| Cultural Effects on International Business and Electronic Commerce |
| | Clarry, John W. | Montclair State U. | clarryj@saturn.montclair.edu | (973) 655-7708 |
| | National cultural values have been shown to affect management decisions and organizational behavior; but cultural effects may also influence the forms and extent of international business. This paper examines the recent levels of electronic (e-)commerce through the internet as a function of national culture, wealth, and online access by computers and telecommunication infrastructures. While internet access is directly related to national wealth and telecommunications, the business uses of information technologies for e-commerce are shaped by cultural values and institutional systems that support low context transactions. We show that Hofstede's cultural values of individualism and low power distance moderate the infrastructural effects on internet access, and are associated with higher rates of e-commerce in the US and other English speaking nations. Other European and Asian nations with different values are likely to have lower rates of e-commerce , despite online technologies. Implications for cross-border exchange and cross-cultural management are discussed. |
| | Keywords: cultural values; electronic commerce; internet |
| Becoming Virtual: Creating a Virtual Organization Within a Telemedicine Network |
| | Turner, Jeanine Warisse | Georgetown U. | turnerjw@gunet.georgetown.edu | 202-944-3757 |
| | Through this paper, I provide an ethnographic account of the development of a virtual organization to provide telemedicine care
among an academic medical center, a prison hospital, and a maximum security prison. I investigate the stages and conditions
governing the development of "telecompetent" virtual organizations by describing the emergence of this virtual telemedicine
organization over a 20 month period. The analysis provides a framework of stages: 1) planning and establishing; 2) learning
and use; 3) formalizing routines that govern telecompetence within a virtual environment. The conditions that operate within each
stage offer insights into the managerial activities defining virtual organization development.
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| | Keywords: virtual organizations; telemedicine; telecompetence |
| The Electronic Survey Technique: An Integration and Assessment |
| | Simsek, Zeki | U. of Connecticut | simsek@sba.uconn.edu | (860)-427-6601 |
| | Even though e-mail is the most widely used computer-mediated communication medium, its considerable potential as a survey technique has received little attention from management scholars. Using a four-dimensional framework focused on sampling issues, non-sampling errors, practicality, and relative performance I review and integrate previous research on this technique and provide an assessment of the comparative tradeoffs vis-a-vis other techniques. Moreover, I provide recommendations for future researchers interested in using this approach. Finally, I conclude that while this approach poses unique challenges and drawbacks that when an unbiased sampling frame exists, or can be constructed, it allows researchers to inexpensively gather data with less effort than other available approaches. |
| | Keywords: Electronic survey |
| Emerging Trends in Electronic Mail Technology: Creating an Agenda for Future Research |
| | Volkema, Roger J. | American U. | volkema@american.edu | 202-885-6193 |
| | The development and rapid growth of electronic mail has created a new medium of communication
within and across organizations. Researchers have sought to study the emergence and impact of
electronic mail in a number of areas, including: 1) adoption and use, 2) influence on
communication, 3) relationship to group and organizational development, and 4) impact on
performance and productivity. In the past few years, three trends have begun to emerge in
e-mail technology which have implications for electronic mail research. These include
innovations in technological interfaces (e.g., speech-to-text translators, wireless modems),
increased connectivity (e.g., from local-area networks to wide-area networks), and systems
integration. This paper examines the implications of these trends on past and future research
within the above mentioned four areas. |
| | Keywords: Electronic mail |