MOBILIZING CULTURE FOR EBusiness IN DEVELOPING ...

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MOBILIZING CULTURE FOR E-BUSINESS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN ACTOR NETWORK THEORY ACCOUNT John Effah University of Ghana Business School Ghana [email protected] ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to understand how developing country cultures can be mobilized for e-business. Within the developing country e-business literature, culture has been highlighted as a barrier. Less is however known about culture as an enabler. Despite calls for cultural fit, empirical evidence on how to achieve the fit remains limited. This study follows actor-network theory (ANT) as a lens and interpretive case study as a methodology to understand how funeral culture in the developing country context of Ghana was mobilized for an e-business venture. The findings demonstrate an enabling perspective of developing country culture, complementing the dominant constraining view in the literature. The paper argues that although e-business emerged from the developed world, it could be malleable to varied contexts. The paper encourages developing country entrepreneurs and researchers to seek ways to align e-business to local contexts. Keywords: e-business, culture, developing country, actor-network theory (ANT), Ghana 1. INTRODUCTION Culture can be summarized as the set of commonly shared values, beliefs and practices for a particular society (Avgerou, 2000). In information systems, culture may be investigated at the organizational or national level (Leidner and Kayworth, 2006). This paper emphasizes national culture. In the developing country e-business literature, the importance of national culture to e-business adoption and diffusion is well recognized (Travica, 2002; Laosethakul and Boulton, 2007; Boateng et al., 2009; Hafez, 2006). More so, the relationship between ebusiness and culture in developing countries is increasingly attracting research attention (Tarafdar and Vaidya, 2004; Mbarika et al., 2005). As Leidner and Kayworth (2006) point out, culture is a critical factor regarding how people interact with information technology. Further, an understanding of culture in information systems is important because it can influence successful implementation and use of information technology (Leidner and Kayworth, 2006). Although e-business innovation emerged in the developed world (Li, 2007), it is being appropriated in the developing world to create new digital firms or transform established ones. However, cultural values in the two worlds differ significantly (Avgerou, 2000; Heeks, 2002). Such differences raise an important issue of how to appropriate e-business in the developing world. Should developing countries adopt or adapt e-business models from the developed world; or should they create their own models to fit local values? Nevertheless, the extant literature on developing country e-business largely perceives the local culture as relatively constraining. By this, they suggest that developing country culture be changed to fit ebusiness models from the developed world despite the differences in traditions and values. Whereas this view promotes technological determinism (Wyatt, 2008), this paper argues that e-business can be better considered as a flexible and malleable technology that can be appropriately (re)designed to fit varied ideologies (Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011) and not ready-made to be transported from the developed to developing countries.

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Conversely, some developing country researchers (e.g. Laosethakul and Boulton, 2007; Boateng et al., 2009; Kamel and Hassan, 2003; Sia et al., 2009; Ferran and Salim, 2005) have called for a cultural fit between e-business and developing country values. Yet, empirical evidence on how this can be achieved remains elusive. The primary research question motivating this study therefore concerns how developing country cultures can be mobilized to form and promote e-business. This case study therefore employs actor-network theory (ANT) (Latour, 1987; Callon, 1986b; Latour, 2005) as a lens and interpretive case study (Walsham, 1995; 2006; Klein and Myers, 1999) as its methodology to trace the formation of a small funeral Web Portal (www.funeralsinghana.com) in the developing country context of Ghana. The case traces how the culture of funeral in this developing country was mobilized to form an e-business venture and the role other human and nonhuman actors played. The significance of this research stems from the opportunity it offers to understand how developing country culture, predominantly conceived as a constraint, can be mobilized and inscribed as enabler to promote e-business innovation. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on culture and e-business with emphasis on developing countries. Section 3 discusses ANT as the theoretical foundation of the study. Section 4 presents the research methodology and the context. Section 5 reports the research findings. Section 6 discusses the findings. Finally, Section 7 concludes the paper, outlining the implications for theory and practice, and offering suggestions for further research. 2. CULTURE AND E-BUSINESS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES The significance of national culture for e-business adoption and diffusion in developing countries is well acknowledged (Travica, 2002; Laosethakul and Boulton, 2007; Boateng et al., 2009; Hafez, 2006; Tarafdar and Vaidya, 2004). Based on Hofsted’s (1985; 1991) classification of national cultures, developing country cultures are generally regarded as collectivistic (Boateng et al., 2009); the society emphasizes social rather than individual values. Developing country values therefore differ from those of the developed world, which are generally regarded as individualistic (Travica, 2002) and rationalistic (Avgerou, 2000). Thus, whereas social values are cherished in the developing world, individual values prevail more in developed contexts. In the developing country e-business literature, commonly cited values and practices having significant impact on e-business include: preference for face-toface interactions, frequent bargaining and limited use of standards and preference for cash payment and less remote shopping. In all, these values and practices considered to be constrains to e-business innovation in the developing world (Okoli and Mbarika, 2003). Although e-commerce promotes faceless transactions, it is noted that suppliers and customers in developing countries prefer face-to-face interactions in their business dealings (Jennex and Amoroso, 2002). The dominant face-to-face e-business culture is therefore considered to be at odds with e-business practice (Travica, 2002; Mbarika et al., 2005). Travica (2002) points out that, in the developing world, transactions are mostly conducted through oral and face-to-face interaction. People like to talk to and see others in person, hear each other’s voice, exchange gazes, and sometimes shake hands to conclude business deals. Ifinedo (2006) reports that, in Nigeria, seller-buyer interaction occurs mainly by face-to-face encounter. Thus information and communication technologies such as the Internet, telephone and facsimile are in limited use for commercial transactions. The author notes that such practices contradict the disintermediation convenience offered by e-business innovation. A study on customer acquisition among SMEs in urban India (Donner, 2007) also reports that face-to-face interaction dominates buyer-seller relationship even for those with access to ICTs.


