Title: A multi-perspective cultural study of information technology in developing and developed countries

Authors: Majharul Talukder, Carmen Joham

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Government, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. ' School of Management, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.

Abstract: The increasing dynamics in the information technology field and imperative ongoing changes to keep in the global arena have led to failures arising from inadequate understanding of cultural influences on virtual communities design and development. This study explores some of the similarities and differences between the cultural background and information technology development approaches of 48 virtual community sites from three different countries: Venezuela, Bangladesh and the USA. We argue that an in-depth understanding of a country|s cultural dimension of developing and developed virtual communities is detrimental to help web developers and marketers to produce effective virtual community websites. A model relating cultural dimensions between developed and developing virtual communities was formulated emphasising on a multiple level of analysis encompassing the levels of technology (T), organisation (O) and individual-society perspectives (P), as suggested by Linstone (1984). Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

Keywords: virtual communities; cross-cultural comparisons; developing countries; information technology; Venezuela; Bangladesh; USA; third world; website development; web marketing; internet marketing; business organisation; individual-society perspectives; web based communities; online communities; culture.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2009.027105

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2009 Vol.3 No.4, pp.402 - 426

Published online: 15 Jul 2009 *

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