Brunel Business School Doctoral Symposium March 28th & 29th 2011

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1 Student First Name: Maimunah Student Surname: Ali Copyright subsists in all papers and content posted on this site. Further copying or distribution by any means without prior permission is prohibited, except for the purposes of non-commercial private study or research, as defined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or as otherwise authorised by statute. To obtain permission, please contact the author of the relevant paper in the first instance or with details of your request. 1

2 CULTURAL INFLUENCE ON WEB DESIGN: RECONSIDERATION IN SOCIAL NETWORK WEBSITES Abs tract The importance of blogs and social networking as medium of interactions had gain substantial popularity in mainstream media. Such popularity is due to blogs timely publication, ease of use and wide availability. Taking into consideration that past studies on web design have focused on national cultural traits on design elements, this paper aims to analyse the patterns on blog design from the group level perspective. Design patterns of blogs from Hofstede s six clusters of culture will be taken as samples using content analysis method, to trace elements of national culture traits. It is predicted that the design preferences however will follow similar design patterns of other members in similar networks. Keywords: Blogs, social networking, web design, social influence, national culture, group culture 1 Introduction For the last decade, cultural influence on web design has captured the interest of many researchers in the field of information systems. However, the studies have mainly been focusing on finding cultural traits in static web sites (so called Web1.0) in different countries (Singh et al., 2003). This paper aims to provides an answer to the question how the cultural influence affects the design behaviour of web 2.0 users. Most of the IS research assumes that an individual living in a particular place belongs to a single culture where the culture is classified as national (Straub et al., 2002). Thus the design behaviour of most web sites in a particular country or nation would follow the single cultural traits identified with the particular nation. However, Straub et al. (2002) suggested that an 2

3 individual s social identity represents a cummulative of cultures across the boundaries of nations, organisations and profession which combine together to create one s overall culture. At any particular time, an individual behaviour is a result of national, group and other subcultures levels of influence (McSweeney, 2002). The ways how the different levels of culture make impact on individual behaviour are different from each other. McSweeney (2002) concluded that within and outside the management disciplines, characteristics of individuals, organisations, societies, nations and regions have high considerations and influence on individual behaviour complexity and variability. This according to Starub et al. (2002) is consistent with the Social Identity Theory which suggests that each individual is influenced by a variety of cultures and sub-cultures in the form of ethnic, national and organisational. Such is true with personal blogs which is unique to each individual bloggers. Blogs are individually owned and maintained. Unlike other static web pages that have limitation in supporting interaction among users, blogs are online groups where new relationships are developed, suatained and strengthened through communication and social involvement. In addition, Dholakia et al. (2004) found that members of virtual communities tend to share sense of belonging, values and preferences among each other. The blogger-toblogger communication is influential in shaping opinions and behaviours. This coincides with Mead (1962) definition of culture as shared pattern of behaviour which implies that culture is group level construct, an indicator between the individual personality and the human nature. Therefore, blogs are one of the groups apart from societies, oganizations and profesions that could be considered to have their own culture. Blogs as a medium of interaction is also a powerful tool of influence. This raises a question whether does national culture affects the design behaviour of weblog users who have more frequent group interactions and 3

4 conversations with others in the same network? The aim of the paper therefore is to investigate the effect of culture on the design behaviour of blog users in networks of blogs. 2 Literature Review Earlier studies on web design focuses on cultural influence across national boundaries. Crosscultural studies focusing on cultural markers and indicators for design variations that appeal to specific national culture have been verified with various cultural models with the most popular one being Hofstede s cultural dimensions (Singh et al., 2003). Depending on the cultural environment of user and the context of use, studies on cultural indicators on design variations had been bias toward national culture and commercial web sites with regard to web design. In addition, studies found that different culture have different preferences for design characteristics and meaning to colours (Cyr and Trevor-Smith, 2004). Colour and screen design directions was found to have various psychological and social associations in different cultures. The Chinese associate red with good luck, wealth and marriage while white has been associated with death and mourning while the Americans on the other hand perceived red as a sign of danger (Cyr and Trevor-Smith, 2004). However, using national cultural model by researchers in information systems had drawn criticism from several authors. McSweeney (2002) s critics of the Hofstede s model raises doubt that national culture is implausible as a systematic causal factor of behaviour. He argued that individual differences could also be the result of other different levels of culture that interact with the individual at the same time. He even suggests that the abandonment of 4

5 the notion that there is a mono-causal link between national cultures and actions within nations. The sub-culture influences are often assumed non-existence in Hofstede s taxonomy as national culture is supposed to be homogenous and static. However, national culture is not the only level of culture that influences individual behaviours. Straub et al. (2002) suggested that there are three levels of cultural interactions that exist based on the Social Identity Theory. They stressed that individual behaviour was influenced by the national, group and other sub-culture levels and individuals were being influenced by one or more levels depending on the situation and their own personal values. Therefore, the types of influence on personal blogs could be initiated by other individuals within the network as influence does not require deliberate or conscious attemps to modify actors attitudes and behaviours. Since the level is individual, influential factors in a network of blogs are micro rather than macro in nature. In determining the level of analysis as the focus of research, it is important to ascertain the correct layer of influence that interacts within the scope of investigation. Most of these studies examined and investigated individual intentions, participation and blog links to a particular online behaviour, focusing on the nature and roles of social influence. Interestingly, the issue of group level influence mechanisms on web design had not been touched by any researchers as of date. The determinants of web design changes as a result of group level influence on weblogs are not known in the literature of information systems and social network. 3 Research Model and Hypothesis Existing studies on web pages classify the contents into three design categories: information design, navigation design and visual design components (Cyr and Trevor-Smith, 2004). These 5