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Limited use of standards is another aspect of developing country culture identified as inhibiting e-business appropriation. It is noted that lack of standards for prices, weights and sizes of items promotes lengthy bargaining (Travica, 2002; Okoli and Mbarika, 2003). Whereas in the developed world, items are often labeled with price tags and weights, the situation is different in most developing countries. It is thus common to find items offered for sale without price, size or weight tags (Okoli and Mbarika, 2003). Customers and suppliers often have to resort to lengthy negotiations through face-to-face interactions (Okoli and Mbarika, 2003). Therefore, for some items such as clothing, lack of standards would require physical trial or testing before buying. Another cultural factor regarded as inhibiting e-business adoption in developing countries is preference for payment by physical cash rather than electronic cash. In the developed world, there is widespread use of credit card and other electronic payment facilities. However, in most developing countries the culture of physical cash payment constrains e-commerce innovation (Ferran and Salim, 2005). Although this tradition may be attributed to the limited availability of online payment, Okoli and Mbarika (2003) point out that unlike in the developed world, where consumers order and pay with credit cards, in many developing contexts consumers are unlikely to trust websites with their credit cards or bank account details. Moreover, most local banks are equally skeptical about promoting online payment services (Ferran and Salim, 2005). This suggest that although preference for cash and limited use of electronic payment may be seen as a developing country culture, the situation can be partly attributed to limited availability of online payment infrastructure (Sohail and Shanmugham, 2003). For these reasons, it is noted that e-business innovations such as business-to-consumer e-commerce are unlikely to thrive well in the developing world (Okoli and Mbarika, 2003). The limited culture of remote shopping and preference for open marketplace has also been identified as a constraint to e-business in developing countries. It is noted that the developed world culture of remote shopping through catalogues and mail ordering that existed even before the Internet highly promotes e-commerce culture in the developed world (Travica, 2002). However in most developing countries, remote shopping is considered alien (Okoli and Mbarika, 2003). As noted above, suppliers and consumers would prefer face-toface contact. For instance, Okoli and Mbarika (2003) note that in Africa, people are used to open marketplaces where they can meet face-to-face, physically inspect items and bargain until deciding to buy. Yet such practices contradict the virtual marketplace innovation promoted by e-business technology (Mbarika et al., 2005). In sum, the dominant view in the developing country e-business literature is that culture constrains rather than enable e-business. However, some authors call for cultural fit rather than direct transfer of e-business models from the developed world (Vatanasakdakul, 2008; 2004; Boateng et al., 2009; Ferran and Salim, 2005; Tigre and Dedrick, 2004). As Ferran and Salim (2005) point out, because e-business works differently in developed and developing countries, it is important to account for cultural differences. Therefore, there is the need to align e-business models to fit developing country values and practices (Tigre and Dedrick, 2004). This call also supports the view that business environment in the developing world differs from that of the developed world (Avgerou, 2009) and that models cannot just be transported as best practices to work successfully in developing contexts (Ferran and Salim, 2005). It is therefore important how developing country entrepreneurs are pursuing cultural fit for e-business.


