Vol. 4 No. 3 (2018)
5th AIB-CEE 2018 Conference Proceedings | 9th ENTRE 2018 Conference Proceedings (Special Issue)

Articles

Influence of national culture on website characteristics in international business

Published 2018-09-12

  • Elżbieta Wąsowicz-Zaborek

Elżbieta Wąsowicz-Zaborek
Warsaw School of Economics

Abstract

Cultural diversity is an important factor influencing the effectiveness of communication tools, including websites, on international markets. The aim of the article is to make an inventory of the current scholarly knowledge on cultural differences and what they recommend for adapting websites to different cultural factors on foreign markets. The review of the literature presented in the article indicates a variety of approaches by different authors and varying scopes of their work. This article proffers its own guidelines for website design, which, in contrast to previous studies, usually focused on selected areas, offers a comprehensive view dedicated to cultural clusters identified within the framework of the GLOBE project. A broad overview of models of cultural dimensions, presented in the first part of the article, was the starting point for classifying existing studies on adapting websites to cultural factors. It also informed a description of differences in the behavior, preferences and attitudes of consumers residing in different parts of the world, which may affect their actions on the Internet.

Keywords

cross-cultural differences, national cultures dimensions, websites design, cultural adaptation of websites

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