A Cross-national Analysis of Global Corporate Web Sites: A Holistic Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of multinational corporations’ (MNCs’) web sites from a holistic viewpoint. Specifically, seven types of content, including communication, general information, marketing information, employment information, financial information, service, and social issues, were analyzed to compare eleven cultural clusters: Anglo, Arab, Nordic, Germanic, Latin American, Near Eastern, Latin European, Eastern European, African, Far Eastern, and Confucian. Overall, some content types, including communication, general, marketing and social issues, showed significant differences across cultural clusters, while there were no differences in employment information, financial information and service across cultural clusters. We also calculated standardization scores to determine the degree to which MNCs standardized content. Marketing information had the highest standardization scores, followed by financial information, service, employment information, general information, social issues and communication, while communication and social issues had relatively low standardization scores. The results of this study indicate some similarities and dissimilarities across the clusters regarding standardization levels. Some clusters, including Arab, Latin America, East Europe, Latin Europe, Nordic, Germanic and African, showed greater similarities than did Confucian, Far East and Near East. In particular, some cultural clusters, such as Confucian, Far East and Near East, showed unique patterns of standardization.