Session 04 : Paper 01
Elizabeth Fife, PhD and Francis Pereira, PhD
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and ICT:
Challenges of End-User Adoption of
Digital Life
While current information communication technologies and applications
have the potential to alleviate some of the societal problems in everyday life,
a recent survey shows that most end-users do not see these applications as
being able to alleviate the challenges they face in their daily lives. Juxtaposed
against CTM’s (Communication,Technology and Management) Digital Life
Hierarchy, the survey results suggest that most end-users are in the “Basic
Life” category, using ICT predominantly for communications and
entertainment.The results of this survey also suggest that the Maslowian
Hierarchy of Needs still predominate in most end-users’ lives, and many are
concerned with financial security, health care and education.Thus ICT
applications such as tele-health and tele-medicine represent potential new
areas of high revenue growth
Although the rapid mobile
phone diffusion in some parts
of the world seem to exemplify
the benefits of anytime/
anywhere communications, the
question still remains whether
mobile data communications
actually do intensify or
transform the social interactions between people, networks, companies, and
organisations through alwayson communications and
services.
Proceedings of FITCE Congress 2008
Introduction
Increased computer penetration and high
speed access to the Internet in the home
has facilitated the potential for consumers
and society in general to realise the benefits
of ‘e-society’: increasing access to health
care through telemedicine; diminishing the
social divide through tele-education; and
increasing the quality of life, and competitiveness of the economy through tele-work.
Specifically, tele-medicine allows governments to extend universal healthcare services to remote areas and provides an economically viable means to increase the
quality of medical services. This is particularly important in the US with an aging
population – the number of Americans aged
between 45 years and 64 has increased by
38% over the past decade. It is estimated
that each additional year of life increases
health care costs by 3%. This, coupled with
the declining number of qualified nurses
and doctors, increases the attractiveness of
digital home-health applications and services, which could reduce health care costs
between 20% and 30% annually. Similarly,
tele-education provides governments with
the means to increase the level of educational services to resource-strapped inner
cities and the means to extend the learning
experience to the homes. And tele-work has
the ability to reduce congestion and carbon
monoxide emissions as well as reducing
consumption of petroleum resources.
Similarly, although the rapid mobile
phone diffusion in some parts of the world
seem to exemplify the benefits of anytime/
anywhere communications, the question still
remains whether mobile data communications actually do intensify or transform the
social interactions between people, networks,
companies, and organisations through
always-on communications and services.
And while the current state of technology, albeit not perfect, allows the realisation
of digital life – defined as the state where
the virtual office is the norm, all aspects of
e-commerce are realised, including time,
place, and device shifting of entertainment
experience has occurred, interactive multimedia applications and machine to machine
communication are commonplace and interactive multimedia entertainment is seen as
part of communal experience – the adoption of these services and applications have
been slow in the US.
This paper identifies some of the problems associated with the adoption of digital
life by end-users in the US. Specifically, this
paper addresses the following questions: i)
Can current information communication
technologies effectively address some of the
problems in US society? ii) Do end-users
view current information technologies as
means to address some of the challenges in
their everyday life? iii) What are the factors
impeding end-user adoption of these technologies such as tele-work and tele-health?
iv) What are the key accelerators that would
make digital life a reality in the US? This
paper draws on results of a random sample
of over 5,000 respondents in North America,
on the role of ICT in addressing end-user
‘paint points and passions’. As initial analyses of the results indicate, tracking end-user
‘passion’ and ‘pain-points’ translates to the
share of attention paid on the issues and
share of the ‘end-user’ wallet spent on these
activities. Also, this paper argues ‘ease of
use’ and ‘uniqueness’ of ICT applications and
services are key drivers of end-user adoption.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
In 1954, Abram Maslow1 postulated the
existence of hierarchy of 5 levels of needs.
As shown in Figure 1, the lowest level of
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Session 04 : Paper 01
Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Figure 2: US households’ average expenditures
Figure 3: US households’ average expenditures as percentage of total
58
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and ICT
needs reflect the basic physiological needs –
food, water, clothing and shelter. In the
Maslowian model, individuals strive to
satisfy physiological needs first. These are
the basic human needs required to sustain
life and include food, clothing and shelter.
