Cross-Cultural Research in MIS

Abstract

“Globalization of business highlights the need to understand the management of organizations that span different nations and cultures” (Srite et al., 2003, p. 31). In these multinational and transcultural organizations, there is a growing call for utilizing information technology (IT) to achieve efficiencies, coordination, and communication. However, cultural differences between countries may have an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of IT deployment. Despite its importance, the effect of cultural factors has received limited attention from information systems’ (IS) researchers. In a review of cross-cultural research specifically focused on the MIS area (Evaristo, Karahanna, & Srite, 2000), a very limited number of studies were found that could be classified as cross-cultural. Additionally, even though many of the studies found provided useful insights, raised interesting questions, and generally contributed toward the advancement of the state of the art in its field, with few exceptions, no study specifically addressed equivalency issues central to measurement in cross-cultural research. It is this methodological issue of equivalency that is the focus of this article.