Exploring Cross-Cultural Differences In Social Knowledge Creation And Exchange: A Preliminary Examination

Abstract

This paper chronicles an exploratory, in-progress research project that compares the findings of Hofstede’s cross-cultural research with those of Forrester’s Social Technographics research. The aim of the project is to determine if a relationship exists between cultural differences and social knowledge creation and exchange. Part one of the study mapped Davenport and Prusak’s information and knowledge creation theories to the six components of Forrester’s Social Technographics study (creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives). Next, the Social Technographics results from 13 nations were compared with Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity). The analysis included exploring the relationship visually using 24 scatter diagrams, running correlation coefficients (Peasson’s r) for each relationship, testing for significance of Pearson’s r, and finally conducting regression analyses on each relationship. Although the authors believe that culture influences behaviours, this study did not reveal any reasonable relationships between culture and placement along the Social Technographics. However, it is possible that there exists problems in the Hofstede scales. The Hofstede scales have been highly criticized in the literature. It may be that other cross-cultural models such as GLOBE, Schwartz, Triandis, or others may yield different results. In this regard, further research is necessary. The next phase of the project will compare Social Technographics with the GLOBE project findings.

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