Operationalizing Cultural Differences in the Use of New Media Technology Emergent Research Forum (ERF)

Whereas New Media Technologies (NMT) rapidly spread across geographic borders, people using NMT are still deeply rooted in their local cultures. Hence, local cultures and cultural differences are likely to affect the use of NMT. Many studies investigate cross-cultural differences in NMT use. However, the literature still lacks an overview on the operationalization of culture and cultural differences in research on NMT use. As a first step towards closing this gap, this Emergent Research Forum paper carves out how research on NMT use operationalizes culture and cultural differences. Among 42 relevant studies identified in a literature review, we find a dominance of building upon Hofstede's (1980, 2001) cultural value framework. We discuss issues of the observed operationalizations of culture and cultural differences and the related implications for the research area. We further derive questions for future research on cross-cultural NMT use and in the IS field.