INTERCULTURAL ISSUES IN ONLINE COMMUNICATION IBD

Sinopse

In these times of rapid increase of internet usage, the question arises formultinational companies (MNCs) whether to standardise or adapt their internetpresence to different cultural groupings or even subcultures. The authorsattempted to address this problem with an approach relatively new up tonow.Global players have already realised their opportunities to add value to theircompany by setting up a high quality internet performance and a properlydesigned website. This raises the question whether these companies coulduse their basic home country website for all cultures or if any adaptationshould be conducted. If so, it has to be determined on the one hand to whatdegree an adaptation still aligns with the corporate identity or on the otherhand if the companies should rather respect the culture of the respectivemarket they are operating in. The overall target of this research is therefore toassist MNCs by producing recommendations concerning the promotion ofproducts and services for a particular transnational consumer group. Therefore,country-specific websites of companies rooted in different culturalorigins are selected for this research, namely EgyptAir, Mercedes-Benz andSonyEricsson.This publication targets at companies seeking to develop a foreign market inparticular the Arab cultural area. Moreover, it is aimed to create an awarenessfor differences in consumer behaviour and in the resulting opportunitiesglobal companies are faced with.