Only once the physiological needs are
satisfied, will safety or security become the
predominant need. Safety encompasses the
need to be free of fear of physical danger, the
need to be free of deprivation of basic
physiological needs, and the need for selfpreservation. Key aspects of this level of
needs are the need for health care protection
and economic protection in terms of money,
savings and investment.2 It is also argued
that once threshold point is reached, consumption levels remain constant or decrease.
Love or belonging is the next level of
needs; belonging to and being accepted by
various groups characterise this need. And
once the individual’s safety needs are satisfied then the need for love/belonging
becomes dominant. Once the need for love/
belonging is satisfied, the individual desires
more personal recognition and feels the need
for esteem or recognition from others. The
satisfaction of the need for esteem produces
feelings of self-confidence, prestige, power,
and control. The third and fourth levels of
needs are thus seen as social needs.3 Individuals feel useful and also feel that they have
some affect on their environment.4
Finally, once the need for self-esteem is
satisfied, self-actualisation becomes the
dominant need. Self-actualisation is defined
as the need to maximise one’s potential and
to become what one is capable of
becoming.5
Maslow further argued that:3,6
• Individuals must satisfy lower level of
needs before higher levels of needs can
be addressed
• Sufficient levels of income are necessary
to satisfy lower needs
• Once threshold point is attained, consumption levels remain constant or
decrease.
Current US household expenditure
patterns tend to support such a priority of
needs. As shown in Figure 2, food, housing,
health-care and transportation form the
bulk of household spending. It is interesting
to note that this distribution of household
income has been relatively constant over
the past 30 years, at least.7
This pattern is made even more striking
when one compares expenditure patterns
by age groups and by income levels, as
shown in Figures 4 and 5. As Figure 4
illustrates, with the exception of education
expenditures (which probably reflect expenditures of children) for those in the 35 years
to 44 years age group, the percentage of
Proceedings of FITCE Congress 2008
Session 04 : Paper 01
household expenditures for the respective
expenditure categories are similar. This
expenditure pattern is also similar for
different income groups as shown in Figure
5, except perhaps for the lowest 20 percent
of the population. This group of individuals
spends relatively more on food and housing, as a percentage of total household
expenditures.
This would be very much be in line with
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Analyses of
household expenditures by other demographic variables, such as ethnicity or occupation reveal similar expenditure patterns. It
is also noteworthy that communications and
entertainment expenditures (the latter
includes all forms of entertainment) account
for only 2 percent and 5 percent of household expenditures, respectively. And again,
these patterns have been consistent over the
last 30 years, at least.8 A recent report from
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) finds that the
average household expenditures on communication products and services in the OECD
countries comprised some 2.4 percent of
household expenditures in 2004. This is,
however, an increase over 1991 where communication expenditures accounted for 1.8
percent of expenditures.9
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and ICT
Figure 4: US household expenditures by age groups, 2005
CTM’s digital life hierarchy
framework
In trying to access the extent of usage of
ICT applications or services in the everyday
lives of end-users, we propose a 6-stage
digital life hierarchy, each with a corresponding intensity of use of ICT applications or services. The intensity of use
increases as we move down the hierarchy
as, illustrated in Figure 6 and described
below.
Basic Life: ICT applications and services are
predominantly for communications and
entertainment. End-users (residential
and businesses) value voice communication only, either by wireline or wireless Entertainment is accessed via different and separate media from communications.
Basic Community: End-users utilise voice
and messaging such as e-mails or SMS
that help enhance social communications and community. Entertainment is
not part of community interaction. Digital media applications are not adopted
or used to enhance work or home
experiences.
Digital Home-Life: End-users regularly
transfer all forms of voice, Internet and
video programming across multiple
devices and time. They value customised, personalised services and are
Proceedings of FITCE Congress 2008
Figure 5: US household expenditures by income levels, 2005
Figure 6: CTM’s Digital Life Hierarchy
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Session 04 : Paper 01
Figure 7: Relationship of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to Digital Life Hierarchy
Figure 8: Use of Online Technologies
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and ICT
willing to pay for them. Work applications are generally seen as separate
from home and thus tele-work and virtual work is not adopted by majority of
end-users.
