Global internet use and access: cultural considerations

Abstract Purpose – This study seeks to investigate the role and effect of national culture on internet use and access across countries and whether this is moderated by socio‐economic factors, specifically levels of education. Design/methodology/approach – Hofstede's multidimensional framework serves as the conceptual basis for the study. Hierarchical multivariate regressions are conducted to test the hypothesized effects using a large‐scale secondary dataset representing socio‐economic structure and the penetration of the internet for 58 countries. Findings – The results provide supporting empirical evidence linking nearly all of Hofstede's cultural dimensions to nations' internet penetration either as main effects or as interactions with countries' educational levels. Research limitations/implications – Limitations include the use of secondary data for a limited number of countries. Only the adoption and usage of one technological innovation – the internet – was investigated and only one social‐economic variable was examined for its moderating effect on the relationship between culture and internet access and usage. Future research will benefit from examining other potential factors such as a nation's demographic composition and their roles in adoption and diffusion of the Internet. In addition, Hofstede's framework is based on work related values of one business setting, which may not be representative of the entire national population, and may not overlap to other applications such as consumer behavior. Nonetheless, the framework has been tested with success in consumer research. Additional research on new technology adoption and diffusion could be conducted using other typologies of national cultural dimensions, such as the one developed by Schwartz. Managerial implications are discussed with respect to formulating effective marketing strategies for market entry, message design and promotional media choice. Originality/value – The present study contributes to the literature on cross‐national internet use and access by incorporating the full range of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, along with a socio‐economic variable, a nation's educational level, as a moderating factor. The dependent variable, use and access of the internet, is measured using three different metrics, namely, internet usage, narrowband penetration and broadband penetration. In doing so, this study differs from and extends previous cross‐national research on internet adoption and diffusion.