An examination of the gender gap in smartphone adoption and use in Arab countries: A cross-national study

Abstract

This is the first research to study gender differences among consumers in a cross-national context in the Middle East: the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan. A conceptual framework was developed by extending the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) further. It was tested among individuals aged 18-29 years using multistage cluster sampling. A total sample of around 900 usable responses from both countries were included in the analysis. The factors national IT development, enjoyment, perceived relative advantage, price value and effort expectancy were found to be significant in the model among Arab women in the UAE and Jordan. The study has theoretical, social and policy relating contributions. The study shows how an extended UTAUT2 fits among both genders in a crossnational context. The study is helpful for policymakers who intend to reduce the gender gap in smartphone adoption and use. The advancement of national IT development and the presence of effective policies focusing on women were found important in both countries.

Do mobile health (mHealth) services ensure the quality of health life? An integrated approach from a developing country context

“…For such reason, it is more apparent that despite of their tech-orientation, members of Gen Y in Bangladesh have less habituation in using the healthcare services through mobile devices. However, this insignificant association of HT with usage was appeared in several previous studies (Ameen, Willis, and Shah 2018;Herrero and San Martín 2017;Ravangard et al 2017;Shaw and Sergueeva 2019). Additionally, IQ from IS success model was insignificant to the young people to enhance their mHealth usage.…”

Customer experiences in the age of artificial intelligence

“…Despite the absence of human interaction in AI-enabled services, our results reveal that human emotions and a feeling of recognition remain important aspects. While the influence of technology on customer experience has been studied in different contexts ( Ameen, Willis, & Shah, 2018 ; Foroudi et al, 2018 ), our research offers insights into one of the more complex technologies (AI) to automate service provision. Our findings reveal how the integration of AI causes a shift in how consumers perceive their experiences, and the factors they consider to be important for the success of these experiences.…”

Autonomous delivery vehicles to fight the spread of Covid-19 – How do men and women differ in their acceptance?

“…Verifying the extended UTAUT2 empirically is the first goal of this paper. Moreover, gender differences have been argued to play an outstanding role in technology acceptance research ( Venkatesh et al, 2003 , Venkatesh et al, 2012 , Ameen et al, 2018 ). Thus, understanding the differences between women and men of ADVs acceptance is imperative, which is the second goal of this paper.…”