Digital Work-Life: End users value convergence of work-related activity in the
traditional workplace and in the home.
They represent a partial realisation of
the virtual worker subject to enterprise
constraints Digital Living: Some “blurring” of home versus work functions.
Telecommuting is a mainstay as well as
e-commerce and other virtual functionalities. Interactive multimedia applications enhance the end-users’ entertainment experience, but entertainment is
not part of the ‘communal’ experience.
Digital Community: The end user has completely blurred home and work functions. The virtual office is the norm. All
aspects of e-commerce are realised,
including time, place, and device shifting of entertainment experience. Interactive multi-media applications and
machine-to-machine communication is
commonplace. Interactive multimedia
entertainment is seen as part of communal experience.
In Figure 7, the Maslowian Hierarchy of
Needs is juxtaposed to our Digital Life Hierarchy to illustrate how the different stages
of digital life – defined above as the extent
of use of ICT applications and services in
everyday life – map onto end-users’ ability
to satisfy the Maslowian Hierarchy. As
Figure 7 illustrates, while it can be argued
that ‘digital home-life’ would allow endusers to satisfy Maslow’s third level of
need, for example, it is not clear that digital
community would help an individual be
self-actualised. This reflects the limits of
technology to human development and
psyche.
Hierarchy of Needs and ICT
Figure 9: Comfort with the use of online technologies in addressing challenges of everyday life
Figure 10: Usefulness of online technologies in addressing challenges of everyday life
60
In a recent survey of over 5600 respondents
in North America by CTM, respondents were
asked the value of information technologies
and their role in addressing their challenges
in life. Figure 8 show some of the results for
the US market, although the results for
Canada are strikingly similar. As Figure 8
illustrates the majority of respondents don’t
see online technologies as helping them in
addressing the important challenges and
issues in their everyday life, and would more
willing to use them – and perhaps adopt a
more ‘digital lifestyle’ if they did.
Figures 9 illustrates respondents’ view
of their comfort level in using online technologies. As Figure 9 illustrates, age is not
an important variable in explaining ease of
Proceedings of FITCE Congress 2008
Session 04 : Paper 01
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and ICT
Figure 11: Ranking of Top 5 concerns by respondents (percentages)
Figure 12: Percentage of respondents agreeing or disagreeing with the following statements
Figure 13: Importance of family relationships by age groups
use of online technologies. The perceived
‘lack of usefulness’ of current online technologies, independent of age, in addressing
everyday issues is reinforced in Figure 10,
which shows respondents’ view on this
question, broken down by age groups:
younger respondents as well as older
respondents feel this to be true. These
results hold true generally across other
Proceedings of FITCE Congress 2008
demographic variables such as ethnicity
and income levels.
The above discussion thus suggests that
North American consumers’ do not see ICT
technologies in addressing their needs. In
identifying the specific needs that these,
consumers were asked the importance of
specific challenges they faced in their everyday lives.
The results are shown in Figure 11. The
ability to manage and pay bills is ranked
among the top 5 by 42% of the
respondents, followed by relationship with
spouses (26.2%) and managing one’s
weight (21.4%). This suggests that most
consumers are concerned with the basic
‘physiological needs’.
These concerns about the physiological
needs are also reflected in Figure 12. 58%,
57% and 51% of respondents agreed that
cost of health care, health care of family
members and quality of healthcare system
were major concerns, respectively. The
primacy of health concerns in the lives of
end-users is also reflected in other studies,
that indicate some 25 percent of all material
on the Internet is health-related,8 and 80%
of American Internet users have searched
online for health information in 2006. This
also is reflected in Table 1.10
The results of CTM’s survey also reveal:
• A significant proportion of users, over
60% see the Internet, and personal
computers as an important source of
entertainment, and this is true for all
demographic groups. Similarly, while
over 60% of end-users value online
banking and online bill payment applications, less than 20% see remote desktop connections and virtual private networks as being valuable. Similarly, for
ICT applications in general, less than
25% see them as useful in obtaining
health-care services and less than 10%,
in addressing their need to commute.
• While 17% of end-users spend some
work-time at home, less than 1% of
end-users spend half or more of the
work-time at home, although some 20%
would like to be able to do so. Currently, as the results show some 82% of
end-users in North America usually
commute to work and only some 12%
usually work from home.
