Page 133 - Culture Technology Communication

116 Carleen F. Maitland and Johannes M. Bauer

3. Furthermore, as noted by Dekimpe et al.: “A practical problem in
testing ‘global theories’ is the need to use globally represented proxies. As
applied international researchers are well aware, the requirement to use co-
variates which measure international differences across 184 countries
leaves us with a limited set of variables (e.g. basic socioeconomic character-
istics)” (1997, 20).
4. For a detailed analysis of the method used see Hofstede (1980).
The data were collected from IBM employees covering seventy-two national
subsidiaries, thirty-eight occupations, twenty languages, and at two points
in time: 1968 and 1972. In total, there were more than 116,000 question-
naires with over 100 questions each.
5. The short-term vs. long-term orientation dimension was in fact
discovered by Michael Bond, although it is presented with Hofstede’s origi-
nal four dimensions in many studies.
6. For a dimension-by-dimension description of the implications of
Hofstede’s national cultural constructs for interactive network diffusion see
Maitland (1999).
7. For a more detailed discussion of culture and diffusion theory see
Maitland (1999).
8. It is tempting to say “predictive elements” but Rogers contends
that these categories do not provide predictive support, thus the term ex-
planatory is used.
9. One reason for the lower than expected relationship may be the
extent to which the computers are attached to networks. A measure of the
existence of research networks was considered for the present study; how-
ever, the low number of observations for the proxy variable, government ex-
penditures on R and D, excluded it from the analysis. For further
information on use of the Internet, specifically electronic communication, in
Switzerland, see the chapter in this volume by Lucienne Rey.

10. When computers are connected to a network (or the Internet)
they are assigned an IP address. If a computer has a permanent connection
it is given a static IP address. Computers that “dial in” for their Internet ac-
cess are assigned a temporary or dynamic IP address. Computers with static
IP addresses are referred to as “hosts.” Hosts have been used as a measure
of Internet diffusion by the U.S. government (see Anon. 1997) and the
OECD (see OECD 1996; Paltridge 1996).
11. Although an addition of a host to the Internet does not reflect the
use of the wide range of services the Internet offers, the study of adoption
here is similar to diffusion studies performed for the telephone, which also
is used in a variety of ways. Furthermore, as with other diffusion studies,