Internet Business Networking Globalisation and Culture

Globalisation E-commerce provides a global marketplace, therefore is important to focus on access & usage from different geographic levels: Worldwide Between continents & countries

Cultural Factors The move towards international trading in a single global marketplace Blurring between social and cultural differences between countries Need to consider: Strength of economy Political stability Taxation polices Language Attitude toward online purchasing

Essentials to Compete in Global Marketplace Quelch & Klien (1996) indicate organisations must have: A 24 hour order taking & customer service response capability Regulatory & customs-handling experience to ship internationally In-depth understanding of foreign marketing environments to assess the advantages of its own products & services.

Issues to Compete in Global Marketplace Entering into new global marketplace Removing languages barriers Creating right site for audience Distributing product world-wide Offering 24/7 operations

Cultural Considerations Localisation – what are trends of e-commerce sales in different countries Languages – multilingual site? – costs v advantages of this provision Demographics – who is buying service products? Fulfilment & distribution – how to distribute goods, taxes etc. Testing & establishing distribution channels

Global Business Needs How it addresses world markets Languages needed How to customise site for each country How do products & services fit within global economy Will need to provide different products & advertising for different countries How will business support expansion to global economy

Global Business Needs contd. Distribution channels – access, import/export taxes, corrections, timing Global trends Trading partners Translation services

Company Success in Local Market Need to have global web strategy for local markets? Need to cater to differences in consumer: Needs Preferences Cultural conventions Shopping habits of respective target audience Should International companies address meet needs & tastes of local web communities by linking to a national or regional website that is locally managed?

Global Taxation US made largely tax free area on Internet Laws on taxation rapidly evolving EU directive intends to deal with taxation issued by defining place of establishment of a merchant as being where they pursue an economic activity from a fixed physical location

Problems of Managing Corporate Websites Effectively Similar problems to globalising a company Update weekly? Need ability to communicate and manage information across borders

Technical Level On technical level: global companies are pushing use of web globalisation technology to implement global web infrastructure –designed to accelerate the localisation process & provide platform for managing & streamlining content & development release cost-efficiency of this? Enables company to provide consistent content globally while providing localised content where required Capacity to fill needs of local markets while maintaining a corporate brand & image

Cultural Issues & Problems Differing cultural conventions Attitudes Experiences

Cultural Issues & Problems contd. The following are implemented in different ways from 1 market to another: Numerics Calendars & dates Addresses Names Time Currency List separators Telephone numbers

Cultural Issues & Problems contd. Examples: America – 07/04/97 Germany – Japan – Use of name & address on entry forms – type last name on one line, first name on another: Chinese – Chang Wen Yun’s family name = Chang – but this is his first name – Is this what is being asked for?

Examples contd. Malaysia – Isa bin Aman – actually has only one name. In business world is called Mr Isa (Aman) is name of his father There is a need to consider how to deal with these different format conventions before localising product.

Cultural Bias Issues relating to: Differences in dialect Appropriateness of product (company name) Culture specific references Values & taboos Colour & aesthetics Symbolism Body language Use of graphics

The Future Forrester Research estimates users 3 times more likely to buy over Internet when addressed in own language of target market Non-native English speakers = 97% of world population How to overcome problems of language & cultural understanding Political factors arising between places where there are differences between information haves & have-nots Security Privacy Expensive Internet access Larger business rather than smaller business have resources to trade in global marketplace ‘Westernisation’ seen as ‘Americanisation’ As local language will become an increasingly important issue in the future – as web becomes more popular among less well educated people – English will no longer suffice as universal language for countries representing a smaller market!