Investment promotion agencies on the Internet: evaluating promotion tactics and web presence.

Lozada, Hector R. ; Kritz, Gary H.

ABSTRACT

This article presents a comparison between the main pages of websites from several investment promotion agencies (IPAs) from countries in different regions of the world. Using content analysis, the study assesses and contrasts the communication and positioning tactics embedded in each main page based on the value-added and purpose of the websites, and the effect that cultural dimensions may have on these tactics.

INTRODUCTION

The popularity of Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in developing and developed countries has been on the rise over the past decade. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows have spurred competition, transferred technology, and know-how and have allowed countries greater access to international markets. As a result governments are genuinely funding investment promotion activities. Governments acknowledge that FDI plays an important role in a country's economy, and that it is desirable to undertake investment promotion efforts via organized, official agencies. At a time when FDI amounts are allegedly stagnating (UNCTAD 2003) and when global competition is increasing, the role these agencies come to play is perhaps vital.

Our interest here is to examine the use of websites for investment promotion purposes on the part of IPAs. As an initial step, our focus is on the communication challenges that posting/publishing a website may present on an IPA's efforts to market a country for FDI. Our study uses content analysis to examine the present ways in which selected IPAs are marketing their countries via websites. Our intention is to focus on the content and design of an IPA's website's main (or home) page to compare and contrast the communication and positioning tactics used by IPAs from different countries in different stages of economic development and from different parts of the world. First, we present an overview of the role and functions of IPAs. We then describe our methodology, followed by preliminary findings of our study.

FUNCTIONS OF AN IPA

The mission of an IPA is to successfully promote a country to outside investors in order to stimulate foreign investment flows. An IPA typically undertakes a series of functions ranging from the promotion and building of a country's image, to investor targeting and facilitation (pre-investment-decision) and "aftercare" (post-investment decision).

Wells and Wint (1990, 2000) and Lozada and Fishler (2005) identify four main functions for IPA's: image building, investor facilitation and servicing, investment generation, and policy advocacy. As an image builder, an IPA makes every effort to improve a country's image to attract foreign investment. Public relations events and targeted advertising are typically undertaken to deliver the image of the country as an advantageous location to invest.

As an investor facilitator, an IPA also normally provides prospective investors with necessary information that will be useful during the processes of investment decision and setting-up. The IPA will assist in establishing a business by providing regulatory and legal requirements to facilitate investments and to expedite the process as much as possible. In addition, the IPA will also offer aftercare activities, such as monitoring and consultation for ongoing investment operations to keep them in good standing. This is understandable given the importance of reinvesting funds in the country generated by the foreign business community. An IPA can also take up the role of advocate on behalf of private sector companies.

As an investment generator an IPA works to target investors, promoting specific sectors and industries to potential investors. Tools such as direct mailing or investor forums and conferences would be used to target specific investors both at home and abroad (UNIDO 2003).

The last recognized role is policy advocate. As business-friendly environments are a determinant of whether foreigners decide to invest, IPAs often focus on policy formulation and proposal aimed at improving the country's investment climate. Ultimately the role and functions an IPA must undertake will depend on the country's stage of development and thus its specific needs.

IPAs and the Internet

The Internet is a strategic application of information technology that has the potential to change the rules by which organizations do business via a new means for marketing communications, sales, customer service, logistics, and business communications of (Jarvenpaa & Todd 1996; Rayport & Sviokla 1996). Becker (2002) asserts that the Internet provides opportunities to access international markets that in the past were virtually unattainable for many organizations.

The Internet is a helpful tool for governments and their agencies. It is used to disseminate information to a country's citizens and could be a valuable device to promote a country for tourism, and most recently, for investment opportunities. It is now a common practice for an IPA to run a website in which it portrays a first look into a country as an investment target. The most common information presented relates to the business environment, and it may include elements such as regulatory issues and incentives pertaining to investments, statistics concerning investment flows and economic indicators as well as particular sectors of importance (UNCTAD 2001).

