The adoption of ICTs at public access centres in a rural South African community

Abstract

An assessment of digital divide eradication strategies in South Africa and internationally indicates that the deployment of public access centres is still considered an intervention by governments. This is in part due to the continued high cost of access to the internet, especially to people in rural communities. The success of these initiatives is threatened by a lack of understanding of the issues relating to the adoption of ICTs in these communities. An important consideration is whether such programmes will be successful, given the many reports in South Africa regarding the failure of public access centre programmes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that contribute to the adoption of ICTs at a public access centre (PAC) in the small rural town of Barkly West. Furthermore, this study sought to provide better ways of applying existing frameworks or methods to address technology adoption in rural communities. Over the years, several studies as well as literature have shown that the focus in technology adoption research has predominantly been on access. This study, therefore, sought to find a deeper understanding of the factors identified in this context in relation to technology adoption. This study was based on Chau and Hu’s (2002) adaptation of applicability to technology acceptance within various sectors. This framework takes the positives of the UTAUT and introduces emerging variables not initially covered and specific to the environment. This study collected evidence through a survey questionnaire as well as focus group discussions. This was attained through a two phase process. The first phase was to identify the relationship between variables from the generic framework and a survey questionnaire was distributed. Based on this initial assessment, the research question was addressed. Furthermore, a new variable emerged termed ‘Assistance’ which was the strongest predictor of Behavioral Intention. The second phase allowed to delve deeper into the issues identified which found that in addition to variables from the UTAUT model ‘Assistance’ resurfaced again as a need before rural people can engage in ICTs at the PAC. What’s more, external factors such as Community Exclusion, Corruption and Training Benefits were found to also contribute to the adoption process in this rural town. In addition, this study takes findings from applying the abovementioned framework and maps it against the Access Capacity and Environment (ACE) framework by Gomez (2010). This develops into a new integrated ACE framework which serves as a contribution to understanding the field of ICT adoption in public access centres in the context of rural communities. Furthermore, the findings therefore contribute to our understanding of ICT adoption in a typical rural community. This study argued that if public access ICT projects are implemented with an understanding of adoption factors which facilitates adoption then there is a greater chance of meeting goals in relation to the development of an information society.