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3. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION The theoretical foundation underpinning this study is actor-network theory (ANT). The study draws generally on ANT philosophy and specifically on two of its basic concepts of translation and inscription as the analytical lens for analyzing the e-business formation. 3.1 Actor-Network Theory (ANT) ANT originated from the works of three researchers in science and technology studies: Bruno Latour (e.g. Latour, 1987; 2005), John Law (e.g., Law and Callon, 1992) and Michael Callon (e.g. Callon, 1986a; 1986b). The theory is concerned with performative interactions between human and non-human actors and how they converge to form sociotechnical networks of aligned interests (Latour, 2005). ANT draws on a number of concepts. The fundamental ones are summarized in Table 1. Of these this study draws more on actor, actor-network, translation and inscription. Table 1 A Summary of Basic Actor-Network Theory Concepts (Walsham, 1997). Actor (or actant) Both human beings and nonhuman actors such as technological Actor-Network Heterogeneous network of aligned interest, including people, organizations and standards. Enrolment and Creating body of allies, human and nonhuman, through a Translation process of translating their interests to be aligned with the actor-network. Delegates and Inscription Delegates are actors who “stand in and speak for” particular viewpoints which have been inscribed in them, e.g., software as frozen organizational discourse. Irreversibility The degree to which it is subsequently impossible to go back to point where alternative possibilities exists. Black Box A frozen network element, often with properties of irreversibility Immutable mobile Network element with strong properties of irreversibility, and effects which transcend time and place, e.g., software standards Whereas some theories attribute agency - ability to act - to humans only, a distinguishing feature of ANT is that both humans and non-humans are endowed with agency (Latour, 2005). In ANT terms, actors refer to both human and non-human entities or social and technical entities (Law, 1987; Latour, 2005). An actor can therefore be a person (human), an object such as technology (non-human), or a concept such as culture (non-human). As Latour (2005) points out, not only humans but objects too have agency. As non-humans, objects can equally embody the interests of humans to act as their delegates. Therefore in ANT both humans and non-humans can shape other actors. An actor-network thus refers to an association of humans and non-humans with aligned interests. Callon outlines three fundamental principles for ANT: agnosticism (impartiality of a researcher towards humans and non-humans), generalized symmetry (researcher’s commitment to treat humans and non-humans equally), and free association (eschewing separation between humans and non-humans) (Callon, 1986b). ANT researchers therefore account for both human and non-human actors, investigating them from the same viewpoint and treating them equally. The ANT concept of translation is used to explain how heterogeneous actors are brought together to form actor-networks. The actor who plays this role is called the focal The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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actor (Latour, 1988; Heeks and Stanforth, 2007). Inscription involves embedding the interests and values of actors into technological artifacts (Akrich, 1992; Leonardi, 2009; Rodon et al., 2008) and can occur as part of translation. These two concepts are further explained in Section 3.2. A number of factors informed the choice of ANT for this study. First, this research acknowledges not only the role of human actors such as the entrepreneur and users in ebusiness formation, but also that of non-humans such as website technology and culture. By avoiding technological or social determinism, ANT escapes the problem of separating the social from the technical (Rose et al., 2005; Tatnall, 2009). By this, this study accounts for the contribution of all relevant actors regardless of their nature. Moreover, although ANT has been criticized for unethically and amorally treating humans and non-humans equally (Collins and Yearley, 1992), in information systems research, it has been found useful for studying complex, interwoven relationships between technology and organizations (Walsham, 1997; Tatnall, 2009). This study also finds ANT helpful for studying interaction between e-business technology and its socio-cultural context. Further, the useful of translation and inscription for researching information system innovation process is well acknowledged (Walsham, 1997; Tatnall, 2009). As this study focuses on e-business formation, translation is considered plausible for tracing the innovation process. Inscription is also considered as such for understanding how cultural values get embedded into e-business artifacts. Walsham (1995) and Eisenhardt (1989) outline three uses of theory in information system research: to guide initial research design and data gathering, to guide data gathering and analysis, and as a final output from a study. In this work, ANT was used more in the second sense to guide data collection and analysis. Alternative theories such as technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989) and diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers, 1995) are well noted for investigating information system innovation processes. However, their limitations in accounting for agency of both humans and non-humans and for complex interaction between technology and organization are well noted (Tatnall, 2009; Orlikowski and Scott, 2008; Holstrom and Robey, 2005). 3.2 Translation Process and Inscription The primary empirical focus of actor-network analysis is to investigate innovation processes through translation (Walsham, 1997; Latour, 1987; Callon, 1986b; Tatnall, 2009). Within information systems research, translation has been found useful for investigating system development, implementation, use and maintenance (Tatnall, 2009; Walsham and Sahay, 2006; Walsham, 1997). Callon (1986b) outlines four moments of translation: problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization. These are summarized in Table 2 and explained below. Table 2: Moments of Translation (Callon, 1986b) Mode Description Problematization

Interessement Enrolment Mobilization

A focal actor identifies other actors and their interests, proposes an innovation network as ‘obligatory passage point’ (OPP) through which the actors can satisfy their interests. The focal actor also suggests actor-network roles for them. The focal actor adopts various tactics and techniques to persuade the other actors to accept the innovation and the proposed roles. Depending on the outcome of interessement, the focal actor coordinates the enrolment of actors who accept to join the network. If enough actors get enrolled, the network becomes stable. The enrolled actors also become spokespersons for the network, helping to enroll more actors. