Nationality as a factor in the use of information management technologies

In an attempt to uncover various non-technical and behavioural issues relating to the adoption of personal information management (PIM) technologies, an exploratory study was conducted into cultural and nationality factors in the usage of such artefacts. This investigation assessed such usage among two sample groups, comparable on multiple socio-demographic and occupational factors, but situated within historically diverse nations - those of the UK, and the only recently democratized state of the Czech Republic. Particular attention was paid to any differences in the use of `traditional' paper based as opposed to `emerging' electronic technologies. The findings suggest that, whilst there was no significant difference in the usage of electronic items between the Czech and UK subjects, a nationality effect was observed in the use of traditional items, this being particularly pronounced in the case of two specific artefacts when taking the use of individual items into account