Chinese website design: Communication as a mirror of culture

ABSTRACT

Companies now depend on the internet for internal and external communications, however the web is not necessarily neutral. The multitude of company websites within the global system present varying linguistic, cultural and communication characteristics, which determine different experiences depending on the local culture of the user. The design of culturally appropriate websites is viewed as essential to communication, mainly for marketing. This article therefore aims at analysing the impact of cultural characteristics on web design and marketing communication. China presents a vast market and internet population, with specific cultural characteristics, and for these reasons is the subject chosen for study. The study develops a methodology based on an adaptation of Hofstede’s and Hall’s cultural dimensions for purposes of analysing website content. The methodology makes it possible to measure the projection of underlying cultural characteristics in website design.The content analysis of 75 websites Chinese companies quoted on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets reveals that their design reflects local cultural characteristics. Furthermore, the analysis of the Chinese and English versions of the websites reveals that there the latter provide virtually no adaptation to an international clientele, particularly as concerns the indicators of Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Long Term Orientation.

KEYWORDS:

• Web marketing communication
• cultural dimensions
• Hofstede and Hall frameworks
• website design
• Chinese culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guendalina Capece

Guendalina Capece is a post-doc Researcher at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. She received his PhD in Economic and Management Engineering from the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.She teaches the course ‘Economy and Corporate Oranization’ in the BSc degree and the course ‘Business Management’ in the MSc degree in Management Engineering at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. She published about 50 technical papers in international journals and conferences. She served as a reviewer of many journals and as a member of technical and scientific committees of many conferences.Her research interests are: economics of regulation, economics of public utilities, energy policy, efficiency and productivity analysis, web2.0 technologies, online communities, network communities, Social Network Analysis, cross-cultural management, cross-cultural marketing communication.

Francesca Di Pillo

Francesca Di Pillo is an assistant professor of management engineering at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. After receiving her PhD in management engineering at the same University (2004), she worked for the Department of Economic Development and Productive Activities of the Province of Rome, as Post Doctorate researcher, managing an industrial innovation project about the development and innovation for aerospace and medical biotechnologies-oriented to networks and districts (2004–2008).Since 2011 she is member of the internal quality assurance committee of the BSc and MSc in Management Engineering at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.She teaches courses in corporate finance in the MSc degree in management engineering and in fundamentals of economics for the master in Engineering for Public Administrations at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. She served as a reviewer of many journals and as a member of technical and scientific committees of many conferences.She published about 50 technical papers in international journals and conferences. Her main research interests include: cross-cultural communication management, web marketing communication, public utility regulatory policies, energy and environmental policy, company performances evaluation and waste management.