An Internet presence offers IPAs the opportunity to improve the quality of the functions performed and to service investors in a timely manner. Via a website an IPA is able to reach wider audiences year round and at any time of the day; it may be also a cost efficient gateway to access investors worldwide. Having a website offers investors a way to obtain easy customized service and remote access to database services. An IPA's website serves as a window into a country's economic and commercial prospects. Because of this, the website's content should reflect the role and functions of the IPA. Given the perspective that investors could most likely begin their research on the Internet for potentials sites where to invest, the presentation of the country on an IPA's website should play a crucial role. A website intended to promote FDI should include relevant investor information and most importantly must be effectively updated. Obviously, this communication process may be curtailed by economic considerations and by cultural variables from both the IPA's and the potential investors' point of view. That is, it could easily be assumed that some of the cultural characteristics of those designing and managing the website will find their way into the content and design of the site. By the same token, it seems fair to state that those accessing a website tend to read and evaluate its contents and design from their own cultural standpoint.

Recently, the Western control of communications, the Internet and electronic commerce has generated discussions about the "imperialism of the Internet." According to Aizu (1996), the Japanese traditions can suffer from the intrusion of websites originating mostly from the United States. Hedley (1999) establishes that the Internet opens the possibility of large-scale cultural imperialism. Hongladarom (1998) asserts that the Internet is a globalizing agent and as such, it exports a cosmopolitan culture that produces a homogenizing force. These arguments stem from the fact that the Internet was created and has developed mainly in the United States and Western Europe, and, therefore, tends to illustrate the values and norms of industrialized countries. The value system that is embedded in the Internet favors a model of rationality, technology, progress, speed and economy of time, profitability, impersonality, individuality, freedom of authoritarian control, and political democracy (Sackmary & Scalia 1999).

METHODOLOGY

Content Analysis

Content analysis is a research method focusing on the quantitative, systematic, and objective description of the content of communication (Berelson 1952). According to Berelson, content analysis is used to determine the values, themes, roles, norms of conduct and other elements of a culture. Researchers usually must develop a coding scheme to analyze the content, although at times some of the existing schemes may prove valuable. Krippendorf (1980) identified four main advantages of content analysis: it is unobtrusive, it could be used on unstructured material, it is sensitive to context and it is capable to process symbols. Content analysis can be used in international marketing to monitor technological, cultural, economic, and social environments in which the marketing organization works or expects to operate (Wheeler 1988). Several content analysis studies of the Internet have demonstrated that it is a completely functional research method that could be used to analyze online marketing communication messages (Baron 2001; Okazaki & Alonso Rivas 2002; McMillan 2000).

Framework/Variables

Figure 1 presents the basic model upon which we build our research. We propose that national culture affects the value-purpose of a web page, and therefore, its design. In our specific case, since all IPAs would communicate with venture capitalists, we would expect a homogenizing effect; that is, the basic structure of the website should be similar across the board, although the content, for obvious reasons may vary. Our focus will be on determining if IPAs' websites reflect different perspectives that could be associated with cultural variants. In particular, we will engage in a content analysis based on Ho's (1997) value-purpose combinations and Hofstede's (1980, 1997) cultural dimensions in terms of individualism, uncertainty, masculinity, and power-distance.

Purpose-Value Added. Ho (1997) analyzed several commercial websites from a perspective of purpose and value-added to customers. It is our intention to base our analyses on the same typology to evaluate the information offered in IPAs' websites. Ho categorized the business purposes of commercial websites in three types: Promotion of product, provision of data and information and Processing of business transactions. However, due to the nature of the marketed product in question in the case of IPAs (countries), the emphasis will be on Ho's first two types of purpose, namely promotion and provision.

Promotion refers to investment opportunities; investment incentives; start-up information; access to secondary resources: online databases (export registries and search options) and personalized reports (possibility of logging in with user name and password); Hosting (workshops, general information seminars, trade shows, industry conferences); country profile: labor statistics, legislation pertinent to investments, macroeconomic statistics.

