The Influencing Factors Of Consumer Broadband Adoption In China Rural Areas

Although the construction of ICT infrastructure has attracted an increasingly large investment in recent years, which makes nearly90%of the rural households connected to at least one broadband service, China rural areas demonstrate a slow adoption of broadband. In order to enhance the adoption of the broadband, this research examines the factors influencing the decision of household consumers.Two existing models explaining broadband adoption are most well-known. The first focuses on broadband divide by analyzing the demographic differences between urban and rural areas; the second develops a Model of Broadband Adoption(MBA) which is based on the TRA(Theory of Reasoned Action), TPB(Theory of Planned Behavior), TAM(Technology Acceptance Model), UTAUT(Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology), MATH(Model of Adoption of Technology in Households) in technology adoption domain. The MBA is the first model to study the influencing factors of consumer broadband adoption. Most studies so far are either based on developed country experiences or exploratory; it needs more confirmatory researches in different context.This research aims to address two main areas of concern:first, to testify the demographic differences between broadband adopter and non-adopter in China rural areas, in order to find out if there is a broadband divide in rural context; and second, to build on the Model of Broadband Adoption intention by modifying its cunrent constructs to suit the context of rural China and to include moderators. This research adopted a quantitative approach and the data was collected in the rural areas of Hebei province.The findings suggested that there is a broadband divide in China rural areas as well, with the broadband adopter being younger, more educated and earing more income; agricultural farmers are least likely to adopt broadband.This study also finds that the constructs named primary influence, utilitarian outcomes and hedonic outcomes significantly influence the consumers when adopting broadband in China rural areas. The influence of primary influence on behavioral intention is moderated by gender and age, such that the effect will be stronger for women and for older people. The influence of utilitarian outcomes on adopt intention is moderated by gender, age and education; the effect will be stronger for men, for younger people with less educated and particularly for younger men with less educated.The contribution of this research towards existing theories is that it is the first to integrate intervening variables into the MBA; it also modified the constructs of MBA to suit the new context. So this research enhances existing knowledge of broadband adoption from the consumers’ perspective in rural context. Given the slow adoption of broadband in rural China, this research can also draw implications for policy makers and broadband providers to encourage and promote broadband adoption among Chinese rural households.