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A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON INTERNET

ADVERTISING OF MULTI-NATIONAL

CORPORATIONS

Gladys P.H. Lee

A Dissertation Submitted

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts in Communication

Supervisor: Dr. Russell Williams

School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong August 2005

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Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Dr Williams for his insightful comments on earlier drafts of this dissertation. Without which, I would not be able to define the focus of the dissertation and work on it afterwards. Furthermore, I would like to thank him for his understanding and empathy which were badly needed when I was in desperation due to personal problems at the later stage of preparing this dissertation. This, I could never sufficiently grateful.

___________________________ Gladys P H Lee

M.A. in Communication

School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University

Date: 12 August 2005

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Abstract

Empirical studies have found that advertisements reflecting local cultural values are more persuasive than those that ignore them and different cultures seem to emphasize different advertising appeals. This research aims to enhance our understanding of the cultural characteristics of China, Taiwan and the United States in the digital age through studying the web advertisements in the three places. It addresses the question : do the apparent cultural differences that exist among USA, Taiwan and China influence the advertising appeals and strategies? These places are chosen because of their difference in cultural, economic and geographical dimensions, conditions which are necessary to render the hypothesis tests valid. The web sites of twenty companies whose products are marketed in these three places were examined by using content analysis. Hofstede's four cultural dimensions, i.e. power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism and masculinity- femininity form the basis of this analysis. The typology has proved to be useful for comparing cultures and explaining the variety of values used in advertisement content across cultures. Chi-square suggested that there are significant differences between the use of information contents, cultural values and creative strategies in China, Taiwan and the US. All samples contained at least one information cue, and were, therefore, considered to be informative. The mean number of information cues for the US and Taiwan samples was similar and yet less than that of China. Regarding individualistic value, the mean number is highest for US web advertisements. This is followed by Taiwan. China has the least number in individualistic value. Meanwhile, collectivistic values were not common in US web advertisements. The use of emotional appeals in US web advertisements is the least compared with China the highest and Taiwan the second highest. Further tests showed that there was insignificant difference in the use of information contents, cultural values and creative strategies between

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China and Taiwan and between US and Taiwan. Meanwhile, there was significant difference between China and the US.

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BACKGROUND

The advancement and rapid development of the internet is

unique in the history of communication. It has broken down all geographical

barriers which have limited the capacity of communication for ages. Its impact

is much more far-reaching than any other media ever emerged before. Through

the internet, people are increasingly connected to each other. Organizations

are trying to capitalize on the competitive advantage of the internet in creating

business opportunities. The internet, which has opened up unlimited

possibilities in the development of communication, affects all aspects of our

lives and will gain momentum in the generations to come.

The internet has received a great deal of attention in the media.

More and more companies have set up an internet presence. Companies are

using the internet as a way of segmenting markets and doing something that

traditional promotional media cannot: reaching consumers across the country

and around the world interactively and on demand at a reasonable cost. The

new technology provides us with opportunities to enhance our culture by

expanding the infrastructure for information-sharing and exchange. The

potential applications of the internet are being expanded every day, and

companies which are the first to exploit these opportunities will have a

tremendous advantage over their more traditionally-oriented competitors.

Advertising is an important tool for marketers to promote their

products and services to consumers. By ensuring that the advertisement

contains cues associated with the service as indicators of the level of quality,

the perceived risk can be reduced (Herrington and Henley, 2000). Since

consumers often find it difficult to understand service offerings, they prefer to

have information such as a description of the service encounter and factual

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cues. However, the value of using more informational appeal by service

advertising is still unproven (Stafford, 1996). For instance, Grove et al. (1995)

found that service advertisement contains more informational and factual cues,

whereas Abernethy and Butler (1992) and Culter and Javalgi (1993) reported

that services actually use fewer informational cues in their advertisements.

Further, Zinkhan et al. (1992) concluded that services use transformational

appeals more than informational appeals. The variations of the results may be

due to other factors such as differences in cultural values between the samples.

Advertising messages should be congruent with the values of

local culture has been long advocated (Zhang and Gelb, 1996; Boddewyn et

al., 1986; Belk et al., 1985; Harris, 1984; Hornik, 1980; Buzzell, 1968). Pollay

and Gallagher (1990) summarized this by suggesting that cultural values are

the core of advertising messages and typical advertisements endorse,

glamorize and reinforce cultural values. In addition, empirical studies have

found that advertisements reflecting local cultural values are more persuasive

than those that ignore them (Gregory and Munch, 1997; Taylor et al., 1997;

Han and Shavitt, 1994; Hong et al., 1987; Madden et al., 1986; Marquez,

1975).