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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Problematization is the initial planning phase where an entrepreneur or a focal actor identifies problems and interests of other potential actors, proposes an innovation as a solution to their problems and suggest roles for them to help develop the innovation. The focal actor conceives the innovation as an obligatory passage point, the conduit through which interested actors would have to pass to address their problems and satisfy their goals. Callon (1986b) summarizes problematization as a proposed system of alliance between entities, which define their identity and their interests. During interessement, the focal actor persuades the proposed actors to join the innovation and accept their assigned roles. During enrolment, the focal actor negotiates with actors who would have accepted to join the network to perform their roles. During mobilization, the network gets established as actor’s interest aligned. Besides, the enrolled actors themselves become spokespersons, persuading more actors to join the network. However, as Callon (1986b) points out, the moments are not sequential; they can overlap. Moreover, because the process is not deterministic, it can break down at any time. Translation has been found useful for studying complex information system processes involving interactions between people, organizations and technology (Tatnall and Burgess, 2004; Walsham, 1997). Therefore, this study considers it appropriate for studying e-business formation through human and non-human interactions. Inscription occurs as part of translation and involves the process of embedding scripts of actions, interests and behaviors into technological artifacts (Sarker et al., 2006; Shin et al., 2010; Cressman, 2009). For information systems, inscription may include programs of action for users and other stakeholders, their roles and interests (Holstrom and Robey, 2005). Inscription media in information system may include software, hardware, manuals, standards, processes and procedures. By undergoing inscription, the media also becomes an actor. In this study, inscription involves the process of embedding cultural values and traditions into technological media such as websites. A combined lens of translation and inscription was found useful for investigating organization change involving information technology (Holstrom and Robey, 2005). Following Holstrom and Robey, this study combines adopts a similar approach to investigate the e-business formation process. 4. METHODOLOGY In order to gain in-depth understanding into the formation of the online firm, this study follows a qualitative, interpretive case study approach in information systems (Walsham, 1995; 2006; Klein and Myers, 1999; Barrett and Walsham, 2004). The approach seeks to understand information systems development, implementation and use as social constructions (Myers, 1997; 2009; Trauth, 2001) and their interactions with their contexts (Walsham, 1993). Rather than seek objectivity, interpretive research considers reality and knowledge as socially constructed between the researcher and the participants (Walsham, 2006; Klein and Myers, 1999) and situated in socio-cultural contexts (Walsham, 1995; 2006). Interpretive case study has therefore been identified as appropriate for investigating information systems in real-life context (Walsham, 1995; Myers, 2009). It has also increasingly become a preferred methodology for actor-network based studies in information systems research (e.g.Cho et al., 2008; Rodon et al., 2008; Sarker et al., 2006; Thapa, 2011). As this study concerns e-business formation in developing context and is guided by ANT, interpretive case study is considered the preferred methodology. 4.1 Research Setting and Data Gathering This study forms part of a larger multiple-case study project to understand e-business formation in developing countries. The setting for the study is Ghana, a developing country in Africa with rich traditions and culture. The fieldwork for the project occurred between March The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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2009 and January 2010. The current study concerns a small e-business start-up involved in the translation and inscription of Ghanaian culture of funeral into an online venture. It is commonly said that Ghanaians ‘love’ funerals. Customarily, the people of Ghana believe that the dead must be honored with befitting funerals; else they will cast calamities on the living. Moreover, funerals in Ghana serve as occasions for family and community reunion. Funerals bring together families, friends, colleagues, communities, societies from far and near. Lately, Ghanaian residents abroad, perceived to be more affluent than locals, are expected to finance and physically attend funerals of their relatives. Funerals also serve as occasions for entertainment, where guests are served with assorted drinks and food. Souvenirs immortalizing the dead with their pictures are also supplied to guests. All of these require major preparation on the part of the bereaved family. They need to purchase items as well as publicize the funeral to promote large attendance. A typical Ghanaian funeral lasts a whole weekend. On Friday evening, the corpse is retrieved from the mortuary and laid in state in the family house for a vigil until the following Saturday morning, when burial occurs after church service in the case of Christians. After the burial, the bereaved and their guests gather in an open space for a funeral durbar amid drumming, music and dancing. Guests are served food and drinks. In return, they donate cash to the bereaved family to help defray part of the cost of funeral. On Sunday, a thanksgiving and memorial church service is conducted, again in the case of Christians, after which the durbar continues. Invited guests who could not attend the day before take advantage of the Sunday to attend and donate. The greatest desire of every family in Ghana is to attract the largest crowd to a funeral. Culturally, the size of attendance determines the social status of the bereaved family and the dead. It is within this social-cultural context that this case study is situated. The researcher is a native of Ghana and lecturers in a university there. His nationality and professional status helped in gaining research access to the firm. Access was gained first through online directory of e-businesses in the country (www.yellowpages.gh), followed by personal contacts with the entrepreneur. The case was found interesting as it offered the opportunity to understand the positive contribution of a developing country culture to ebusiness, a contrast to the dominantly negative perception in the literature. The researcher gathered qualitative data from multiple sources (Walsham, 1995; 2006) including, semistructured interviews, document analysis and participant observation through demonstrations of software and related artifacts. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 participants. They included the entrepreneur, who doubles as the web designer, 5 employees, 4 directors of client organizations and 6 regular users of the website. Interview questions focused on their roles in the e-business formation and their interaction with other human and non-human actors. The average duration of each interview was between 1 and 2 hours, was tape recorded following participant’s consent and subsequently transcribed. The researcher gathered additional data through participant observation of artifacts through a series of demonstrations conducted by the entrepreneur on the website, its content and backend applications. Further data also came from internal reports and corporate documents available on the website. The researcher also gathered additional data from general search on the Internet and from newspaper archives. After the fieldwork, the researcher presented initial findings to the organization in two separate workshops. The workshops offered opportunity for data verification and additional data from participants. However, follow-up interviews via e-mail and telephone as well as continuous monitoring of the website continued off-site.


