European Journal of MarketingAdaptation of cultural content: evidence from B2C e-commerce firmsNitish Singh Vikas Kumar Daniel Baack

Article information:To cite this document:Nitish Singh Vikas Kumar Daniel Baack, (2005),"Adaptation of cultural content: evidence from B2C e-commerce firms", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 Iss 1/2 pp. 71 - 86Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560510572025

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Adaptation of cultural content:evidence from B2Ce-commerce firms

Nitish SinghCalifornia State University, Chico, California, USA

Vikas KumarBocconi University, Milan, Italy, and

Daniel BaackSaint Louis University, St Louis, Missouri, USA

Abstract

Purpose – To effectively target and reach consumers on the worldwide web, companies need todetermine what level of web site adaptation is necessary. Explores how cultural differences affectadaptation of web content by B2C e-commerce firms.

Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a content analysis framework to systematicallyanalyze the cultural values depicted on the web pages of US, French and German web sites. To test fordifferences in the depiction of cultural values on different country web sites, a MANOVA wasconducted, followed by a Tukey (HSD) post hoc analysis.

Findings – Evidence is found that local country web sites depict the cultural values of that country.Additionally, the study finds that companies adapt their foreign web sites to the cultural values of thetarget country, but that this adaptation is not yet extensive.

Originality/value – This research adds value by extending understanding of the issues ofadaptation and standardization on the web in general, and by B2C e-commerce firms in particular.

Keywords Culture techniques, Electronic commerce, Standardization, Internet, Communications

Paper type Research paper

By the end of 2004, global e-commerce is expected to generate $3.2 trillion in revenues(E-marketer, 2001), and much of this business will be generated in internationalmarkets (see www.cyberatlas.com). This rapid growth will create vast marketexpansion opportunities abroad and will generate profits for those companies that cansuccessfully internationalize their e-commerce activities.

A first step for companies is to distinguish between global and local e-commerce.While many companies have already used the internet to target domestic consumers,few companies have adapted their e-commerce efforts to meet the needs of a globalonline market (see www.cyberatlas.com). While there are many hurdles to thisinternationalization process, a recent Internet Week survey found that one of the majorobstacles for companies was an understanding of the cultural differences betweencountries (Violino, 2001).

This adaptation of internet messages to local cultures will become increasinglyimportant as companies begin to focus more on global e-commerce. Internetcommunication is different from other marketing channels, partly due to fewer accessbarriers and more consumer choice, and thus merits special attention. These two

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Adaptation ofcultural content

71

Received April 2004

European Journal of MarketingVol. 39 No. 1/2, 2005

pp. 71-86q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0309-0566DOI 10.1108/03090560510572025

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factors increase the importance of determining what parts of web site content need tobe adapted and what parts may be standardized. In an environment where customerscan easily tune out or avoid messages, the use of the most effective message can givecompanies an important competitive advantage.

Standardization versus adaptationBuzzell (1968) discussed standardized multinational marketing, and since its origin, thechoice between a standardized or adapted marketing mix has been one of the coredebates in international marketing (Zou and Cavusgil, 2002). In brief, standardizationis the use of a standard marketing mix in all markets, while in contrast, adaptation isthe idea of customizing the marketing mix to meet the needs and wants of eachconsumer ( Jain, 1989). Broadly, standardization leads to reduced costs whileadaptation leads to increased sales.

During the 1980s, the debate evolved from an “us versus them” grouping to a morecomplex approach. To quote a researcher, “total standardization is unthinkable” ( Jain,1989, p. 71). Instead, the contingency approach has emerged as the core premise of theissue. This approach posits that marketers should do whatever is appropriate for eachmarket, and that this is typically a combination of both standardized elements andadapted elements. Roughly, this is “glocalization”, or “think global, act local”. Bytaking this approach, marketers are able to effectively meet the needs of localconsumers while still having some level of global standardization. These concepts(glocalization and the contingency approach) have shifted thestandardization/adaptation debate from focusing on whether companies shouldstandardize or adapt, to now focusing on what factors of a marketing message can beadapted or standardized.

