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

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. A multi-perspective cultural study of information technology 403Carmen Joham, PhD, is a Lecturer at the University of South Australia. She has held a number of management positions where she has designed, programmed and supervised the implementation of information systems for businesses like general electric, mobile and government agencies. She holds an MBA from the Adelaide University and is an Adviser for MBA programmes in Universities such as IUTEPAL and Talavera in Venezuela. Her current research interests include information self-organising systems, small world's network, policy formulation and SSM in developing countries.