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4.2 Data Analysis The objective of the data analysis was to follow the actors and their networks (Latour, 1987; 1999) to understand their actions and inscriptions along moments of translation of the ebusiness formation. ANT was therefore used as a guide for both data gathering and analysis (Walsham, 1995). All the data gathered through interviews, observation, documents analysis and workshops were analyzed qualitatively (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The analytical process involved summarizing, coding and categorizing all the gathered data from the multiple sources (Miles and Huberman, 1994) by Callon’s (1986b) four moments of translation: problematization, interessement, enrollment and mobilization, and also accounting for episodes of inscription. . Throughout the project, continuous and careful reading of and reflecting on the data (Walsham and Sahay, 1999) was used to create a data-theory link (Walsham, 2006). Peerreview review by colleagues and other researchers helped to check for authenticity, plausibility and criticality (Walsham, 2006; Golden-Biddle and Locke, 1993) of both the data analysis and the interpretation. The research process was evaluated according to the set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies (Klein and Myers, 1999). 5 RESEARCH FINDINGS FuneralsinGhana (www.funeralsinghana.com) is a small Funeral Web Portal founded in 2007 by a Ghanaian returnee from Switzerland. The firm aims to provide online funeral services to families, friends and organizations. The following sections trace the moments of translation for the online venture and how cultural values and traditions got inscribed into the portal. The moments constitute the different phases of the e-business formation along Callon (1986b)’s problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization phases. However, as Callon points out, these faces are not clear cut but overlap. Therefore, the e-business formation processes reported below follows the moments of translation not strictly but loosely. 5.1 Problematization The problem the entrepreneur, as the focal actor, planned to address was to make access to funeral services more accessible and less costly via an online portal. According to him, bereaved families spend so much money and time to access funeral services. They also pay so much for advertisement and announcements in the traditional media—radio, television and newspapers. Further, some families pay heavily for posters and billboards at vantage points, despite they being geographically limited. Moreover, funeral businesses find the traditional media too expensive for promoting their services. The focal actor proposed a funeral web portal as the obligatory passage point through which all actors can satisfy their interests. He described his motivation for developing the portal as follows: The idea came about when I decided to look at promoting funerals online to help people find information, resources and publicize funerals and memorials in a cheaper and more convenient way. The focal actor identified bereaved families, funeral businesses and the general public as actors for the funeral portal network. He also identified their problems, interests and expected roles in the actor-network. First, he considered the website for the funeral web portal as the ICT actor to be inscribed with funeral information and services to serve as the obligatory passage point through which all the other actors would need to pass to solve their problems and satisfy their interest. Second, he considered bereaved families as users who would be interested in publicizing funerals and announcements as well as accessing funeral services through the website at far cheaper costs than in the traditional media—newspapers, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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radio, television, posters and billboards. They would also be interested in uploading tributes, pictures and videos. The focal actor planned that bereaved families would register and pay for advertisements, announcements and uploads. He described his expectations for bereaved families as follows: Losing a loved one is a very painful and emotional time. All you want is to be left alone to mourn in peace. But there is so much to be decided and organized; therefore FuneralsinGhana.com has been established to be onestop shop funeral information and education site. The focal actor also identified funeral businesses as users who would be interested in advertising their products and services via the website. Like the bereaved families, they would be made to register and pay for using the website, which would offer them more convenient and less expensive online service than what the traditional media offers. The focal actor identified the public as general users who would be interested in uploading tributes about late friends and colleagues, and accessing funeral announcements, pictures and videos. Unlike the bereaved families and the businesses, the general public would enjoy free access. With these plans in place, the focal actor proceeded to inscribe the interest of the proposed actors into website to serve as their obligatory passage point. 5.2 Developing the Website and Inscription To define requirements specifications and information needs of the proposed actors, the focal actor conducted systems analysis and design by capturing and analyzing data on funeral announcements on radio, television and in newspapers. He followed and analyzed various funeral discussions on radio and television and consulted obituaries, announcements and thanksgiving columns of newspapers. The focal actor also analyzed sample funeral posters, handbills, brochures and billboards to gather more information on funeral values and practices as well as the interests of the proposed actors. He also attended several funerals to interact with bereaved families and the public to gain more insight into their values, problems and interest in accessing funeral services and information. According to him, such interactions also afforded him the opportunity to verify the information he had earlier gathered from the media, posters and billboards and the interest he had proposed for them at the problematization phase. He also interacted with funeral businesses and visited their websites to gather information on their requirements. The focal actor then analyzed all the information gathered and documented the findings into requirements and inscription specifications for the website design. These specifications shaped the development of the website. According to focal actor: It was necessary to base the website design on existing practices in order to make the portal more acceptable and user-friendly to the target users. Himself a web developer and graphic designer, the focal actor built the website by inscribing the gathered values and practices as the content. The completed and uploaded website with inscribed values and practices offer various services for the intended users. The homepage announces the purpose of the website to visitors as follows: FuneralsinGhana.com has been established to serve as a one-stop source for information and education on funerals in Ghana.


