Information and communication technologies in the Kuwaiti Parliament: a user acceptance and adoption study

Abstract

Today, information and communication technologies (ICTs) affect political and administrative areas in a profound way, and the extent of this impact increases day by day. Nowadays, ICTs are increasingly employed to play an important role in the improvement of governmental work. Parliaments are central institutions in democratic government systems. ICT has the potential to assist in improving the representation function of these Parliaments by expanding the information capabilities for Parliaments and Members of Parliaments. As with any new technology, user acceptance of the new technology is often hard to measure. This thesis examines whether Parliamentarians in Kuwait were practically willing to accept ICT of various kinds. It focuses upon Kuwait, which has a developing economy with a rapid rate of growth, and therefore makes a unique case study. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) proposes that Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, and Social Influence predictBehavioural Intentiontowards the acceptance of information technology. The theory further proposes that Facilitating Conditions andBehavioural Intentionpredict use behaviour in the acceptance of information technology. The theory has been assessed using many different applications, and it has become the model for measuring user acceptance. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use III of Technology (UTAUT) with moderating variables such as age, gender and education level has been used in this study as a proposed conceptual framework. The study has also incorporated a model of cultural difference, to explore the influence of cultural factors. The study utilized mixed methods; questionnaires plus a set of interviews, within a case study approach. Two kinds of questionnaires were used. The first was an amended UTAUT model questionnaire and the second the software system usability survey (SUS). The sample was drawn from members of the Kuwaiti National Assembly, with 182 responses received. The interviews were conducted with Ministers, Members of Parliament, Heads of departments, and some employees of the National Assembly. The study found that Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, and Self-Efficacy were direct determinants of usage Intention in the Kuwait Parliament while Social Influence was not an effective determinant in this study, against the predictions of the UTAUT model. Gender and educational level had no influence as moderators on the determinant factors investigated in this study. However, age was found to be a moderator on the impact of the determinants on usage Intention and behaviour of the Parliamentarians for Performance Expectancy.

Date of Award	Jun 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton