Do innovative attitudes and behavior lead to adoption? Empirical evidence from wireless services in Finland, Germany, and Greece

The present study extends the adoption research by identifying wireless service innovators and comparing innovative attitudes and behavior across three European countries: Finland, Germany, and Greece. Since innovativeness is tied up with products and prevailing situation, the study concentrates on a single industry, and compares innovativeness across these three cultures. Earlier studies have mainly concentrated on categorization of adopters within a country. The present paper examines the relationships between respondents' innovativeness, demographic characteristics, and usage of wireless services on the individual level. On the country level, the present paper assesses the effect of one cultural characteristic, uncertainty avoidance, on the adoption behavior of countries. The results of an online survey indicate that innovators are heavy users of mobile services and innovative attitudes affect behavior. Additionally, some demographic characteristics affect attitudes, whereas some affect adoption. Finally, the country's innovativeness is found to correlate with the country's tendency for uncertainty avoidance.