Provision refers to general search option; press releases; general info (privacy policy, latest news, upcoming events); financial data of agency (annual report); description of agency ("about us"); links (to government, chambers of commerce, private entities); communicability: use of graphics, video, downloadable presentation, site availability in multiple languages, frequently asked questions; Requests: ability to email for additional information, order forms, site map; feedback from serviced companies (i.e. "what they say" links)

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Regarding the four types of value-creation, Ho identifies them as Timely, Custom, Logistic, and Sensational. Timely value applies to time-sensitive information, and not to the speed of its delivery. In our context, this would be indicated by how frequently the information on the website is updated, or whether the most current information is included. Custom and logistic values arise from specific intent on the part of the visitor to a Website. Custom value is predicated on predisposed preferences of the visitor. Providing options to the visitor so that s/he may find the information wanted or needed creates custom value. Logistic value is predicated on preprogrammed propositions on the Website. Providing information on, for example, the amount of time it would take to evaluate a proposal and to provide feedback may generate logistic value. In Ho's perspective, the proceedings of a custom value-adding feature generate a profile of the visitor while the proceedings of a logistic value-adding feature generate a profile of the business of the Website. Sensational value is totally subjective. It refers to the effect that a web page may have on the first time surfer. Sensational value is judged against the level of expectation that the visitor would have.

Culture. According to Hofstede (1980, 1997, 2001) culture is reflected through four dimensions: individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity. Hall (1973, 1976) classifies culture as high versus low context. We choose to follow Singh, Zhao and Hu's (2003) perspective, in which they combine both models as the most viable framework because they both provide the analytical flexibility that is most helpful in measuring culture (see also Pollay 1983). We expect cultural dimensions to manifest themselves as indicated below.

The Individualism/Collectivism dimension focuses on an individual's relationship with society and with other individuals. Categories of interest here include community relations, chat rooms, newsletter, family theme, symbols and pictures of national identity, and links to local websites.

Hofstede (1980) states that the bipolar power distance dimension indicates how different societies treat inequities among its members. In our case, the use of animation as introduction to a website is associated with a higher prestige, and therefore, a higher power distance. We also expect that national symbols would be more visible in the websites of countries of having a higher power distance score.

Uncertainty avoidance is the degree to which societies can tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity, something that varies among cultures (Hofstede 1980). Singh, Zhao and Hu (2003) assert that because the Internet is a new medium for communications and transactions it has a certain degree of uncertainty and risk. Individuals from certain cultures may be more skeptical and insecure of the Internet in general, and the information on its web pages in particular. The content of a web page, therefore, is likely to reflect the culture's operating level of uncertainty avoidance.

The Masculinity/Femininity dimension explains how gender roles are allocated in different cultures (Hofstede 1980). Masculine cultures value assertiveness, ambition, success, and performance. Feminine cultures value beauty, nature and nurturance, and the ambiguity of gender roles. We expect more aggressiveness in promotion, clear privacy policies and terms and conditions for investment in the websites of countries ranking high on masculinity.

Context is the information surrounding an event and it connected to what the event means. In high context cultures, the information is already rooted in the communication context and little is explicitly coded. Low context cultures emphasize directness and clarity in communication.

Our intention in following this framework is to ascertain whether there is a degree of cultural divergence present in the different IPAs' websites or whether a level of convergence exists.

The Study

Our aim is to compare a wide range of communication tactics utilized by IPAs from different countries at different stages of development to ascertain whether some level of homogenization has been achieved, given that all of these sites compete for the same pool of potential venture capital. Table 1 shows a list of the Regional Groupings that were formed for the purposes of this study. Most of the countries included are listed also as members of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA; www.waipa.org). We selected one IPA website out of each of the 16 regions in Table 1. Our first task was to verify that the country selected had an accessible website for its IPA. We define accessible as being able to open a web page without an error message; pages "under construction" are considered accessible. However, if the selected site for the region is under construction, the rule was to select an additional website. Once Ireland was selected, we decided to draw a second country from Western Europe, and that was Germany. After determining that the Gambian site was under construction, we selected another country from Western Africa (Senegal). The selected websites were then reclassified according to the World Bank Income Groups (see Table 2). Our sample size for this initial study ended up being 18. Our unit of analysis was the main (or home) page of an IPA's website. Given the type of website that we are investigating, we expected that most, if not all, will have a main page in English, or a link to an English-version of the website.

