Exploring The Differences In Chinese And American Energy Company Website Design Under The Cross-cultural Perspective

In today’s context of globalization, more and more companies seek to expandabroad and the cross-cultural communication of business entities exists not only in thephysical world but also in the cyber space. Company websites are important channelsfor companies to realize cross-cultural communication. On the boundless Internet,cross-cultural exchanges of information are unprecedentedly prosperous and websiteshave become important cultural carriers. Company websites with different culturalbackgrounds can reflect the cultural characteristics of the country they are located in.Cultural factors have an important impact on the design of websites. Studying howcultural factors impact on the design of company websites in their process to seeklocalization and internationalization plays an important role in improving thecross-cultural communication effect of business entities and enhancing theinternational images of companies.This study selects15websites of Chinese energy companies and15websites ofAmerican energy companies to investigate how they reflect the cultural values putforward in Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. A quantitative approach is employedto analyze the impact of these cultural factors on the websites and compare theirsimilarities and differences, with an aim to provide feasible suggestions for thoseengaged in cross-cultural website design.