Global Diffusion of Virtual Social Networks: A Pyramid Model

Virtual social network (VSN) has become an international phenomenon, but its diffusion is far from even across different countries. Such a digital divide prevents people in certain parts of the world from enjoying the benefits of VSN. The objective of this study is to find out what lead to the variation in the global diffusion of this new innovation. It identifies relevant cultural, developmental and regulatory factors and conceptualizes them as hierarchical foundations of VSN diffusion in a pyramid model. The model was empirically validated with secondary data. The results suggest that the regulatory foundation has relatively strong but volatile impact on the diffusion of virtual social networks, whereas the cultural foundation yields relatively weak yet stable influence, and somewhere in between is the developmental foundation. The findings have important practical implications, especially for policy makers, on how to facilitate the diffusion of virtual social networks in different countries.