To use content analysis, the content (information) in a web page should be codified in order for the researcher to identify the salient characteristics of the electronic communications via a website. Weare and Lin (2000) assert that this codification is critical; the development of a code sheet that is comprehensive and mutually exclusive is one of the most important components of any content analysis. In our case, the code sheet needed to include Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Ho's purpose-value-added variables. In preparing our code sheet, we followed Marcus and Gould's (2000) guidelines regarding how cultural dimensions might affect user-interface designs. Table 3 summarizes the factors that were explored. Please note that an a priori judgment on whether the site was from a high-context or a low context country.

The cultural dimensions were evaluated from the standpoint of their purpose (promotion and provision) and value-added (timely, custom, logistic, and sensational). Our point of departure is Hofstede's (1980, 1997, 2001) classification of countries on the basis of the four dimensions and the World Bank's country classification according to income. Our code sheet presents a combination of nominal scales to ascertain the presence or absence of variables (YES/NO) or a general count of a specific factor (in four categories). The study was conducted over a span of three weeks in September 2005.

FINDINGS

When evaluating the various websites, the judges had to assess a range of factors. First and foremost, was this website (as exemplified by its entry point (main page) clear, concise and easy to use? Next, was all pertinent information readily accessible without having to go through multiple links and screens? Then, aesthetically, was the site laid out in a manner where information is jumbled together difficult to view, or is it presented in a manner in which it is easy to view? And finally, was the website a direct reflection on the society it represents? All of these factors had to be weighed against the presumed biased that we in the Western industrialized nations possess. This section presents our findings based on income groups and our preliminary findings on the Individualism/Collectivism dimension.

Income Groups

After viewing and evaluating IPA websites from different income groups, it is clear there is an apparent direct relationship between the country's economic status and its IPA website. The poorer nations have simple, elementary and basic websites that provide little to not- pertinent information about 1) the society, 2) the economic statistics and status and 3) the reasons to invest in that nation. A perfect example of this would be the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC; www.anapi.org). This site was basic, at best, and bland. It provided no information for potential investors interested in the country's status. Aesthetically, it lacked animation, there was no creativity; there was nothing that caught one's eye. With no pictures, or graphs or charts, it was difficult to get "excited" about opportunities possibly available in the DRC.

On the flip side, when reviewing the websites of the high-income nations it was immediately clear how and why a potential investor would develop an interest, or a positive first impression regarding the investment potential in any of the four countries. Aside from the economic status of each of these countries, and the technological advancements each has made, the attention to detail and the precision shown in these sites was unambiguous. These websites provided in their main page a greater assortment of information relevant to investment, direct links to various questions a potential investor might have when debating about whether or not to invest in that country. Both judges found it interesting that of the four countries in the high-income group, the only one that blatantly uses a tag line as a branding technique is Ireland ("Ireland, knowledge is in our nature"); the other three seem to rely on the strength of the country's name as a differentiator. The overall design of the pages for these four countries was found to be similar, and both judges found the main pages informative and "easy on the eyes." These sites presented all relevant information on the main page, without being cluttered or difficult to use.

What is interesting is the divergence within the higher-middle-income websites. For example, The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIZ; www.paiz.gov.pl), provides all the basic and necessary information needed by a potential investor, but requires the use of many links and much time to access that information. The PAIZ website also uses the tag line PoLand of Opportunities, utilizing the national colors (red and white) to frame their presentation, and an animated map in which the country's geographical position in Eastern Europe is highlighted. The main pages for Costa Rica's CINDE and Argentina's Agencia de Desarrollo de Inversiones are very basic, consisting mostly of links to other pages, although CINDE forwards the tag line "Costa Rica: People Who Make the Difference."

