ICT and Business in the New Economy: Globalization and Attitudes Towards eCommerce

Abstract

Many authors argue that information and communications technology (ICT) in this New Economy is causing a globalized, unified society. Others take the opposite stand, viewing local factors such as national culture as very important to the success of information technology (IT). Research indicates that related factors such as gender may also play important roles in the use and acceptance of IT. This paper uniquely examines these perspectives by using electronic commerce as the common technology. Business students from the U.S., Greece and England expressed opinions on the important issues of national control, privacy cost, property rights and consumer preferences. The authors find evidence that concludes that there are statistically significant differences in attitude about e-commerce among cultural groups, but not with gender.