Self-Efficacy, Social And Cultural Issues In Designing Online Technology Skills Transfer Programs: A Mexican Context

In this paper, we investigate a successful design for online transfer of technology skills to a developing nation. Our technology skills transfer program entailed a cost effective online delivery mode from the United States  to Mexico and explored mechanisms to counter the non-social aspects of online learning in cultures which are highly collectivist, have a high power distance, and have a high level of uncertainty avoidance. Our study also investigates the potential of online technology skills transfer programs to impact the entrepreneurship of participants in a developing economy by raising their self-efficacy scores and by integrating their learning with the entrepreneurial context of small businesses. A total of 60 vocational Mexican students and 115 Mexican small entrepreneurs were identified as participants in this study. 30 of these students and 15 of these Mexican companies participated in the online technology skills transfer part of the study which involved two online courses in database design and development as well as implementation while being integrated with the real-life context of a small entrepreneurial venture. The remaining 30 students were used as a control group to assess their self-efficacy scores. The remaining 100 small entrepreneurs were used as a sample to assess the level of self-efficacy in Mexican entrepreneurs. The paper reports the details of our design for the technology skills transfer program, methodology for assessment and monitoring, and results and experiences for online technology skills transfer to developing countries, in particular Mexico. Our study showed that online programs need specific mechanisms to counter not only the non-social aspects of online learning but also the specific cultural dimensions such as high collectivism in cultures such as Mexico. The results showed significant improvement in the self- efficacy scores of participants. Key words: technology transfer, technology skills transfer, Mexico, database development skills, self-efficacy, Hofstede, entrepreneurship, culture, cultural dimensions, online, remote learning, social theory of learning.