The study of the relationship between culture and information technology has taken several directions in cultural anthropology. The reference discipline of anthropology provides additional insight as well as support for focusing on the relationship between cultural and information technology. Anthropologists like Bertolotti (1984) points out that the culture of a country or region greatly affects the acceptance of technology through its beliefs and values about modernization and technological development. Thus, ignoring the cultural context can result in delays or, at worse, failures in information technology adoption process (Matta and Boutros 1989).
Straub (1994) suggests that cultural factors have a significant effect on technology diffusion process ranging from evaluation to adoption, use and performance. Burn (1995) believes that cultural values affect the efficacy of technology transfer across national boundaries. Particularly, culture is considered to be the most important factor in technology transfer from industrialized countries to developing ones. As the way technology is perceived and used in organizations is embedded in certain cultural environment, successful information technology implementation across cultures addresses both the technological readiness and the wider cultural and national setting within which the organization operates (Cummings and Guynes, 1994; Tricker, 1988; Robey and Rodriguez-Diaz, 1989).
Limaye and Victor (1991) argue that although information technology in business organizations around the world would converge, the conveyed meaning and the outcomes of information technology use may remain culturally oriented. There have been ample evidences in information systems literature on cultural differences regarding to the perception and use of information technology, and the way it is managed and transferred.