Impact of Host Country Culture on Glocalisation of Corporate Websites

Abstract

Internet has become a hybrid means of sales, service, and communication channel. Its penetration and acceptability in areas of e-commerce across cultures have given it a growth rate of 566 percent in the time period 2000-2012. Internet helps a marketer to reach target customers across cultures and borders. Therefore, the Internet or its usability in a business environment could not avoid the continuous debate of standardization versus localization. This debate revolves around the argument that people live within a traditional core cultures and that these cultures affect communication messages and peoples perceptions toward those messages. Therefore, a globally designed website might reduce the cultural acceptability of a website. Practically, more than often the globalization of content might reduce a companys target audience to a much smaller group in terms of its way of life, customs and religious beliefs. Literature indicates that another significant element in making websites effective is to realize the importance of content and its understanding the users. One of the important issue is the relationship between culture and feature and content of a corporate website. Evidence from the emerging body of literature on the cultural dimensions of website design and content attributes cuts both ways on the assumption of culturally-neutral, web-based communication. The present study was undertaken with an objective to examine cultural differences and similarities between the content of existing corporate websites from the three countries i.e. India, China, and Denmark, across Hofstede Cultural Dimensions. Websites of 24 companies from each host country were analyzed. The results of the study were more supportive of localization of content.