Moderating Effects of Culture on Virtual Social Networks Usage and Human Development

There is growing interest in the influence of individuals’ usage of virtual social networks (VSNs) for professional and personal communication in a country on the levels of its human development, and how this effect differs across various cultures namely, power distance, individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. In this paper, we use publicly available archival data to explore the relationships among them. Results substantiate a significant positive relationship between VSN usage in a country and its human development. Further, the findings suggest that while individualism and uncertainty avoidance negatively moderate the positive relationship of VSN usage with human development, the relationship is not contingent on power distance and masculinity. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on “VSN impact and human development” by highlighting the role of culture, and provide indications to practice on enhancing human development by leveraging the effect of individuals’ usage of VSN across cultures.