TY - JOUR
T1 - Multinational corporate website strategies and influencing factors
T2 - A comparison of US and Korean corporate websites
AU - Shin, Wonsun
AU - Huh, Jisu
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - This study, using a content analysis method, explored whether and to what extent multinational corporate websites targeting different markets are standardized. It also tested three organizational factors-country of origin, company size, and product type-for their potential influence on the level of corporate website standardization. A sample of 52 top US-based multinational companies and 52 Korea-based multinational companies was drawn and a total of 104 pairs of websites for these companies were content-analyzed. Overall, the degree of website standardization was not significantly different between companies based in the two countries. The results suggest that both US and Korean multinational corporations tend to maintain their websites in a similar way when targeting the home and foreign markets. Among the three organizational factors, only product type-B2B versus B2C products and durables versus non-durables-was found to be significantly associated with the level of website standardization. This study makes important contributions to the research literature by offering new information on the current state of multinational corporate website strategies and advancing our knowledge about international marketing communications on the Internet and influencing factors.
AB - This study, using a content analysis method, explored whether and to what extent multinational corporate websites targeting different markets are standardized. It also tested three organizational factors-country of origin, company size, and product type-for their potential influence on the level of corporate website standardization. A sample of 52 top US-based multinational companies and 52 Korea-based multinational companies was drawn and a total of 104 pairs of websites for these companies were content-analyzed. Overall, the degree of website standardization was not significantly different between companies based in the two countries. The results suggest that both US and Korean multinational corporations tend to maintain their websites in a similar way when targeting the home and foreign markets. Among the three organizational factors, only product type-B2B versus B2C products and durables versus non-durables-was found to be significantly associated with the level of website standardization. This study makes important contributions to the research literature by offering new information on the current state of multinational corporate website strategies and advancing our knowledge about international marketing communications on the Internet and influencing factors.
KW - Corporate websites
KW - Cross-cultural marketing
KW - International advertising
KW - Standardization
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U2 - 10.1080/13527260802481207
DO - 10.1080/13527260802481207
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77951671794
SN - 1352-7266
VL - 15
SP - 287
EP - 310
JO - Journal of Marketing Communications
JF - Journal of Marketing Communications
IS - 5
ER -