The relationship between culture and information privacy policy

Operating in a global market provides challenges for managers concerned with information privacy. This work builds on a branch of research that has evolved to examine the relationship between culture and attitudes to information privacy. Our approach is unique in that our dependent variable is a count variable designed to measure the rate of uptake of privacy laws. It is a departure from studying cultural variables at the individual level. We also identify the cultural impact of legislation at the national level. Previous models generally use a relatively crude division of legislative codes. By contrast, this work examines the impact of culture on baskets of privacy elements drawn from the EU directive. These attributes are candidates for codification in law, but are taken up at varying rates. A key originality and challenge of the work is the use of the GLOBE variables for culture. Results suggest that group collectivism, power distance, assertiveness and uncertainty avoidance are the most powerful cultural predictors of the level of privacy legislation provision.