• When asked whether they would try
new applications and services, some
50% of respondents were willing to try
applications such as those related to
personal entertainment, online health
care and financial services. However, for
most of the applications, there was a
stark contrast to the willingness to pay
for these applications; generally less
than 20% of respondents.
• When asked about important goals in
life, over 70% of respondents, rated
having good relationships with their
families, having excellent physical and
mental health and happy marriage as
very important. As shown in Figure 13,
the importance of these goals, such as
the importance of family relationships,
transcend age groups.
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Session 04 : Paper 01
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and ICT
The authors
Table 1: Profile of Health Seekers
Conclusions
The above discussion suggests several
important conclusions.
First, current consumer expenditure
patterns as well as consumer spending data
from CTM’s survey support the view that
for most end-users, physiological needs still
remain key concerns in their everyday lives,
absorbing most of their attention and focus.
Secondly, the survey results also suggest
that the majority of end-users are in the
basic-life category. As defined, above, this is
the category where ICT applications and
services are predominantly used for
communications and entertainment, only.
Thirdly, while the use of these ICT
applications has the ability to alleviate
some of the challenges faced by end-users,
the survey data suggest that the adoption
rates have been low. It has been previously
argued that the key to rapid adoption of
new applications and services is that these
services have to provide greater “perceive
relative value” to the users.11,12 As such, and
in line with the Maslowian approach, ICT
applications that address these physiological needs, specifically tele-health and to
some degree tele-education, are more likely
to be provide greater relative value and
experience faster adoption.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
References
1. Abraham Maslow, ‘A Theory of Human
Motivation’. Psychological Review 1943.
50: 370-396.
2. Andrew B. Trigg, ‘Deriving the Engel
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Needs,” Review of Social Economy,
2004. VXII: 3: 393-406.
3. M.A. Lutz and K. Lux, The Challenge of
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Humanistic Economics. Menlo Part,
London: Benjamin/Cummings, 1979.
Patrick A Grambrel and Rebecca Cianci.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Does It
Apply In A Collectivist Culture. Journal
of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship. Fort Lauderdale: Apr 2003.
Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp143-161 (19 pp.)
Hersey, P., Blanchard, K.H., & Johnson,
D.E. Management of Organizational
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Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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M. Lavoie, Foundations of Post Keynesian Economic Analyses. London.
Edward Elgar, 1992.
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Carmen Lewis, ‘My Computer, My
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Susannah Fox, “Online Health Search
2006,” Pew Internet and Life Project,
Washington D.C., 2006.
Elizabeth Fife and Francis Pereira,
‘Adoption of Mobile Data Services:
Towards a Framework for Sector
Analysis’, Mobile and Wireless Systems
Beyond 3G. Editor Margherita Pagani.
Ideas Group. December 2004.
Elizabeth Fife and Francis Pereira, ‘In
Search of Universal Consumer Demand
Characteristics for Mobile Data Services:
Applying the Global Acceptance of
Technology Model’, Journal of Communications Networks, September 2005.
Elizabeth Fife has
over ten years of
research experience in
the field of telecommunications. Current
work includes crosscultural analysis of
mobile users’ behavior.
As the associate
director of industry studies, at the Institute for Communication Technology and
Management (CTM) at the University of
Southern California, Dr Fife’s research
includes topics such as ICT use in the
developing world, IT adoption by small
and medium-sized businesses as well as
models for technology adoption and
diffusion. Dr Fife received her PhD from
the School of International Relations, University of Southern California.
Francis Pereira is
director of industry
research at the Institute for Communication, Technology and
Management (CTM),
and lecturer in the
information and operations department,
Marshall School of Business, University of
Southern California. He received his PhD
in political economy and public policy
from the University of Southern California, and teaches courses in economics,
statistics and electronic commerce. His
areas of research include trade and financial flows in the Association of South-East
Asian Nations. For the past thirteen years,
his research has focused on key business
issues in telecommunications field, particularly adoption rates of E-commerce
applications especially in the small and
medium size enterprises, and business
models in the new multimedia environment and the effects of emerging technologies on these models.
Proceedings of FITCE Congress 2008