerySmall Aperture Terminal,a satellite communications

system) data circuits in the same year.That was the legal

permission of doing business to provide Internet serviceto the people of the country.Just after one year in 1997,

tremendous development was observed in the growth of

Internet in Bangladesh.Over a dozen ISPs,and ten times

higher numbers of clients were observed than that of the

previous year.Afterwards the competition in ISP businesswas increased,more new ISPs were set up,and services

offerings by the organizations facilitate an exponential

growth in Internet use.The number of Internet user andthe number of ISPs are growing rapidly,Present user

base of ISPs in Bangladesh is about 100,000 dial up users

and 80,000 broadband users.The number of ISPs is 146

registered with the appropriate authority.

The development initiatives in Bangladesh are

passing through many constraints.The main source ofconnectivity,telephone is not available in this country.

Bangladesh is the country of lowest teledensity in the

world.It ranked 39th among the 40 countries of Asia

pacific in 1999 with .46 combined density.Like manyother developing countries,Bangladesh suffers from

inadequate infrastructure,outdated telephone systems,

limited access to telephone and computer,poor service

quality with high price,lack of qualified personnel,low level of literacy and IT skill,as well as cultural

and language barriers(WTO,1998).Main obstacle of

using the Internet in Bangladesh is its distribution.The

Internet facility is still an urban privilege in Bangladesh

as the telephone connections are more concentrated in

urban areas,specially Dhaka8 based.The populationsliving outside urban areas are mostly deprived of gaining

the Internet benefit though they have the potentials.9

Noticeable digital divide is observed in the country in the

following areas(Rahman,2003):

・Urban and rural populations

・Dhaka(The Capital)and rest of the country

・Different educational streams

・Rich population and poorpopulation

・Male and Female

・Main stream and tribal population

・Government and private organisation

Despite suffering from multi-dimensional problems in

Internet access,Bangladesh has the potentials of gaining

success in using Internet in her education,development,

business and other service sectors.

The government of Bangladesh considers the ICT

sector as thirst sector in the fifth five-year plan of the

Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.They approved the

transoceanic optical cable network project on March

17,2004 in a meeting of the executive committee of

National Economic Council(ECNEC)for submarine

optic fiber cable connectivity.Recently Bangladesh

has been connected with information super highway

through submarine optic fiber networks with 16

countries consortium by SEA-ME-WE-4 project10.The

government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh hasinaugurated the connectivity on 21st May 2006 althoug

has not started its operation for public use (Daily Star,

2006,Prothom Alo,2006).The landing station has

been established in Cox's Bazzar,the southern City,

near the Bay of Bengal.Country is expected to enjoy

high bandwidth with the benefit of lower usage charge

of Internet,certainly that will help develop the digital

environment and ICT usage behavior of the countries

citizenry.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The study of innovation adoption has drawn much

attention in the previous researches.Numerous studies

have been initiated to look at the adoption of innovation

in the developed as well as in developing countries

(Rogers,1983,Davis,1986,1989,1993,Moore andBenbasat,1991,Premkumar and Potter,1995,Agarwal

and Prashad,1997,1998,1999,Taylor and Todd,1995,

Tan and Teo,2000,Kendall et,al.,2001,Sathye and

8 Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh.9 The main way of Internet service is dial up via digital

telephone.Bangladesh has 14 million populationliving in 64 districts,495 thanas and more than 68000villages.Among them only 64 districts and 164Upazilas (Thanas) have been provided digital telecomnetwork where people are getting Internet service.considerable portions of the population are still quiteaway from internet service.

10 SEA-ME-WE means South East Asia,Middle East,and West Europe.

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Diana,2001).Many researches are still being initiated to

study the adoption of newly innovated technologies both

in individual and organisational perspective(Ramayah

et.al.,2003,Ramayah,Jantan and Aafaqi,2003,Azam,

2004,Ramayah,Ignatius and Aafaqi,2004,Azam,

2005,2006,Ramaya et,al.,2006).The previous studies

utilised different models to address innovation adoption

particularly technology adoption,mostly derived fromRogers Innovation Diffusion Theory,Theory Reasoned

Action by Ajzen Feishbein,Theory of Planed Behaviour

or Technology Acceptance Model(TAM).Although

Rogers theory is the oldest theory among these four and

TAM is the youngest,every theory has the utility and

still are being used,some times replicated,in different

adoption researches.

The innovation decision process involves the evaluation

of an innovation by the individual.Based on this

evaluation,an attitude towards the innovation is formed.