In the 1990s, the growth of the internet as a marketing tool gave rise to a newmedium in which to explore this issue ( Ju-Pak, 1999). The web, on one hand, is globallyaccessible, information rich, and attracts information-savvy “inter-market” segments(Hassan and Blackwell, 1994). On the other hand, the web is inherently interactive( Ju-Pak, 1999) and is capable of mass customization (Sheth and Sisodia, 1999).Additionally, due to the high level of technological change inherent to the internet,other researchers might expect a high level of standardization for internetcommunication (Samiee and Roth, 1992). This is due to the risk associated withspending additional resources to adapt a mode of communication that has a highprobability of drastically changing form in the near future.

Culture has been an important component of this debate. Jain (1989) posits that astarget markets become less culturally similar, messages to those markets need to bemore adapted. This link between increased cultural variation and increased adaptationhas been supported for a variety of components of the marketing mix, in a variety ofsettings (e.g. Cavusgil and Zou, 1993; Theodosiou and Leonidou, 2003; Cavusgil andZou, 1994). This leaves a question in the literature – do web marketers need to besensitive to the different values of their global customers? Is the web culturallysensitive?

Past research on internet marketing has provided some preliminary answers to thisquestion. Previous studies relating to cross-cultural issues on the web have exploredweb characteristics such as interactivity, site quality, navigation, and their perceptionby international consumers (Fink and Laupase, 2000; Simon, 2001; Luna et al., 2002;

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Tsikriktsis, 2002). Studies have also investigated how various theories like the theoryof planned behavior and the theory of flow can explain cross-cultural consumerbehavior on the web (Luna et al., 2002; Pavlou and Chai, 2002). Still other studies havebeen more descriptive and prepositional in nature, and have outlined international website design issues (e.g. Fock, 2000; Robbins and Stylianou, 2003), while other researchhas focused on describing the features of web sites in different countries (Zahir et al.,2002; Marcus and Gould, 2000; Robbins and Stylianou, 2003). All of these studies pointto one general conclusion – that web content needs to be adapted to the differentcultures of its targeted consumers.

While the above research has made an important contribution, it has not focused onthe actual features of web sites that vary due to cultural differences We build onprevious research by focusing specifically on web site content. Without an effectiveinstrument, the applicability and validity of the results of previous research areuncertain. We therefore refine and validate a cross-cultural framework that can be usedto study cultural content on the web. The existing cross-cultural frameworks haveeither not recognized the unique features of the web, or have not investigatedempirically the need for standardization/adaptation of web content. The aim of ourstudy is to use a refined and validated cross-cultural framework to study theadaptation of web communication. It is important to note that although we use aframework from previous work, the nature of the overall study is such that it can berightfully classified as exploratory research.

Hypotheses developmentWhile previous research on television and print media has shown that advertisingcontent prominently reflects local cultural values (e.g. Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996;Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996; Mueller, 1987; Tse et al., 1989), no previous studies haveused cultural values to study web content. Based on the results of previous advertisingstudies, it is anticipated that web sites will depict the cultural values of the country forwhich they are produced.

H1. Local French, German and US web sites will differ in their depiction ofcultural values.

Another goal of this research is to measure how effectively companies are culturallyadapting their international or country-specific web sites. To test how well companiesare adapting their international web sites, American companies’ international websites (country-specific web sites) targeting French and German audiences areanalyzed. If American companies are truly adapting their web sites for French andGerman consumers, then their international French and German web sites shouldreflect the cultural values of those consumers. In other words, American internationalweb sites will be similar to local French and local German web sites regarding theirdepiction of cultural values. Thus, based on the above literature, the other mainhypothesis is:

H2. Cultural value depiction in American international (country-specific) websites targeting French and German consumers will be similar to the culturalvalue depiction in local French and German web sites.

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Beyond just testing the level of adaptation, this study also explores how local French,German, and US web sites differ in the depiction of the cultural values such ascollectivism, individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, andhigh and low contextuality. Each of these dimensions is explored below.

Individualism-collectivismThe individualism and collectivism dimension has been widely studied incross-cultural research (e.g. Gudykunst, 1998; Hofstede, 1980, 1991; Triandis, 1982).This cultural dimension focuses on individuals’ relationships with society or otherindividuals. In individualist societies, ties between individuals are loose, personalfreedom is valued and individual decision-making is encouraged. In contrast, incollectivist societies, in-group ties are strong, following of societal norms is valued, andgroup decision-making is encouraged. Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA aresome countries that score highly on individualism, while China, Columbia, Japan andMexico are countries that score highly on collectivism. Among the three countries inthis study, the US scores highest on individualism (91), followed by France (71) andGermany (67) (Hofstede, 1980).

While in Hofstede’s framework individualism and collectivism are presented as abipolar dimension, for this study they are used as independent measures. This is basedon research showing that individualist and collectivist tendencies can co-exist insocieties, and that it is more appropriate to treat them as separate dimensions (e.g.Triandis, 1994; Han and Shavitt, 1994; Cho et al., 1999). For example, in modern Indiansociety, individualism within the nuclear family structure is balanced by thecollectivist advantages of extended family ties (Sinha and Tripathi, 1994). Based on theabove discussion, the following hypotheses emerge:

H3a. Local American web sites will show higher levels of individualist featuresthan local French and German web sites.

H3b. Local French web sites will show higher levels of collectivist features thanlocal American and German web sites.

Uncertainty avoidanceAccording to Hofstede (1980), the degree to which societies can tolerate uncertainty andambiguity differs among cultures. Some cultures are high on the avoidance ofuncertainty, and value security and low-risk situations, while other cultures score lowand have a greater tolerance for ambiguity and risky situations. Countries like Greece,Japan, and Mexico rank high on uncertainty avoidance, and their people are relativelymore-risk averse and need security. On the other hand, countries such as Canada,Australia, the UK and the US have been found to have a greater tolerance foruncertainty. According to Hofstede’s (1980) study, France scores highest onuncertainty avoidance (86), followed by Germany (65), and the US (46). This leads tothe fourth hypothesis:

H4. Local French web sites will show higher levels of uncertainty avoidancefeatures than local German and American web sites.

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Power distanceAccording to Hofstede (1980) the bipolar power distance dimension explains howdifferent societies treat inequalities in social structure. Societies that are high on powerdistance, such as Malaysia, Mexico, China and India, accept power and hierarchy insociety and are low on egalitarianism. The emphasis in high power-distance societies ison status, referent power, authority, and legitimacy. On the other hand, countries thatare low on the power distance dimension, such as Canada, Denmark, the US andSweden, are more egalitarian, respect equal rights, and discourage status symbols.Based on Hofstede’s (1980) study, France scores highest (68), followed by the US (40),then Germany (35). These power distance differences are the basis for the hypothesis:

H5. Local French web sites will show higher levels of power distance featuresthan local American and German web sites.

Masculinity-femininityThe masculinity-femininity dimension proposed by Hofstede (1980) explains howgender roles are allocated in different cultures. “Masculine” cultures valueassertiveness, ambition, success, and performance. In such cultures, big and fast isbeautiful, the masochism ideal is acceptable, and clear gender roles are the norm. Inconstrast, “feminine” cultures value, beauty, nature and nurturance, and blurredgender roles. Countries like Japan, Austria, and Mexico are examples of masculinecultures, while most of the Nordic countries score high on femininity. Based onHofstede’s (1980) study, Germany scores highest on this dimension, followed by the USand France. From this, the following hypothesis emerges:

H6. Local French web sites will show lower levels of masculinity features thanlocal American and German web sites.

High and low context culturesAccording to Hall (1976 p. 91):

. . . a high context communication or message is one in which most of the information isalready in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of themessage. A low context communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information isvested in the explicit code.