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The homepage contains obituaries, announcements for the lately dead. It also provides links to information on the dead—their profiles, pictures and video on their funerals and related ceremonies. The homepage also provides links to related pages on memorials, obituaries, appreciations, articles, photos and videos. YouTube offers free space for the videos and photos. The homepage also links visitors to websites of funerals businesses in Ghana. The Memorials Page invites users to personally upload announcements and memorials. This page also allows people to write online tributes for the dead. Alternatively, people can email tributes to the webmaster to upload. The articles page provides educational resources on funerals, tit-bits on supporting grieving children and information on funeral planning, financing and other preparatory activities. A Ghanaian UK resident and user of the website (Pieterson, 2009) commented on the content and resources as follows: On my recent visit to the site, I saw an article on how to deal with grief and also how to assist a child in times of grief. There are also articles on so many of the issues to think about when it comes to the elements that surrounds funerals (facts about caskets, planning funerals etc.). This page also gives information on how one can contact FuneralsinGhana.com for video coverage and advice. The photo and video pages present photos of the dead as well as their funeral videos and pictures. The products and services page offers opportunities for service providers to advertise and sell their products online. This page also provides contacts of service providers for customer enquiries. According to the entrepreneur, this page has been well patronized by service providers, including funeral homes, hearse and canopy rental firms, and caterers. A funeral service provider and user of the website (Smith, 2009) wrote his impression about it as follows: FuneralsinGhana.com is a one-stop shop for everything funeral. I actually saw funeral announcements, tributes, products and service, photos as well as videos on the website. They have even gone the extra mile to provide coverage for funerals which are later posted on websites. What an innovation. As a business man, I was interested in the products and services page, because I rent cold vans and canopies. I got there and lo and behold, display of related products and services on the page. I immediately took the opportunity to send mine. 5.3 Interessement The focal actor used the website as the interessement device to convince the other actors to divert their interest from the traditional media to the website as their obligatory passage point. He devised a plan to allow the bereaved families to use the website initially for free after which they would have to pay. He then approached some bereaved families to convince them that the website would serve their interest by providing them the opportunity to publish their announcements, photos, videos, tributes and memoirs for free. According to him, the initial free offer enticed a number of families to use the service. The focal actor also visited funeral grounds to convince people to use the website. He described some of his interessement techniques: When people have funerals I go to them and tell them please publish on the website for free. You just need to publish and it is free. I was contacting press companies to The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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go and put it there for free. So I got all of these and then at a point they started sending and calling and making the request themselves. The focal actor also used the media to attract actors. He published a number of articles about the website in local newspapers. He also visited some media houses to invite them to publish funeral announcements in their newspapers on the website for free. These articles further attracted commentators for review on radio and television. The focal actor also contacted and promoted the website to funeral businesses and convinced them to use the website. Moreover, he demonstrated the website to some of these business including; suppliers of hearse, chairs and canopies; caterers and distributors of soft and alcoholic drinks. 5.4 Enrollment FuneralsInGhana commenced business by offering initial free services to all users. After the free period, he began to charge families and businesses. He however maintained the free access to the general public. According to the focal actor, some bereaved families, particularly the rich, began to enroll. They began to upload obituaries, announcements, photos, videos and related documents. He was however surprised that it is rather the rich who have enrolled more than the common people he expected to patronize the website as an opportunity to reduce funeral cost. The Diaspora particularly in the US and Europe also began to enroll. They began to contact the focal actor through the website for funeral service providers. He then links them to available providers. Such opportunities have resulted in co-operative arrangements between FuneralsinGhana and some funeral businesses for co-advertisement and corecommendation. The arrangement entails FuneralsInGhana providing free advertising services for the businesses whilst the latter do same for FuneralsinGhana. The