Cultural Problems in Online Globalization

 < Day Day Up > 



The Internet has made it easier than ever to market products and services across the globe. Most American companies today are so focused on their domestic market that they do not pay any attention to the overseas markets. Nevertheless, e-commerce is global in nature and the international markets represent immense potential.

While the United States is undergoing an historic development in the introduction of e-commerce, the rest of the world including China is trying to catch up. According to the Jupiter Globalization Report published in January 2001, the U.S. share of the global Internet population will drop from 36 percent today to approximately 24 percent in 2005. During the same period, Chinese Internet users will increase tremendously (Jupiter Globalization Report, 2001).

American companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Compaq all opened offices in China in the 1990s. This trend continued as Net Economy companies opened their Chinese offices at the end of 20th century. However, many hurdles—especially significant cultural differences between the two countries — are limiting those companies' local reach of e-commerce and in some cases blocking it entirely.

Sometimes culture is defined as the combination of language and the habits of people in a certain place. Therefore, when a company decides to internationalize its business through the Internet, it should identify the potential problems concerning cultural differences across borders. However, what do cultural differences really mean? Or in other words, what specific elements should be taken into account while thinking of potential cultural barriers? According to our investigation, online cultural problems include the following sides: 1) language; 2) values; 3) infrastructure. Of course, these are broad-based categories. In each side, there should be subcategories. For example, in infrastructure, more elements should be discussed, and the word "infrastructure" is based on an environment consisting of payment system, logistic system, laws, taxation, etc.

This chapter only discusses the most important aspects including language, payment system and logistic system. While discussing the behavior of Chinese online shoppers, values and their attitude will also be involved. For one thing, as the saying goes, "Rome was not built in a day", even if you track down all the cultural differences, you can NOT resolve them immediately. Also, the cultural differences between the U.S. and China are somehow "unique".

Concerning cultural difference, the first element that should be taken into account is language.

Chinese people who surf the web often don't use English as their first language. Their cultural outlook and value system is different from the system predominant on the web. Therefore, in this chapter, the Internet and e-commerce strategies in China are discussed as a case study of unique cultural e-commerce strategies.



 < Day Day Up > 



Advanced Topics in Global Information Management (Vol. 3)
Trust in Knowledge Management and Systems in Organizations
ISBN: 1591402204
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 207

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net