Thus, while communication in high-context cultures is implicit, indirect and deeplyembedded in the context, communication in low-context cultures is more direct, lessimplicit and more informative. The high and low context dimensions proposed by Hall(1976) were originally conceived as two separate dimensions, and have been treated asseparate dimensions in the literature (Cho et al., 1999). Therefore, they will also betreated as separate dimensions in this research. According to Hall (1976) andGudykunst (1998), the US and Germany are low-context cultures, while France is ahigh-context culture. There are two context-related hypotheses:

H7a. Local French web sites will show higher levels of high-context features thanlocal American and German web sites.

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H7b. Local American and German web sites will show higher levels of low-contextfeatures than local French web sites.

MethodologyContent analysisThe content analysis procedure has been extensively used in marketing andadvertising literature to study cultural value appeals (e.g. Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996;Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996; Tse et al., 1989; McCarty, 1994). Studies have also usedcontent analysis to understand communication phenomenon on the web (Rafaeli andSudweek, 1997; Ju-Pak, 1999). Founded on this research tradition, this study uses acontent analysis framework to systematically analyze the cultural values depicted onthe web pages of American, French and German web sites with the goal of testing thehypotheses listed above. For our instrument, the degree of depiction of each culturalvalue category was evaluated on a five-point bipolar scale ranging from “not depicted”to “prominently depicted” (as used in Dormann and Chisalita, 2002). The rationalebehind using the five-point scale is that, due to the fact that most of the features listedin the coding scheme are normally present, it is not effective to count the occurrence ornon-occurrence of certain features on web sites. Instead, a scale is necessary to capturethe degree to which each feature is emphasized in each culture’s web site.

Two doctoral students at an AACSB Accredited Business School coded theAmerican web sites, and two students fluent in French and German coded the Germanand French web sites. All coders were trained in the coding scheme for a day. Theinter-coder reliability for American web sites was 85 percent, for French web sites was86 percent, and for German web sites was 85 percent. This is sufficient to establishreliability (Kassarjian, 1977). Twenty-five percent of the web sites for each countrywere recoded after a month. The intra-coder reliability comparing this second codingwith the initial data also showed coder reliability. American web sites had a reliabilityof 88 percent, French web sites scored 90 percent, and German web sites scored 87percent. To control for potential confounding effects due to the division of coders bynational boundaries, two bilingual coders analyzed a random sample of 25 percent ofthe German, French, and American web sites. The inter-coder reliability ranged from80 to 83 percent.

Refinement of the cultural value frameworkThe items and categories used in the cultural value framework are derived from pastresearch (Singh and Matsuo, 2002; Singh et al., 2003) and are based on widelyrecognized theoretical frameworks, thereby adding to their validity (Coviello et al.,2002). To further refine the framework, a variety of analyses were performed. First, aprincipal component factor analysis was completed. This procedure was used to helprefine the cultural categories by identifying the key underlying dimensions of eachcategory (Yang and Jun, 2002). As suggested in the literature, the Varimax rotationwith Kaiser normalization was used (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Varimax rotationgreatly improves the interpretation of the factors generated by the principalcomponents (Aaker, 1980). Additionally, the use of Kaiser normalization requires thatthe Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy be at least greater than0.50 (Morgan and Griego, 1998). The KMO for the factor analysis conducted for theseven cultural categories was greater than the stipulated 0.50 in each case. Also, the

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Bartlett test was performed to provide an additional measure of instrument validity,with significant scores for six out of the seven categories.

Next, Cronbach’s a and the eigenvalues were also examined and, based on thesescores, some specific items were deleted. Cronbach’s a for each of the culturalcategories improved after deleting certain items from the scale. Eigenvalues refer to thevariance explained or accounted for. Only those items were selected which hadeigenvalues greater than 1. This overall process of scale purification and validation hasbeen used in other such studies (e.g. Triki and Wesson, 2002).

Last, a check for colinearity was performed. The determinant in the factor analysisshould be greater than 0.0001 in order to have no potential problems with colinearity.Factor analysis for all of the cultural categories has a high determinant value, and thisindicates that there are no problems with colinearity for this instrument.