focal actor commented on the process of one such arrangement: FuneralsinGhana was excited when we got a partner connection through the website. A UK based funeral home wanted a partner in Ghana and so they sent me e-mail that they wanted to partner with me and I replied that me I am not a funeral home. So they said ok recommend a funeral home and then I recommended GhanaFuneral [pseudonym]. So the last time I spoke to the MD of this firm he told me when he would go to the UK to go and sign the agreement. According to the focal actor, some from the Diaspora e-mailed and commended him for such a breakthrough innovation in the history of Ghana. They informed the focal actor that the funeral portal provides them significant relief. The website enables them to plan the funeral of their relatives remotely from their country of residence without necessarily travelling to Ghana. They can make all the necessary contacts and arrangements through the web portal. They only need to travel Ghana to attend funerals. After the funeral, the site offers them the opportunity to showcase photos, videos and tributes of the funeral to friends across the world. Until then, they had to video the events, store them on tapes or CDs and carry them abroad. The website thus relieves them from doing this, offering them global coverage to disseminate funeral information worldwide. A Ghanaian UK resident and user of the website (Pieterson, 2009) commented on the website as follows: My Dear Reader, you would agree with me that there is no where that you can have such great services concerning funerals other than on this site, funeralsinghana.com. Funerals have been covered comprehensively and we need to really commend the architects of this for a great job. Henceforth, we The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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are going to experience a drastic reduction in the time and cost of our funerals because of funeralsinghana.com, if only we are going to use the website. Fellow Ghanaians, we really have a resource with us now. Let us use it to the optimum best. The site is great, the information very comprehensive, pages very relevant, and everything about it wonderful. The writer however advocated facilities for more video content. According to the focal actor, such demands pushed him to upgrade the website by adding Web 2.0 facilities that can support more audio and video content as well as sharing. However, lack of online payment facilities prevents local customers from paying via the website. The locals have to pay by traditional means such as direct cash collection, account deposits or bank transfers. Diaspora however can pay through the focal actor’s PayPal account. 5.5 Mobilization According to the focal actor, the portal has now become stabilized, requiring less design modifications. He attributes the structural stability to basing the design on existing cultural values and practices. To date, the core structure of the site and the back-end applications have remained stable. Demands for more video content have however forced the firm to acquire additional online space beyond what YouTube offers for free. Some users, particularly from the Diaspora, are however demanding download access for videos and photos. There are some who have even expressed interests to pay for additional space to store online photo and video albums. There are yet others who are requesting for funeral webcasting. The positive performance of FuneralsInGhana within its short operation period has impressed the focal actor, who expressed his satisfaction so far as follows: So far so good! People are getting to know the Website. They are contacting us to publicize their funerals, their obituaries, and memorials. The focal actor continues to receive e-mails from potential customers to inform him that their friends and relatives recommended the website to them. Moreover, the website has become a frequent topic for discussion. Radio and television commentators often cite it as one of the most innovative online entrepreneurship in the country. Radio and television stations continue to invite the focal actor to talk about the online service. Articles on the website also continue to feature in local newspapers as well as on the Internet. According to the focal actor, he did not expect the business to grow so big, beyond his control. He is now planning to employ more workers. 6. DISCUSSION The purpose of this study has been to understand how developing country culture can be mobilized for e-business formation. The formation of FuneralsinGhana.com in this study presents an alternative, positive perspective of developing country culture. As a social actor, the Ghanaian culture of funeral contributed to the formation and promotion of the online business. Other human and non-human actors, including people, media, organizations and ICTs also contributed. However, the role of culture as an enabling social actor is of much interest here, given the dominant negative perspective of culture in the literature, which cites preference for face-to-face contact rather than anonymous digital interaction (Jennex and Amoroso, 2002); preference for open air-marketplace and cash payment rather than emarketplace (Mbarika et al., 2005); and language barrier for non-English speaking countries (Vatanasakdakul, 2008) as some of the reasons.