In the lower-middle-income group, China's website (Invest in China) was found to be informative and generally well designed, although one of the judges pointed out that the amount of information included may overwhelm the visitor. Thailand's site (Board of Investment) uses a tag line similar to Poland's: "ThaiLand of Investment: Double Your Chances." The judges agreed that Thailand's web site was easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. Like Australia's website, Thailand's not only provides the necessary information for potential investors but it uses pictures and videos as an enhancement and to capture the visitor's attention. This is a major draw, especially with society relying heavily on video today. In addition to the pictures and videos, the judges pointed out that the website for Bosnia-Herzegovina, although generally having a nice design, overuses animation to the point where the site is difficult to read. Kazakhstan's website was very basic, while Jordan's was very plain. Algeria and the Dominican Republic have websites in French and Spanish, respectively, with no English version. Despite this, the general impression of the judges was that Algeria's seems to be more basic than the Dominican Republic's. The content of these sites will be evaluated in future research.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Zandpour, Campos and Catalano (1994) suggest that this is the main dimension for cultural variability. Countries with a high level of individuality (Australia, Canada) value independence, self-exposure and autonomy. These are low context cultures for which the verbal communication is expected to be explicit, direct, personalized and not ambiguous. An example of the analysis performed on the homepages based on our criteria is presented in Table 4. When comparing the homepages for Invest in Australia, Invest in Canada, and CINDE (Costa Rica's IPA) we can see that despite the fact that all three sites are targeting a "global customer" (i.e., a potential investor), their approach is quite different. The Costa Rican site requires an additional step for provision of information, that is, a more involved visitor. Costa Rica is ranked as a collectivist society by Hofstede. Therefore, a long-term commitment to the member 'group,' be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships, and loyalty are paramount, and over-ride most other societal rules and regulations. It may be harder, culturally, to open up the country to the world in economic terms via the Internet, which is what these websites must do. The Australian and Canadian homepages are very clear insofar as the investment that they are attempting to attract.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

CONCLUSION

Our article presents a study using content analysis to compare the main pages of IPAs in different parts of the world, with different income classification. Ours is a first attempt to understand the attributes, content and appearance being presently used in efforts to use the Internet as a tool to attract potential investors and to ascertain whether income and cultural dimensions play a role in the way that these websites are designed. Our findings indicate that countries enjoying a higher level of economic development tend to maintain better website functionality and demonstrate higher effectiveness in communicability. It seems that, not only for investors but anyone visiting a website, aesthetics and presentation are crucial. Relatedly, given that IPAs all target world venture capitalists, yet Western influence permeates the Internet environment, in general, we also found a level of convergence and homogenization in the content of their websites based on Western influence, even in those from countries in the lower-income group. The next stage of this project will focus on the cultural dimensions from the standpoint of purpose and value-added for the home pages of each of the sixteen IPAs in our sample.

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Hector R. Lozada, Seton Hall University Gary H. Kritz, Seton Hall University

Table 1
Regional Groupings

Region Countries

North America: Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico,
 United States

Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
 Guatemala, Honduras, Panama

Caribbean Basin: Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican
 Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
 Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana,
 Guyana, Surinam, Peru, Paraguay,
 Uruguay, Venezuela,

Western Europe: Ireland, United Kingdom. France,
 Switzerland, Portugal, Spain,
 Netherlands, Belgium, Germany,
 Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
 Italy, Luxembourg

Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
 Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova,
 Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia,
 Lithuania:

The Balkans and South-Eastern Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia,
Europe: Macedonia, Greece, Turkey,
 Bulgaria, Albania,

Central Asia: Karakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
 Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
 Azerbaijan, Armenia. Georgia;

Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran,
 Jordan, Israel, Oman, Yemen,
 United Arab Emirates, Kuwait;

South Asia: India, Pakistan, Thailand,
 Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Viet
 Nam, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka;

Oceania: Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia,
 Philippines, Papua New Guinea,
 Australia, New Zealand, Brunei:

North Asia: China, Mongolia, North Korea, South
 Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan;

Northern Third of Africa: Egypt, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan,
 Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco,
 Sudan, Mali, Mauritania, Western
 Sahara;

Western Africa Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia,
 Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria,
 Cameroon, Central African Republic,
 Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin,
 Burkina Yaso:

Central Africa: Chad, Niger, Central African
 Republic, Democratic Republic
 of the Congo, Uganda, Gabon, Congo
 Republic

Southern and Southeastern Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia,
Africa: Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia,
 Mozambique, South Africa.

