As reported by the 2009 World Bank’s Higher Education Learning and Innovation Project, the overall usage of information technology in Yemen is lagging behind other countries in the region, which has a direct impact on the quality of education offered to Yemeni students. The purpose of this study was to explore the cultural factors that may be associated with Yemeni universities’ adoption of new technologies. This study was designed to demonstrate the relationship between four of the cultural dimensions defined in Hofstede’s model of culture and the level of adoption of IT in universities in two Middle Eastern countries with different levels of IT adoption but which appear to be similar in culture. Each cultural dimension represents a theoretical determinant on IT adoption.

Using an adapted version of the Values Survey Module (VSM) questionnaire, this quantitative study extended Hofstede’s study by calculating current scores on the four cultural dimensions (PDI, IDV, MAS and UAI) for a sample of 96 Yemeni and Saudi Arabian university administrators and IT managers and analyzing the relationship of these dimensions to the current IT adoption levels in these universities. The study’s results indicate a strong relationship between the high PDI and UAI Yemeni scores to the low IT adoption level in Yemeni universities compared to the Saudi universities with lower PDI and UAI scores. However, there was no relationship between IT adoption and IDV and MAS when comparing these two countries.