TOWARD RELIABLE METRICS FOR CULTURAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION: Focusing on the Mobile Internet in Three Asian Countries

Mobile Internet is defined as mobile access to the Internet through handheld devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. Popular mobile Internet services differ from country to country, as do usage patterns. In fact, mobile Internet usage patterns may differ more profoundly across countries than traditional stationary Internet usage patterns. This is because mobile devices, which operate only within local areas, access wireless networks, whereas globally uniform devices access the stationary Internet. Although numerous factors might explain the different mobile Internet usage patterns across different countries, this study primarily focuses on cultural differences, since culture profoundly affects the use of localized information technology. Despite the importance of cultural differences, little research has been performed on cross-cultural issues affecting information technologies in general, let alone on the specific case of mobile Internet use. This paucity of research is a consequence of the difficulties in reliably or validly measuring cultural aspects of information technology usage. Based on prior studies of culture, this paper proposes a set of metrics that can measure cultural aspects of mobile Internet usage. We also provide empirical evidence about the reliability and validity of the proposed metrics using survey data collected simultaneously in three Asian countries with the same questionnaire.