6 components, according to them represent key elements of web sites usability. The author s profile has been chosen from Bonhard and Sasse (2006). As the main aim of social networking is connecting people who are similar, profiles serve as a basis for personal references since users express their individuality and interests that other users may be interested in. Visual Design Author s Profile Information Design Navigation Design Figure 1. Examples of blog design components categories This paper formally defines weblog design as a set as follows: Definition 1: Weblog Design Ω = {AP, IDC, NDC, VDC} Definition 2: The weblog design space is a Cartesian product of subsets of the design components. Weblog Design Space Ξ = AP IDC NDC VDC The following hypothesis has been proposed based on the above definition of web design. H1: Design preferences in blogs are influence by the social network where they belong rather than the culture of the nation. From the perspective of culture, web design preference is an individual choice. This is especially true for personal weblogs that function as personal diary and personal online journal. However, there arise question whether should national culture be the main decisive factor in design preferences if the web sites in focus is a network of blogs. Lim and Zhong (2006) showed that cultural diversity has a negative effect on collaborative learning 6

7 performance. Under the influence of leaders, members are encouraged to achieve better performance by enhancing participation since leaders exercise greater influence than other members. In the context of blogs, the social ties between bloggers are illustrated through online interactions. Due to the social nature of weblogs, group elements work to influence the design behaviour in this mass network of social system. As proven by Peres et al. (2009), the mass media effects tend to destabilizes cultural homogenous and create cultural drift among individuals in the society. Using the Axelrod s model of cultural dissemination, they proved the medium of transmission is capable of affecting the cultural traits homogeneity in a society. Thus, the design preferences of personal blogs tend to be influenced by the social network rather than national culture. 4 Research Method The research employs content analysis method to study social influence on weblog design. Content analysis has already been widely adopted in studies that aimed to investigate the cultural impact on web design (Singh et al., 2003). Hofstede s cultural dimensions divided countries into six clusters based on culture commonalities and similar histories (Hofstede, 2001). The choice of countries that represent the clusters and regions are shown in Table 1. Cultural Dimensions Power Distance Individualism / Collectivism Masculinity / Femininity Uncertainty Avoidance Time Orientation Clusters Countries Index Rank Index Rank Index Rank Index Rank Index Rank Anglo United Kingdom Nordic Sweden German Germany Latin France Asian China Japan Japan Table 1. Hofstede index scores and ranks for countries and regions For the operationalisation of the variables used in the definition, this paper identified the following indicators as shown in Table 2. 7

8 Author Indicators Design Component De Angeli, A. (2009) Cultural variations in virtual spaces design Artificial Intelligence and Society. Page layout Colour Images Functionality Content Style Self-disclosure Visual Design Navigation Design Information Design Author s Profile Table 2. Indicators of weblogs design components 5 Conclusion The aim of the paper is to survey indications of group culture traits on design elements of personal blogs among members of the same online network. As this is a research in progress, the research will continue with assessing the traits of national culture on design preferences related to blogs from various different cultures. So far, the initial observation had been conducted on online networks in one country under the assumption that the weblogs in a nation are influenced by the same culture. It would be interesting to study the level of cultural influence on design preferences of blogs and compare them between countries to explore the co-existence of culture on design preferences of networks of blogs, A comparative study across nations would provide enlightenment on design preferences in networks of blogs under different cultural values. This would incorporate another dimension on design preferences in network of blogs under the influence of culture and will enrich the discussions and debates on the influential forces affecting design of blogs in online network. References Bonhard, P. and Sasse, M.R.( 2006). Knowing me, knowing you Using profiles and social networking to improve recommender systems. BT Technology Journal, 24(3):

9 Cyr, D. and Trevor-Smith, H. (2004). Localization of web design: An empirical comparison of German, Japanese and United States web sites characteristics. Journal of American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(13): Dholakia, U.M., Bagozzi, R.P. and Pearo, L.K. (2004). A social influence model of consumer participation in network and small group-based virtual communities. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 21: Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. 2nd Edition. SAGE Publications, California. Lim, J. and Zhong, Y. (2006). The interactions and effects of perceived cultural diversity, group size, leadership and collaborative learning systems: An experimental study. Information Resources Management Journal, 19(4): McSweeney, B. (2002). Hofstede s model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith a failure of analysis. Human Relations, 5(1): Mead, M. (1962). National character in Tax, S. (Ed.), Anthropology Today. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Peres, L. R. and Fontanari, J. F. (2009). Mass media destabilizes the cultural homogeneous regime in Axelrod s model. International Journal of Modern Physics. Singh, N., Zhao, H. And Hu, X. (2003). Cultural adaptation on the web: A study of American companies domestic and Chinese websites. International Journal of Global Information Management, 11(3): Straub, D., Loch, K., Evaristo, R., Karahanna, E. And Strite, M. (2002). Toward a theorybased measurement of culture. Journal of Global Information Management, 10(1),