Consumers’ Readiness to Accept Technology-Based Products and Services in Developing Countries: the Chilean Experience.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to test the external validity of the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) in a develop- ing country. A hypothesis was formulated in order to test predictability of demographics and attitudinal variables with intention to embrace and use technology-based products and services. The TRI taxonomy of five-segments was also tested with a hypothesis. The survey was conducted in Spanish using a professionally translated version of the 36-item TRI, with the same 5-point scale format as the original TRI study (Parasuraman, 2000). Results indicate that demographic variables still matter when explaining people’s willingness to adopt new technology, age being the most consistent predictor. Results also provide evidence that attitude gets more importance than demographics when the potential adoption of a new technology may carry some potential risks of being affected either economically or phys- ically. The cluster analysis procedure indicated that a four-cluster solution provided the best grouping of respondents into meaningful segments. Only 13% of Chileans can be classified as explorers (compared to around 15-20% in the U.S.). The explorers combined with 27% of Chileans classified as pioneers, constitute 40% of the Chilean population that is likely to be ready to immediately accept new technologies. Also, a discussion of the potential effect of specific national cultural dimensions is provided.