The contents of beliefs are derived from the innovation

diffusion theory proposed by Rogers in 1995.

According to Rogers,the decision process begins with the

knowledge of the existence of the innovation and matures

observing persuasion,decision and implementation stage.

During the knowledge stage consumer is exposed to the

innovation's existence and gains some understanding of

how it functions,persuasion stage refers to that period

when consumer forms favorable or unfavorable attitude

towards the innovation.Often,early adopters who are

typically innovators themselves,or in some cases change

agents,attempt to convince the general user population of

the benefits of the innovation.

In the model of innovation diffusion,it is found that the

persuasion stage is very much important to form the

positive attitude(willingness or intention)to adopt theinnovation.

Rogers includes all benefits and barriers as well as many

other factors that affect in the adoption into five attributes

of innovation that is "the perceived characteristics of

innovation as perceived by the individual or organization.

The characteristics of innovation consist of relative

advantage,compatibility,complexity,trialability and

observabiltiy."

Variables

Using Rogers's theory of diffusion of innovation as the

theoretical foundation,this study considers willingness

to adopt or in other word adoption rate of Internet by

the professionals as exogenous variable and relative

advantage,compatibility,complexity,trialability,and

observability of innovation perceived by the adopter as

indigenous variables.

Relative advantage: Relative advantage is defined

as'the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being

better than the idea it supersedes.'Relative advantage has

been found to be one of the best predictors and positively

related to an innovations rate of adoption(Kendall et.al,

2001,Limthongchai and Speece,2002 and Rogers,1983).

There are potential opportunities and benefits of

using Internet by professionals.The growing awareness

and understanding of the advantages of Internet and its

different tools among the academics in Bangladesh can

positively influence in their desire and interest to Theadoption of Internet.

Compatibility:Compatibility refers to`the degree

to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with

the existing values,past experiences,and needs of

potential adopters.An innovation could be compatibleor incompatible with socio cultural values and beliefs,

with previously introduced ideas or with client needs

for innovation.Compatibility has also been found to be

one of the major predictors and is positively related to

an innovations rate of adoption(Kendall et.al,2001,

Limthongchai and Speece,2002 and Dholakia,Dholakia

and Kshetri,2003).

Complexity:Complexity is the difficulty perceived

by adopters in adopting the new innovation.It refers to`the degree to which an innovation is perceived relatively

difficult to understand and use'(Agrawal and Prashad,

1997 and Rogers,1983).Complexity is mentioned as the

notion of perceived ease of use.They report that systems,

which are perceived to be easier to use and less complex,

have a higher likelihood of being accepted and used by

potential users.Trialability:Trialabilty can be defined as to'the

degree to which an innovation is capable of being tried

on limited basis.The greater the opportunity to try an

innovation,the easier it is easy for consumers to evaluate

it and ultimately adopt it.New ideas that can be tried will

generally be adopted more rapidly than innovations thatcannot be given a small-scale trial.A testable innovation

is less risky for the adopters(Kendall et,al.,2001).

Observability: Observability is the ease with which

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an innovations benefits or attributes can be observed,

imagined,or described to potential consumers.The

results of some innovations are difficult to describe to

others.Observability in an innovation is important factor

in early adoption of innovation(Rogers,1995).

Hypotheses:

According to the theoretical framework provided by

Rogers(1995)it would be logically hypothesized that

positive perception of Internet will lead to early use of theInternet.At the same time negative perception on Internet

will lead to late use or not use of Internet.

Understanding the Rogers model the hypotheses might be:

Hl:The adoption of Internet in Bangladesh will be

positively related to perceived relative advanta

ge of using Internet.H2:The adoption of Internet in Bangladesh will be

positively related to the perceived compatibilityof using Internet.

H3:Peoples in Bangladesh will adopt Internet if

they find that it is easy to understand and lesscomplex to use.


they are convinced about its reality.

H5:Peoples in Bangladesh will adopt Internet if it

is easily observable.

METHODOLOGY

A survey instrument was formulated to obtain responses

from the academics engaged in different faculties in the

University of Rajshahi in Bangladesh,assessing their

intention,present level of Internet usage and adoption

of Internet.The questions have been designed as to get

responses specific to hypotheses that are proposed to test.

A multiple regression model was estimated to ascertain

the degree of the influence of factors that affect adoption-

diffusion and usage of Internet.

