review of the impact of culture as a contextual factor on information behavior

purpose: this paper reviews the literature related to the impact of culture as a contextual factor on human information behavior. methodology: the article reviews past studies related to the culture and information especially cultural theories by hall and hofstede and the studies that have used their cultural dimensions in the area of information behavior. findings: past studies show that culture as a contextual factor has an impact on various aspects of information behavior. although there have been studies on the use of culture for designing user interfaces, few studies have dealt with the impact of culture on the information behavior. better understanding of the impact of contextual factors, especially culture on information behavior, can lead to a right plan for training, proper website designing and the service designing for users in order to increase the utility and profit of information resources in a country. paying attention to the relation between dimensions of hall and hofstede’s cultural models and information seeking process can lead to the better information system design in a society and a particular culture.