With the increasing levels of multiculturalism in today’s business and the proliferation and essentiality of information systems, development and management of IS needs to be considered in light of the cultural factors which impact upon its utility. Hofstede’s work on culture is the most widely cited in existence. His observations and analysis provide scholars and practitioners a valuable insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships. However, such a groundbreaking body of work does not escape criticism. Hofstede has been dogged by academics discrediting his work in part or whole. Nonetheless, far more scholars exist who support Hofstede than those that don’t. Most quote Hofstede’s work with unabashed confidence, many including his findings as absolute assumptions. This paper takes a critical look at Hofstede’s work and applies his findings to the practical needs of information systems. The paper finds support for the dimensions promoted by Hofstede in regard to information systems, but recommends continued research to provide greater clarity and continued applicability of his espoused dimensions.

In this study, we investigated how certain cultural values influenced Chinese and Spanish university teachers’ intentions to use technology. 426 Chinese university teachers and 404 Spanish university teachers participated in the study. The participants completed self-designed questionnaires based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence-constraint) as well as subjective norms and behavioural intention. We found consistent and significant relationships between subjective norms and behavioural intention in both the Spanish and Chinese samples. In addition, we found that the teachers’ perceived cultural preferences influenced their subjective norms and intentions to use technology in both the Chinese and Spanish samples. However, the relationships between these variables were different in the Spanish and Chinese samples. In addition, we compared three models which were all theoretically reasonable to determine the model that best fitted the data. This study contributes to our understanding of how culture influences teachers’ intentions to use technology in the contexts of Spain and China.