The Role Of Culture In the Development of Global E-Commerce Systems

This paper examines e-commerce systems as complex distributed information systems, using Kline’s multidisciplinary perspectives and soft system methodologies. It contends that culture, which can be viewed from both an organisational and an anthropological perspective, is an important system variable and argues that the application of models and theories from anthropology can be helpful in the understanding of the development of shared meaning and sense making within such a system. This analysis provides a means by which cross-cultural collaboration and trust in Electronic Commerce can be developed.