Last post I wrote about some research and social computing, specifically using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to predict usage of social computing. The latest research from Forrester backs up the stats. In certain studies, both France and Germany are noted to have relatively low adoption of social networking sites in relation to the UK.
When comparing France and the UK on the Individualism and Power-Distance indexes, and looking at their use of social computing tools, as reported by recent Ipos data, we can see how they compare.
I figured I’d also put Sweden in because Forrester makes mention of it with the UK when comparing it to France and Germany. And Australia, well it’s there because I’m Australian and I’m curious to see how it rates.
Through this we can see that countries high on Individualism, but low on Power-Distance, have an increased probability of using social networking sites. From my previous post, this chance for developed countries is y = 0.3853x - 5.5885 (R-squared = 0.692) on the Individualism index and y = -0.3718x + 40.335 (R-squared = 0.7472) on the Power-Distance index. So, what sort of numbers would we expect from countries like Sweden or Australia?
Sweden is lower on Power-Distance than the UK (31 compared to 35) and so would have an approximate usage of 28.8% — slightly higher than the UK’s 28%. Australia has a Power-Distance index of 36 and would therefore have an approximate social computing usage of 22% of its population. Both are higher than France’s 18% and German’s 19%.
Using the Individualism index reveals similar trends, with Sweden approximately 22% and Australia 29% predicted usage.
I think all I need now is some actual research data to play with.
M