Table 2
Country Classification According to Income

High-Income Economies:
 * Australia, www.investaustralia. og v ain (Oceania)
 * Canada, www.mvestincanada.gc.ca/ (North America)
 * Germany, www.invest-in-germany.de (Western Europe)
 * Ireland, www.idaireland.com (Western Europe)

Upper-Middle-Income Economies

 * Argentina, www.inversiones.gov.ar/ (South America)
 * Costa Rica, www.cnde.or.cr/ (Central America)
 * Poland, www.paiz.gov.pl (Central and Eastern Europe)

Lower-Middle-Income Economies
 * Algeria, www.andi.gov.dz/ (Northern Third of Africa)
 * Bosnia, www.fipa.gov.ba/ (The Balkans and South-Eastern Europe)
 * China, http://www.fdi.gov.cn (North Asia)
 * Dominican Republic, www.cei-rd.gov.do/ (The Caribbean Basin)
 * Kazakhstan, www.kazinvest.kz/ (Central Asia)
 * Jordan, www.jordaninvestment.com/ (Middle East)
 * Thailand, www.boi.go.th (South Asia)

Low-Income Economies
 * Democratic Republic of the Congo, www.anapi.org/ (Central Africa)
 * Gambia, www.gipfza.gml (Western Africa)
 * Senegal, www.investinsenegal.com/ (Western Africa)
 * Tanzania, www.tic.co.tz/ (Southern and Southeastern Africa

TABLE 3
Cultural Dimensions in Internet Websites

Individualism vs. Individualistic Collectivist
Collectivism

Motivation based on Maximized (expect the Underplayed (in
personal achievement: extraordinary) favor of group
 achievement

Success: Demonstrated through Achievement of
 materialism and social-political
 consumerism agendas

Rhetorial style: Controversial/ Official slogans
 argumentative speech and subdued
 and tolerance or hyperbole and
 encouragement of controversy.
 extreme claims

Imagery: Youth and action Aged, experienced,
 wise leaders and
 states of being

Social Prominence: Emphasis on indivi- Products shown by
 duals themselved or with
 groups

Goals: Extrinsic, personal Intrinsic or
 goals emphasized official group
 goals

Morality: Emphasis on truth Emphasis on rela-
 tionships

Change: What is new and unique Tradition and
 history.

Privacy: Willingness to Protection of
 provide personal personal data
 information differentiating
 the individual
 from the group.

Power Distance High Low

Access to information: Highly structures Less-highly
 structured

Hierarchies in mental Tall Shallow
models:

Emphasis on social Significant/frequent Minor/infrequent
and moral order: use use

Focus on expertise, Strong Weak
authority, experts,
official stamps, or
logos:

Prominence of leaders: Strong Weak

Prominence of citizens, Weak Strong
customers, or
employees.

Importance of Explicit, enforced, Transparent,
security, restrictions/ frequent restrictions integrated, impli-
barriers to access on users cit freedom to
 roam

Social roles used to Frequent Infrequent
organize information:

Uncertainty Avoidance

High Low
Simplicity, with clear metaphors, limited Complexity with maximal
choices, and restricted amounts of data content and choices

Attempts to reveal or forecast the results Accepts (even encourage-
or implications of actions before users ment) of wandering and
act risk, with a stigma on
 "over-protection"

Navigation schemees intended to prevent Less control of naviga-
users from becoming lost tion, for example, links
 might open new windows
 leading away from the
 original location

Mental models and help systems that focus Mental models and help
on reducing "users errors" systems might focus on
 understanding underlying
 concepts rather than
 narrow tasks

Redundant cues (color, typography, sound, Coding of color, typo-
etc.) to reduce ambiguity. graphy, and sound to
 maximize information
 (multiple links without
 redundant cueing)

Masculinity/Femininity High Feminity
High Masculinity Blurring of gender
 roles

Traditional gender/family/age Blurring of gender roles
distinctions

Work tasks, roles, and mastery, with Mutual cooperation,
quick results for limited tasks exchange, and support,
 (rather than mastery
 and winning)

Navigation oriented to exploration
and control

Attention gained through games and Attention gained through
competitions poetry, visual
 aesthetics, and appeals
 to unifying values

Graphics, sound, and animation used
for utilitarian purposes