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However, the rationale for most of these findings seems to be based on e-business as practiced in the developed world rather than on developing country culture, tradition and practices. Nevertheless, the developed and the developing world operate under varied socioeconomic rationalities (Avgerou, 2009; 2001). Hence, technologies and business models may not be readily and feasibly transportable from the latter to the former (Avgerou, 2009; Heeks, 2002). Although e-business technology originated from the developed world (Li, 2007), it is not essentially Western but potentially malleable to varied contexts such as developing countries. Developing country e-business research and practice therefore need to seek cultural fit (Mbarika et al., 2005; Boateng et al., 2009) rather than direct importation of e-business models from the developed world. This study demonstrates e-business venture as sociotechnical translation (Callon, 1986b; Tatnall, 2009) to meet socio-cultural contexts in a developing country. The e-business model was not directly transported or adopted. Whereas most e-entrepreneurs may want to directly mimic successful dot-coms in the developed, such as Amazon and eBay, the focal actor in this study based his e-business model on the funeral context of Ghana. ANT was found useful for investigating the emergent and cooperative development process between the human and non-human actors. The technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989) and diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers, 1995) are commonly used to investigate e-business innovation in developing countries. However, the limitations of such theories to account for the malleable, emergent and sociotechnical nature of information systems innovations are well noted (Tatnall, 2009). By using ANT translation and inscription, this study demonstrates how local practices and values can be translated and inscribed into successful e-business ventures. In this study, culture enabled rather than constrained the e-business formation. The findings show that developing country cultures may not be completely against e-business. As in other societies, culture may have not only constraining but enabling impacts towards technology. What becomes important then is how appropriate local values and practices can be embedded into e-business models as demonstrated in this study. The findings thus encourage developing country e-business entrepreneurs to account for local rationalities and contexts and to avoid design-actuality gaps (Heeks, 2002). The failure of most ICTs transported from the developed to the developing world due non-accounting for sociocultural differences (Walsham and Sahay, 1999; Heeks, 2002) supports the need for developing country culture and practices to be taken seriously in e-business research and practice. Changing the local culture to suit developed world e-business practices may not be readily feasible; models can be however be designed to fit local contexts. The findings also support the view that e-business practices are bound to differ across the developed and developing divide (Ferran and Salim, 2005). A growing number of developing country researchers (e.g. Laosethakul and Boulton, 2007; Boateng et al., 2009; Kamel and Hassan, 2003; Sia et al., 2009; Ferran and Salim, 2005) are therefore advocating e-business adaptation rather than direct adoption from the developed world. Because developed world business models embody their own values and practices different from those in the developing world, transporting ICTs to the latter may not be feasible (Avgerou, 1998; Walsham and Sahay, 1999; Heeks, 2002). This study thus demonstrates how e-business models can be developed from local practices and values. This is however not to suggest that all developing country values and practices are good for e-business inscription. There can equally be bad practices that need to be avoided in e-business design (Ferran and Salim, 2005). Moreover, entrepreneurs can learn from successful developed world e-business models and contextualize them without necessarily copying blindly.


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7. CONCLUSION This study presents an enabling perspective of developing country culture to e-business innovation. The paper reports on how the developing country culture of funeral in Ghana was mobilized among other human and non-human actors for a successful e-business formation. By inscribing cultural values and practices into website artefacts, the case offers rich insight into how developing country e-business models can achieve cultural fit rather than result in design-actuality gap models that meet developed practices but fail to meet the developing world contexts. The findings therefore complement the predominantly negative perspective of developing country culture to e-business in the literature. A key argument of the study is that although developing country culture may present some constraining features, it can also offer enabling capability to e-business formation if entrepreneurs and developers would seek to understand their developing country social-cultural contexts. While, the extant literature focuses largely on the constraints of developing country culture, this study opens up an alternative line of discourse on its positive aspects and potential contribution to e-business innovation. The findings therefore encourage e-business entrepreneurs to not just copy models from the developed world as best practices but seek to understand the socio-cultural context and design befitting models. Researchers and practitioners can therefore explore the malleable potential of e-business technology and enabling features of local cultures to promote made-in-developing country models. As this study focused on how culture shapes e-business formation, future research can investigate how e-business is shaping national and organizational cultures in developing countries. 8. REFERENCES Akrich, M. (1992) The Description of Technical Objects, in Bijker, W. E. & Law, J. (Eds.) Shaping Technology / Building Society. MIT Press. Avgerou, C. (1998) How Can IT Enable Economic Growth in Developing Countries?, Information Technology for Development, 1, 1-14. Avgerou, C. (2000) Recognizing Alternative Rationalities in the Deployment of Information Systems, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 3, 7, 115. Avgerou, C. (2001) The Significance of Context in Information Systems and Organisational Change, Information Systems Journal, 11, 43-63 Avgerou, C. (2009) Discourses on Innovation and Development in Information Systems in Developing Countries’ Research, Proceedings of the IFIP WG 9.4 conference. Barrett, M. & Walsham, G. (2004) Making Contributions from Interpretive Case Studies: Examining Processes of Construction and Use, in Kaplan, B., Truex, D.P., Watsell, D., Wood-Harper, A.T. & DeGross, J.I. (Eds.) Information Systems Research: Relevant Theory and Informed Practice. Boateng, R., Molla, A. & Heeks, R. (2009) E-commerce in Developing Economies: A Review of Theoretical Frameworks and Approaches, in Rouibah, K., Khalil, O. & Ella, H. A. (Eds.) Emerging Markets and E-commerce in Developing Economies. Hershey, PA, IGI Publishing. Callon, M. (1986a) The Sociology of an Actor -Network: The Case of the Electric Vehicle, IN Callon, M., Law, J. & Rip, A. (Eds.) Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology. London, Macmillan Press. Callon, M. (1986b) Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and Fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay, in Law, J. (Ed.) Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge. London, Routledge. Cho, S., Mathiassen, L. & Nilsson, A. (2008) Contextual Dynamics during Health Information Systems Implementation: An Event-based Actor-network Approach, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries www.ejisdc.org

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