All of the above analyses were completed (see Table I) and those scale items withvery low item-to-total correlation and/or those that loaded poorly were removed. Theitems removed were:

. privacy (individualism);

. terms and conditions of purchase (low context);

. quality assurance or awards, pride of ownership appeal (power distance);

. free trials or downloads (uncertainty avoidance); and

. symbols and pictures of national identity and links to local web sites(collectivism).

For the cultural dimension of masculinity, none of the four items used initially loadedwell. Both the inter-item correlation and the item-total correlation were very low formasculinity. This dimension had a low Cronbach’s a as well. As a result, this culturaldimension was dropped from any further analysis. Our final cultural value frameworkhas 23 cultural categories under six cultural dimensions:

(1) Collectivism:. community relations – presence or absence of community policy, giving

back to community, social responsibility policy;. clubs or chat rooms – presence or absence of members’ club, product-based

clubs, chats with company employees, chat with interest groups, messageboards, discussion groups, and live talks;

. family theme – pictures of family, pictures of teams of employees, mention ofemployee teams, emphasis on team and collective work responsibility invision statement or elsewhere on the web site, emphasis on customers as afamily;

. loyalty programs – frequent miles programs, customer loyalty programs,and company credit cards for local country, special membership programs;and

. newsletter – online subscriptions, magazines, and newsletters.

(2) Individualism:. independence theme – images and themes depicting self-reliance,

self-recognition, achievement;

Adaptation ofcultural content

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Table I.Reliability and factoranalysis statistics fororiginal and refined scale

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. product uniqueness – unique selling points of the product, productdifferentiation features; and

. personalization – features such as gift recommendations, individualacknowledgements or greetings, web page personalization.

(3) Uncertainty avoidance:. customer service – FAQs, customer service option, customer help, or

customer service e-mails;. guided navigation – site maps, well-displayed links, links in the form of

pictures or buttons, forward, backward, up and down navigation buttons;. local stores – mention of contact information for local offices, dealers, and

shops;. local terminology – use of country specific metaphors, names of festivals,

puns, a general local touch in the vocabulary of the web page; and. tradition theme – emphasis on history and the ties of a particular company

with a nation, emphasis on respect, veneration of elderly, phrases like “mostrespected company”, “keeping the tradition alive”, “for generations”,“company legacy”, etc.

(4) Power distance:. company hierarchy information – information about the ranks of company

personnel, information about organizational charts, information aboutcountry managers;

. pictures of CEOs – pictures of executives, important people in the industryor celebrities;

. proper titles – titles of the important people in the company, titles of thepeople in the contact information, and titles of people on the organizationalcharts; and

. vision statement – statement by the CEO or company head about the visionof the company.

(5) High-context culture:. aesthetics – attention to aesthetic details, liberal use of colors, bold colors,

emphasis on images and context, use of love and harmony appeal;. politeness and indirectness – greetings from the company, images and

pictures reflecting politeness, flowery language, use of indirect expressionslike “perhaps”, “probably” and “somewhat”, overall humbleness in companyphilosophy and corporate information; and

. soft sell approach – use of affective and subjective impressions of intangibleaspects of a product or service, high usage of entertainment themes topromote the product.

(6) Low-context culture:. hard sell – discounts, promotions, emphasis on product advantages using

explicit comparison;

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. rank or prestige of the company – features like such as company rank in theindustry, listing in Forbes or Fortune, numbers showing the growth andimportance of the company; and

. use of superlatives – use of superlative words and sentences such as “thenumber one . . . ”, “the top company”. “the leader”, “ world’s largest”, etc.

The resulting instrument is therefore strongly statistically validated, deeply rooted intheory, and strongly based on methods used by other researchers.