Population and Sample

The study looks at the Internet adoption and usage

behaviour of the citizen of Bangladesh.Considering a

wide digital divide exist among rural and urban areas as

well as educated and less educated part of The country's

population(Rahman,2003)the study has undertakensome faculties engaged in different disciples in the

University of Rajshahi,Bangladesh as sample unit.The

study was administered to the University professors in

considering the following logic:

Firstly:Measuring the intention and present status of

using Internet may be difficult if it considers different

classes of people in the population as Bangladesh has

some constraints to provide ICT support to her people.

Low per capita and literacy as well as low telephone and

computer penetration is the major constraints in adoption

of Internet by the mass people of the country.

Secondly:University teachers are the advanced part

of the country's population.According to the nature

of their service,they are using the Internet.In recent

past,Rajshahi University has installed its own VSATand which enables all academic units interconnected

by establishing fiber optic cables based LAN.So every

academics of this University has the opportunity to use

Internet from their office if they are interested.

Thirdly:University teachers have unique opportunity to

participate into the promotion of the use of Internet todevelop the present mode of communication if they use

and disseminate the experiences to their students.As the

future generation of the country the students can gain

information success by adopting this experience into their

future professional activity.Obviously,that will foster the

pace of the development in Bangladesh.A stratified random sampling technique was used to

select the sample units.Total 829 teaching staffs of

Raj shahi University were divided into six strata according

to different faculties and selected 60 sample units at

random proportionately.

Data Collection

A structured questionnaire was formed,using six point

likert scale in gaining the respondents perception

on different statements in relation to the adoption of

Internet in Bangladesh..Direct interview approach was

admistered in view of collecting accurate data.

Variables measurement

Willingness to adopt Internet has been used as dependent

variable.A multiple regression was used since the

dependent variable Y is being formulated from four

questions.Dependent variable is arrived as an averageof responses to a set of four questions included to gauge

willingness to adopt internet.

The perceived factors of innovation was measured

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on a six point likert scale in which indicate strongly

agree,indicate agree,indicate somehow agree,indicate

somehow disagree,indicate disagree and indicate

strongly disagree.

Relative Avantage:This construct was measured by

asking the professionals about their perceptions on using

Internet,whether Internet will reduce cost,reduce time to

communicate,even to communicate across international

boundaries,will increase efficiency and provide

opportunity to operate regardless of time and place.

Compatibility:The construct compatibility was

measured by collecting responses of professionals about

their perceptions toward using Internet on whether the

Internet is compatible or relevant with the professional

works,with their current operations or processes,with

their capability or skills.

Complexity:This construct was measured by

asking respondents about their perception on whether it is

difficult to access the internet to use,whether they have

the lack of adequate technological facilities to operate

Internet,whether Internet operations are too complicated

to understand and use,it requires more training to use,it

involves the question of security,privacy and confidence,

and whether the company lacks the technological

knowledge to install new hardware and software needed

for internet.

Trialability:To measure the construct trialability

the respondents were asked whether they could access

to a free trial before deciding to adopt Internet,whether

the respondent has the opportunity to try a number of

Internet applications before making a decision to adopt

and try Internet on sufficiently large scale.

Observability:This construct was measured by

asking respondents about their perception on whether

the demonstration of the out come of using Internet by

any professional will help to adopt or reject Internet

usage and whether the professionals are confused on if

using internet will secure desired objectives regarding

communication as well as collecting information.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADOPTION

OF INTERNET IN BANGLADESH

Respondents Status and Applicability of Rogers

Model

60 teachers of the University of Raj shahi were surveyed

representing 7.24% of the university faculties.The

possible measures were taken to avoid undue bias in datacollection.Of the 60 teachers the survey reports that

26.67% teachers have the facility of Internet at home,

41.67% have the facility of personal computing at home

whereas 100% of the respondents have the scope to enjoy

the computing facility or Internet browsing opportunity

at the office either directly or remotely.75% of the

respondents are using Internet presently and 25% of them

have no connection with Internet.75% of the teachers

have the experience in e-mail,65% web browsing,8.3%

news and video conferencing,18% chatting and other

experience,3.3% have online shopping experience and

3.3% have own home page.26.6 % of the respondents'

work 1 and more hours per day with the Internet,28.3%

work 2 and more hours and 20% of the respondent work

3 and more hours per day with Internet.The professional

status of the respondents was:28.33% Professor,23.33%

Associate Professor,36.66% Assistant Professors and

11.66% lecturers.

