DSS Implementation and Usage

Research into information technology adoption and use has been motivated by the desire to predict the factors that lead to IT use (Thompson and Rose, 1994). For the purpose of this study DSS technology is defined broadly to include a wide range of applications, because participants used different packages as well as different applications for different levels of decision-making in local authorities in Egypt this includes various software applications including: database application and more specialized applications branded under terms such as DSS, MIS, and EIS.

Under a general assumption of a positive relationship between IS/IT utilization and performance, numerous individual, organizational, and technological variables have been investigated in efforts to identify key factors affecting IS/IT behaviour. (Saga and Zmud, 1994) identified 20 empirical studies aimed at investigating the nature and determining factors of IT acceptance. Also a literature review by Prescott and Conger (1995), for instance, include 70 IT adoptions and use articles based on the diffusion of innovation paradigm alone.

The overwhelming majority of information technology adoption and usage research projects have been carried out in the technologically developed world. In fact, of the one hundred IT adoption and use studies covered in two recent literature reviews (Prescott and Conger, 1995; Thompson and Rose, 1994), none took place in developing countries or were conducted on DSS usage on SDM. Perhaps this is understandable given that the majority of academic institutions and IT users are located in the industrialised world. The consequence, however, is that the study of such phenomenon in the developing world has not established why IT has thus failed to transfer effectively (Goodman and Press, 1995; Knight, 1993; Mahmood, Gemoets, and Gosler, 1995; Odedra, Lawrie, Bennett, and Goodman, 1993) and this is a severely limiting factor. Mutual understanding between decision-makers from different parts of the world and cultural backgrounds is essential to mutually beneficial relationships. Currently, the developing countries invest a lot of money in IT related enterprises but the return on this investment is still lower than expected. We need to understand how and why DSS has or has not been used by decision makers in developing countries in order to improve this return. Many students from developing countries attend Western universities and then go back to their home countries. Egyptian researchers undertake projects to offer their technical and business knowledge but also to bring back some understanding of Western. A transfer of cultural knowledge in the opposite direction is only partly realised and is viewed as an inhibiting factor in technology acceptance and usage (Rose and Straub, 1998).

While information technology-specific adoption and use has not been evaluated across cultures of varying technological development levels, diffusion of non-IT innovations has been tested successfully (Rogers, 1995). Although these studies do suggest that information technology adoption and use models tested in developed nations may be applicable to less developed countries, no hard evidence presently exists. Of the 70 IT-based studies which either confirmed or extended the Roger's Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) model evaluated by Prescott and Conger (1995), none were conducted within developing nations (Rose and Straub, 1998).

A suitable first model for testing in developing world would be one that has shown robustness across the spectrum of IT application. This robust model should have the highest probability of success in future transfers across economic and cultural boundaries (Rose and Straub, 1998). Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a model closely related to Rogers' DOI model which has demonstrated this robustness. For this reason, TAM was selected as an appropriate model for studying DSS usage in making strategic decisions in local authorities in Egypt.