SampleThe sample for the study was selected from company lists such as www.forbes.com,www.fortune.com, www.jmm.com, Yahoo! Germany, Yahoo! France, and the Yahoo!list of companies. US, French, and German B2C retail web sites only were selected forthis study. Only those American retail companies that had international web sites forboth France and Germany were selected. The web sites studied here included all thepages of the company web site for that particular market, be it US, Germany or France.Hence, the homepage as well as all the other pages of a particular company was takeninto consideration. The B2C segment was chosen for a variety of reasons. It is growingby over 100 per cent per year in certain regions, mainly as a result of the onlineactivities of large established consumer companies (www.cyberatlas.com). Moreover,the B2C segment is far more complicated than the B2B segment, since the directrelationship with end consumers involves the “attitudes of people” (Dowling, 2002).This makes the examination of B2C web sites in terms of consumer perception of theseweb sites more pertinent, useful and timely. The final sample of 98 company web sitesconsisted of:

. 18 American, 24 French and 22 German local web sites;

. 15 American web sites targeting France; and

. 19 American web sites targeting Germany.

Although 98 is a reasonably good sample size for an exploratory study like this one,there are limitations attached. The research setting in terms of having only B2C retailweb sites of companies which had a specific web site for each of the three countriesmakes the sample non-random in nature. This poses restrictions on the externalvalidity of the results, and implications of the study for other sectors need to beanalyzed with caution.

ResultsComposite differencesTo test for differences in the depiction of cultural values on different country web sites,a MANOVA was conducted, followed by a Tukey (HSD) post hoc analysis (Table II).The composite score on all seven cultural values shows that French, German, and USlocal web sites differ significantly from each other (means: US ¼ 3:02,Germany ¼ 2:71, France ¼ 2:98; F ¼ 3:23, p , 0:05). Except for uncertaintyavoidance, all of the other cultural dimensions differed significantly across the localweb sites of the US, France and Germany. Thus, H1 is supported.

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Specific cultural dimension differencesFurther analysis using post hoc testing reveals more details regarding differences inthe depiction of cultural values by countries (Table II). On individualism, as expectedby H3a, local American web sites score the highest and differ significantly fromFrance and Germany (means: US ¼ 4:24, Germany ¼ 3:8, France ¼ 3:31; F ¼ 7:98,p , 0:05). Significant differences were also found in terms of collectivism, with Frenchweb sites scoring significantly higher than German web sites, and higher, though notsignificantly so, than American web sites. This provides partial support to H3b(means: US ¼ 2:61, Germany ¼ 2:42, France ¼ 3:18; F ¼ 5:68, p , 0:05). On powerdistance, France again scores significantly higher than Germany and the US (means:France ¼ 2:33, Germany ¼ 1:6, US ¼ 2:08; F ¼ 4:11, p , 0:05), partially supportingH5. On the high-context and low-context dimension the data is consistent with H7aand H7b, with US and German web sites showing significantly higher levels oflow-context features compared to French web sites (means: France ¼ 2:27,Germany ¼ 2:66, US ¼ 3:66; F ¼ 14:72, p , 0:05), and French web sites havinghigher levels of high-context features (means: France ¼ 3:03, Germany ¼ 2:06,US ¼ 1:94; F ¼ 21:42, p , 0:05). No significant differences were found between websites for uncertainty avoidance. Due to difficulties in generating a reliable and validmeasure of this dimension, masculinity was not investigated. Due to this, noconclusions can be drawn for H6.

Thus, H3a, H7a and H7b are supported, H3b and H5 are partially supported, H4 isnot supported, and H6 is untested.

Adaptation versus standardizationTo test whether American companies’ international (country-specific) German andFrench web sites were similar to local French and German web sites, anotherMANOVA testing was conducted (Table III). The results reveal that for France,differences existed between local and US international (country-specific) web sites(composite score means: American country-specific ¼ 2:43, local French ¼ 2:98;F ¼ 14:52, p , 0:01). On collectivism (means: American country-specific ¼ 2:52, localFrench ¼ 3:18; F ¼ 4:38, p , 0:015), uncertainty avoidance (means: Americancountry-specific ¼ 2:5, local French ¼ 3:31; F ¼ 21:92, p , 0:01), and powerdistance (means: country-specific ¼ 1:4, local French ¼ 2:33; F ¼ 9:54, p , 0:01),local French web sites differed significantly from American international web sites.

