Cultural sensitivity on company websites

Abstract: In today’s global marketplace, where companies market their products and
services in different country markets, it is important for managers to know
how to address customers in diverse cultures. One way to address these
diverse cultures is to establish storefronts or company websites which are
culturally sensitive and to respond to an increasing demand for national
websites which are country specific. Our study is an attempt to uncover how
culturally sensitive multinational companies are in their national
websites. Guided by previous research in the area we provided a framework
to conduct observations and supplemented them by interviews and
documentation. Through these data collection methods we found out how
culturally sensitive companies are in both design and content of their
websites.

By observing three national websites of two companies with Swedish
background, Sony Ericsson and IKEA, we were able to collect data on the
variables of website design and content. Through studying Hofstede’s
cultural dimensions of Germany, Poland, and Sweden we were able to
understand the three national cultures and the ways they differ from each
other. We were thus able to find out to what extent these differences were
taken into consideration in the corresponding country websites of the two
companies. By interviewing people with German and Polish origins we were
also able to get their points of view.

Our findings show that companies are most culturally sensitive in their
website design, specifically with regard to use of the national language. A
majority of the websites had translated with sensitivity and allowed for
language jargon and even culturally specific proverbs. The websites also
adapted sales approaches to national cultures in order to communicate
effectively with visitors to the websites. This was however only true for
the company which sold to end users, IKEA. Our findings could contribute to
knowledge as our findings also showed that most of the theory on the
subject of website content had shortcomings.