Power Distance Values In University Web Site Design

Website representations vary in different countries, and Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions theories have frequently been used to analyze and explain these differences. Hofstede's theory observes that culture varies along five fundamental dimensions: namely, Power Distance, Masculinity/Femininity, Long Tem/Short Term Orientation, and Collectivism/Individualism. This research focuses on the dimension of Power Distance and tries to explore to what extent and how cultural values pertaining to power distance are present in university web sites.The present study adopts a research approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Eight cultural values related to power distance are chosen from Hofstede's work, and ten university web sites from four countries are picked out. Altogether, twenty university students, ten Chinese and ten British, are asked to evaluate each home page and rate each value on a scale of 1 to 5 considering the extent to which the value is instantiated in the web page. Then they are asked to interpret how they see these values represented in web design features.Results from the study indicate that cultural values pertaining to power distance are indeed present in web sites. Meanwhile, cultural backgrounds of the web users also have influence on how they view these web sites. The qualitative part of the research results also has intercultural web design implications.The thesis consists of four parts. An introduction is presented first as an overview of the study, followed by a literature review, in which previous studies concerning web site cultural analysis are summarized. The subsequent chapter records how the research was designed and conducted, and presents results of qualitative and quantitative analyses. The last chapter concludes the thesis by identifying its limitations and putting forth suggestions for future studies.