Cultural impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia: The role of Nepotism

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a mixed method approach to answer: To what extent do cultural values impact on e-service use in Saudi Arabia, and if so how? This paper will firstly, introduce the importance of culture and define the aspects of Saudi culture. It will then describe the method used and present the questionnaire findings related to the role of nepotism. The review of the literature on nepotism indicates there is still much to be studied and learned. The legal aspects of nepotism, in addition to its impact on human resource management appear to be the more reported issues. However, nepotism's impact on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has not been studied. This research aims to cover this gap by investigating to what extent nepotism, as one of Saudi Arabia's cultural values, impacts on e-service use in Saudi Arabia. The tested hypothesis was found consistent with its predicted outcome: nepotism is a negative predictor of intention to use eservices in Saudi Arabia. It is evidenced that consideration of the impact of the cultural values will mainly contribute to the enhancement of social and organisational aspects of e-society research and practices, by deeply understanding them as of the influntials to e-service implementation.

Ranking of E-Health Barriers Faced by Saudi Arabian Citizens, Healthcare Professionals and IT Specialists in Saudi Arabia

“…Cultural barriers are the lowest impact factor which can hinder e-health in the Kingdom. Citizens' results were similar to Aldraehim and Edwards findings [9] where the need for human interaction is preferable by Saudi Arabian people. Figure 2 summarizes the ranking of the e-health barriers from the citizens' point of view.…”

Adoption of E-Government among Bahraini Citizens

“…Another study conducted by Aldraehim et al (2012) highlighted the cultural impact of e-Services use in Saudi Arabia. The study focused on nepotism since it has a major impact on Saudi society.…”

Understanding Culture with a Transnational Population: a Value-Sensitive Approach

“…With respect to Saudi Arabia, Hofstede's model has mostly been utilized to explore cultural values in the context of business, government and organizational e-services (e.g. [10,17,18,43]). Based on Hofstede's dimensions, Saudi Arabia, is characterized by high power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, indulgence, short term orientation and collectivism [45].…”