The situation of the present study is considered very

much compatible in order to apply the Rogers model

of innovation diffusion in ascertaining the influence

of the factors that affect the adoption of Internet,as

the University of Rjshsahi has adequate infrastructural

facility of Internet having own VSAT with the intranet

connectivity by fiber optic cable based local area

networking.At present almost all teachers of the

university are aware of Internet and have the opportunity

to enjoy the Internet access at office.Besides,many

teachers have the Internet connectivity at their residences

and currently they use it.On the other hand,Internet can

be considered as an information technology innovation"

for many adopters.

Data analysis and Reliability:

12 items were generated to obtain the respondents

perceptions on different five innovation characteristics

identified by Rogers.The perceived innovation

characteristics were judged by using items of B of the

study.4 other items were also generated to measure the

respondents'intention to adopt Internet.

To ascertain the correlation of the items of part B with

11 The situationally new development and introductionof knowledge derived tools,artifacts,and devices

by which people extend and interact with theirenvironment might be termed as an innovation.

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the five innovation characteristics identified by Rogers,

the techniques,thus,facilitates distillation of those items

into five factors or components that are associated with

Rogers attributes.These factors embodying the essence of

the items,grouped by attribute,then serve as independent

variable in the proposed regression model.The model

runs showed that several questions do not correlate well

even after varimax rotation.Question 2 and 7 did not

correlate highly with other questions associated with

respective characteristics and were therefore excluded

from further analysis.

Summary results of the factor analysis run for the

questions of part B of the study show the evidence andtheoretical backup to retain five factors.

Table 1:Factor Analysis:

Notes:Extraction method:Principal Component Analysis;Observation:60 Rotation Method:Varimax

The results of the rotated matrix of the factor analysis

run shows that question 4,9,10;Question 1,8;Question

5,6;question 11,12;and Question 3 are grouped

in component 1(Relative Advantage);Componet 2

(Trialability);Component 3(Compatibility);Component4(Complexity);and Question 5 Observability

respectively.Table:2 Shows the results of the internal

item reliability of the items associated with the innovation

characteristics using the Cronbach Alpha Model based on

average inter item correlation.

Reliability estimates range from.62 to.76.12

12 For early stages of research the coefficient CronbachAlpha.6 and above is acceptable[5].

Table 2:Factor Loadings and Inter Item Correlation

Table 2.1:Perceived Relative Advantage

Cronbach Alpha=0.7122

Table 2.2:Perceived Complexity


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Table 2.3:Perceived Compatibility

Cronbach Alpha=0..6208

Table 2.4:Perceived Trailability


Table:2.5 Perceived Observibility

Cronbach Alpha=na

Factor analysis also distillate the four questions of

the survey,designed to understand the respondents'

willingness to adopt Internet as a medium of

communication and source of information.Result

reports that two factors are appeared to be relevant in

characterizing these data.The results of the rotated

varimax matrix show that factor 1 is related with task

of general function of internet and factor 2 is associated

with the higher level of function that extreme stages of

using internet which may not be relevant to the current

situation and current status of the academics of the

university in a developing country like Bangladesh.This

question may be important for IT expert and other people

those are related to professional Internet functioning.This

conjecture is strengthened the fact that Rogers' variables

did not explain factor 2 in subsequent regression analysis.

On this basis factor 1(Cronbach alpha.7141)was used as

distilled measure of willingness to adopt Internet by the

University academics.

Multiple Regression Analysis:

To examine the joint impact,a regression analysis was

conducted to investigate which perceived characteristics

of Internet best predict the adoption rate.Taking a 5%

significance level,the model run results indicate the

5 characteristics considered in the model account for

70% Internet adoption by the University Academics

in Bangladesh.Relative Advantage,Compatibility

and Relative Complexity were considered statistically

significant.The beta weight indicates that compatibility

was strongest predictor followed by Relative Advantage

and Relative Complexity.The VIF and tolerance value

indicate absence of multicollinearity problem.13

Therefore to summarize the hypotheses,the study reports

that hypotheses 1,2 and 3 were supported and hypothesis

13 The higher the VIF value,mostly VIF=10.00 andabove and the lower the value of tolerance,.2 or

less,indicates the existence of multicollinearity.Theregression model run results proof the linearity.

