Transcript Internet Business Networking

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:
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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:
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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:
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Numerics
Calendars & dates
Addresses
Names
Time
Currency
List separators
Telephone numbers
Cultural Issues & Problems
contd.
Examples:
• America – 07/04/97
• Germany – 4.7.97
• Japan – 97.7.4
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:
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Differences in dialect
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Appropriateness of product (company name)
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Culture specific references
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Values & taboos
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Colour & aesthetics
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Symbolism
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Body language
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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
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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!