National culture and technology acceptance- A cross-cultural comparison of German- and French-speaking Switzerland on user reactions towards the introduction of a new digital workflow tool

Introducing a new IT system in a firm is often accompanied by many challenges. One of the biggest issues is user resistance, which is the primary reason for most IT projects to fail. This issue is becoming more relevant than ever with the fourth industrial revolution, where digitalization grows in importance and requires new efficient IT solutions. The implementation of such solutions becomes even more complex for managers in multinational companies, who are confronted with employees in different countries and with different cultural backgrounds. This study examines the interplay of national culture and IT acceptance. It focuses on how national culture determines the perception and usage of a new digital workflow tool. The study follows the design of a qualitative multiple case study and examines the problem using the example of the culturally different regions of German- and French-speaking Switzerland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees of a multinational company on their perception of a newly introduced digital workflow tool. The findings revealed that the usage of the new digital workflow tool was higher in German-speaking Switzerland than in the French-speaking region. Furthermore, it was found that the perception of facilitating and hindering criteria of using the new digital workflow tool did vary across both regions. In addition, the research revealed that some criteria of the theoretical models on user’s behavior seemed not to be relevant anymore, whereas other new criteria were detected. These findings lead to the recommendation that a company should design the implementation of new IT tools according to the cultural differences of its employees. Even though a company might not be able to control each criterion that influences the user’s behavior, some actions can be taken. Future research should investigate the perception of facilitating and hindering criteria across more countries, with companies in different industries and with a higher number of interviews to expand the insights into the science field of national culture and IT acceptance. This could also help verify whether the models about criteria influencing the user behavior must be revised or can hold across different cultures and industries.