Table 3:Regression Model Summary

Predictors:(Constant),Relative advantage,Compatibility,Complexity,Trialabilty,ObservabilityDependent Variable:Adoption Intention

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Table 4:Significance of Regression Coefficient

Dependent Variable:Adoption Intention

Table 5:Collinearity Diagnostics

Dependent Variable:Adoption Intention

4 and 5 were not supported,as:

Hl:The adoption of Internet in Bangladesh will

be positively related to perceived relative

advantage of using Internet.Supported

H2:The adoption of Internet in Bangladesh will be

positively related to the perceived compatibilityof using Internet.Supported

H3:People in Bangladesh will adopt Internet if

they find that it is easy to understand and less

complex to use.Supported


they are convinced about its reality.Not Supported

H5:Peoples in Bangladesh will adopt Internet if it

is easily observable.Not Supported

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

The regression analysis reports that there was

a significant correlation between all perceived

characteristics of innovation and Internet adoption.Relative advantage,Compatibility,Trialability and

Observabilty are positively correlated which means that

the positive perceptions of these four characteristics led

to higher adoption rate.On the other hand,Complexity

negatively correlated with adoption rate,which means

that the perceptions of more Complexity led to lower

adoption.

Regression analysis further investigated which factors

of innovation best predict the adoption of Internet with

significant level.The results show that Complexity is

the strongest predictor compared to other perceived

characteristics of Internet observed as significant.This

implies that respondents perceived Internet using with

insecurity and lack of confidentiality.Many weapons of

The country's legal system and its cultural heritage hinder

her adoption of Internet.People in Bangladesh are still

not familiar with the computer operation.As Internet

is a computer dependent communication media,they

normally face two-dimensional complex,simultaneously

in operating the computer as well as in handling Internet

technology.With respondents negative perception about

Complexity refers its inverse relationship with the

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adoption rate.This findings supports previous studies

based on Rogers Model(Azam,2005,Ramayah et.al,

2006,Kendall et.al,2001).

Compatibility emerged as an important factor affecting

the adoption of Internet by the academics.For the

academics,the Compatibility issue is significant

because it deals with their perception on the importance

of Internet to various tasks performed by them at

present and future.If Internet is compatible with thetraditional way of performing various activities of the

teachers,with the existing values and mentality of the

teachers,and is also compatible with the different parts

to be communicated for higher research or academic

development as well as with the authority's and students'

way of conducting various functions in future,higher

rate of adoption occurs.The study observation is similar

to many previous researches(Gan,2003,Tan and Teo,

2000,Kendall et.al,2001,Azam,2005,Ramayah et.al,

2006).Although the study findings is straight forward

to understand that innovation compatible with existing

values,cultures,processes and way of working will be

adopted very fast,the case of Bangladesh can be thought

of in different way as the existing process and the way

of conducting different works,services and businesses

are not presently compatible with the Internet dependent

communication(Azam,2006).Thus the adoption rate of

Internet may be observed differently in different sectors

among various classes of people of the country.

Relative advantage is also important factor in explaining

Internet adoption in universities.The significance of

relative advantage represents that teachers in Bangladesh

positively perceived that Internet creates advantages forthe community,reduces cost of overall communication

and information collection.It reduces the time of

operation in conducting overseas interactions,helps easily

establish contact with many experts in any time by web

browsing,helps provide opportunity to communicate

with the unknown person by viewing their details in the

web.This positive perception influenced their intention to

adopt Internet in which the higher the relative advantage,

the higher the rate of Internet adoption.The findings

supported many previous researches(Gan,2003,Tan and

Toe,2000,and Azam,2005) but showed a contradiction

with the research conducted by Ramayah,et.al,2006 to

examine the adoption of HRIS.

In terms of practical implications for the development

and implementation of Internet,the findings provide a

guideline on the factors that a potential adopter considerin evaluating Internet.This study was administered to the

teachers of the University of Rajshahi who have a higher

education level and the previous knowledge on Internet

technology.They have the privileges to operate Internet at

their department as the university has its own VSAT.This

brings in a question whether this result will be significant

for the academics of other universities and/or the people

working in many other professions in Bangladesh,who

don't have adequate facilities to enjoy available access

to Internet.It may be considered as the area of future

research.Despite the above limitations the results of the

study have implications to the academics and researchers

who are interested in looking at the inhibitors and

stimulators of Internet.Finally it is concluded that an

innovation with lower complexity and higher relative

advantage which is compatible with the existing values,

processes and way of working will have higher likelihoodof being adopted.Thus the outcome mey be utilised by

the concerned authorities and business entrepreneurs

to encourage the development and implementation of

Internet in Bangladesh

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(平成17年12月26日受稿,平成18年6月22日受理)

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