France(n ¼ 24)

Germany(n ¼ 22)

USA(n ¼ 18)

Dimensions Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD F-value

Collectivism 3.18a 0.89 2.42b 0.76 2.61a,b 0.68 5.68*Individualism 3.31a 0.83 3.8a 0.66 4.24b 0.7 7.98*Uncertainty avoidance 3.31a 0.52 2.97a 0.86 3.04a 0.58 NSPower distance 2.33a 1.1 1.6b 0.41 2.08a,b 0.92 4.11*High context 3.03a 0.71 2.06 0.47 1.94b 0.59 21.42*Low context 2.27a 0.76 2.66b 0.57 3.66c 1.1 14.72*Composite score 2.98 0.48 2.71 0.35 3.02 0.44 3.23*

Notes: Means with different superscripts are statistically different from one another; *p , 0:05

Table II.Descriptive statistics and

MANOVA results forlocal web sites

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American companies’ German web sites and local German web sites had moresimilarities, differing only on high-contextuality (means: Americancountry-specific ¼ 2:35, local German ¼ 2:06; F ¼ 3:66, p , 0:05) and powerdistance (means: country-specific ¼ 1:32, local German ¼ 1:6; F ¼ 6:65, p , 0:01),and having no significant differences on a composite level. Thus, while Americancompanies’ web sites seemed to be less adapted for France, they were more alignedwith local German web sites. Thus, H2 is only partially supported. The followingdiscussion section highlights the significance and implications of these results.

DiscussionOne major contribution or finding of this study is that the results show significantdifferences in the depiction of cultural values on local American, French, and Germanweb sites. This finding gains even more significance because the results show that thecultural values presented in the local web sites of the three countries are linked totheoretical work regarding cultural differences between the countries (Hofstede, 1980).Thus, in line with previous research on print and television media, this study of theweb also concludes that advertising and communication prominently depict localcultural values.

Another interesting finding of this study is that several of the mean values on eachcultural dimension by country (Table II) follow the pattern or order in which Hofstede(1980) scored each of these countries. For example, in Hofstede’s study, the powerdistance scores for France, the US and Germany are 68, 40, and 35 respectively. Meanvalues in the same order are reported in this study, i.e. for power distance Franceranked first (2.65), the US ranked second, (2.22), and Germany ranked third (1.90). Thisshows both the robustness of Hofstede’s work over time and the strength and validityof the content analysis framework used in this study.

The results of this study also show that American companies’ French and Germanweb sites do not differ significantly from local German web sites on either a compositemeasure or on five of the seven cultural dimensions, and from local French web sites interms of individualism, high context, or low context (Table III). This suggests thatAmerican companies are beginning to culturally adapt their international web sites.

On the other hand, there is also evidence to suggest that American companies stillhave a long way to go in terms of developing culturally adapted international websites. First, on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and low contexuality, both the US and

France (n ¼ 39) Germany (n ¼ 41)Dimensions Country-specific Local F-value Country-specific Local F-value

Collectivism 2.52 3.18 4.38* 2.67 2.42 NSIndividualism 3.42 3.31 NS 3.7 3.8 NSUncertainty avoidance 2.5 3.31 21.92* 3.21 2.97 NSPower distance 1.4 2.33 9.54* 1.32 1.6 6.65*High context 2.68 3.03 NS 2.35 2.06 3.66*Low context 1.84 2.27 NS 2.56 2.66 NSComposite score 2.43 2.98 14.52* 2.74 2.71 NS

Note: *p , 0:05

Table III.Comparison of Americancompanies’ country-specific web sites(international: French andGerman) with localFrench and German websites (MANOVA)

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Germany have been shown to be quite similar in the literature (Hofstede, 1980; Hall andHall, 1990). Thus, this could be a possible adaptation explanation of why there were nosignificant differences between American companies’ German web sites and localGerman web sites. Second, a closer look at the mean values in Table III shows that, ingeneral, local French web sites do show a higher depiction of local cultural values(composite score means: American country-specific ¼ 2:43, local French ¼ 2:98;F ¼ 14:52, p , 0:01) compared to their international counterparts. This suggests thatAmerican companies’ international web sites, while on the road to cultural adaptation,may still have a long way to go.

Overall, this research shows, using a validated and reliable content analysisframework, that the web is a culturally sensitive document. This has importantimplications for the standardization versus adaptation debate, and indicates that theimportance of cultural differences is not diminished for global e-commerce. Thissupports previous studies stressing the need to adapt when cultural differences arehigh (e.g. Jain, 1989; Cavusgil and Zou, 1993; Theodosiou and Leonidou, 2003; Cavusgiland Zou, 1994). Therefore, effective global e-commerce needs to be adapted to thecultures of the countries exposed to its marketing communications.

To summarize, this study contributes to the literature by showing that local websites depict the cultural values of the country they belong to. It also helps refine andvalidate a cultural value framework that can be used by other researchers attemptingto study culture on the web. Most importantly, this research provides evidence of webcontent adaptation to cultural differences.

Managerial implications and future researchCompanies reaching their local customers through print, radio, and televisionadvertising do not have international customers to worry about, but on the web thesedynamics change. The internet is literally available for the world to see. Thus,company web sites do not just communicate with one segment of consumers: instead,they are “born-global” for all global consumers to see. Therefore, it becomes critical forcompanies to develop culturally adapted international web sites that adapt to the needsof their international audience. The hope is that this study will help business managersto culturally adapt international web sites in three important ways.

First, the results show that there are significant differences in the depiction ofcultural values between American, French, and German local web sites. Thus,managers need to be more aware that the web is not a culturally unmodified medium:instead, it is impregnated with the cultural values of the web site’s locale.

Second, the paper presents a cultural value framework that can be used bymanagers and web marketers to design culturally congruent, country-specific websites. Finally, by studying the cultural content of country-specific web sites, managerscan gain insights into the cultural characteristics of a particular national culture andavoid cultural faux pas when marketing globally on the web.

There are some limitations to the study that need to be addressed. First, the culturalvalue framework does not provide guidance as to which cultural categories under eachdimension are more important in accounting for cultural differences. A detailed emicenquiry of the culture in question can help decide which categories would beconsidered more important in one culture or another. Second, the web is constantlychanging and evolving, with new web site features being added as technology becomes

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more sophisticated. This means that future research will be needed to upgrade thepresent framework as new technological advances make certain web features obsoleteor standardized and add new ways of customizing web content. Third, the sample usedin this study was from one industry (B2C retailers), but we did not adequately controlfor product categories within this segment. Future research can explore whether thevariation in cross-cultural web site design is also influenced by the product categorybeing advertised on the web. Finally, although the research provides evidence ofcultural differences in the web site content, it does not investigate the effectiveness ofculturally adapted web sites. Do people in different cultures interpret culturallyadapted web sites differently than culturally unmodified web sites? Future research isneeded to assess the effectiveness and viability of localizing web sites to differentnational cultures.

Even with these limitations, this research serves as a good starting point for furtherwork on the cultural analysis of web sites and opens up an exciting avenue for futureresearch on web site adaptation or standardization.

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28. Nitish Singh, Boris Bartikowski. 2009. A cross-cultural analysis of print advertising targeted to Hispanicand non-Hispanic American consumers. Thunderbird International Business Review 51:2, 151-164.[CrossRef]

29. Daniel W. Baack, Nitish Singh. 2007. Culture and web communications. Journal of Business Research 60:3,181-188. [CrossRef]

30. Chechen Liao, Pui-Lai To, Meng-Lin Shih. 2006. Website practices: A comparison between the top1000 companies in the US and Taiwan. International Journal of Information Management 26:3, 196-211.[CrossRef]

31. Nitish Singh and Sandeep KrishnamurthySandeep KrishnamurthyBusiness Administration Program,University of Washington, Bothell, Washington, USA Nitish SinghDepartment of Finance andMarketing, College of Business, California State University, Chico, California, USA. 2005. Theinternational e‐marketing framework (IEMF). International Marketing Review 22:6, 605-610. [Abstract][Full Text] [PDF]

32. Rowena LiMeasuring Democracy on Web Interface Design 2754-2765. [CrossRef]

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