Evidence indicates that different cultures seem to emphasize

different advertising appeals. For instance, Japanese ads have been found to

contain more emotional and fewer comparative appeals than US ads (Hong et

al., 1987). However, this may be due to the regulatory factors which often

plays a significant role on comparative advertising. On the other hand,

advertising in China has been found to contain more utilitarian appeals that

focus on promises of a better life (Tse et al., 1989) than in western cultures.

The hypothesis that advertising content is different across cultures is supported

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by previous research (Cheng and Schweitzer, 1996; Wells, 1994; Culter and

Javalgi, 1992; Ramaprasad and Hasegawa, 1992; Tansey et al., 1990).

RESEARCH PREAMBLE

This research aims to enhance our understanding of the cultural

characteristics of China, Taiwan and the United States in the digital age

through studying the web advertisements in the three places. These places are

chosen because of their difference in cultural, economic and geographical

dimensions, conditions which are necessary to render the hypothesis tests

valid.

First, this paper summarizes the background of the study.

Second, it examines the significance of researching the cultural differences of

web advertising. Third, it briefly reviews some research work on the

cross-cultural communication, the internet and its role in cultural development

and communication. Fourth, it proposes the framework for developing the

hypotheses. Fifth, it explains the research methodology. Sixth, it presents the

results. Seventh, it concludes the research findings and finally discusses the

limitations of the study and proposes study areas for future research.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM

Communication is the process by which culture is developed

and maintained. Information, the contents of communication, is the basic

source of all human intercourse. Throughout history, information has been

embodied and communicated in an ever-expanding variety of media, including

spoken words, graphics, artifacts, written text, and computer technologies, etc.

Together, these media and their distribution channels constitute the web of

society that guides the direction and pace of social development. From this

perspective, the communication of information permeates the cultural

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environment.

There is an extensive amount of literature on how the internet

has a culture of its own. The need for this culture to be understood, recognised

and accepted is claimed to be of vital urgency if the internet is to lead to

successful business. A US manager undertaking business in Japan would need

to have some appreciation of the Japanese culture, in order for the business

relationship to run smoothly, in the same way if the American or the Japanese

seek to conduct business on the internet. They need to some extent know the

country's culture. This does not mean to say that one should immerse oneself

totally into the country's culture, but one should adapt to that culture. The

emphasis is thus on recognition of the culture and adaptation to it, rather than

total mutation.

In marketing and advertising practices, understanding a

country's core cultural values is important. These core values have a

significant impact and influence on consumer behavior (Watson et al., 2002).

Consumers who grow up in a particular culture become accustomed to that

culture's value systems, beliefs, and perception processes. They are expected

to respond to advertising messages in a manner that is congruent to their

cultural characteristics. It has been well documented that cultural factors have

an impact on what advertising strategies are successful. For example, the

contextual level of a culture as conceptualized by Hall (1976) has been shown

to have on impact on how advertising is conducted. In order to succeed, when

drawing up advertising strategies, corporations need to have a reliable and

valid assessment of cultural differences so that shared attitudes, beliefs and

values can be capitalized on while avoiding aspects of culture which might

lessen the impact of advertising investment (Samiee, 1994).

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The economic, social and political factors that operate within a

specific cultural influence a particular society’s view toward advertising in

general (Albaum et al., 1998). For example, a centrally planned economy or a

traditionally socialist system such as China may view advertising less

favorably than a liberal or free economic system such as Japan or Taiwan.

Societies that are very traditional, such as China does not accept advertising as

readily as modern industrialized countries such as Japan. Societies where there

are strong authoritative religious or social groups may also have a negative

view of advertising. Legal and political factors, such as the existence of state

monopolies, censorship, and specific advertising restrictions also present many

potential problems for advertisers (Albaum et al., 1998).

Growth in international business often necessitates an increased

emphasis on international marketing communications (Keegan, 1989). Indeed,

advertising is considered a critical element in a firm's international marketing

plan. Product-based web sites are an increasingly important advertising form.

They are used by more and more consumers to find information for learning

about, selecting and purchasing a particular product or service (Roberts and

Ko, 2001). Research on web sites as a new medium for communication has

great scholarly importance as more and more multi-national companies shift

an increasing part of their advertising strategies into interactive medium. The

interactive multimedia features of the web have provided organizations with a

new medium with capabilities richer than its traditional counterparts. This has

triggered growing concerns about the difference in web advertising adopted in

different places. What types of explanatory variables are relevant in internet

advertisement and how do internet advertisements in different cultures differ

in the extent to which they are characterized by such variables?

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With the emergence of China as a major trading area in world

trade, increasing attention has been devoted to the study of the China market

which is currently the fastest-growing economy in the world with more than a

billion potential consumers. After sustained double-digit growth for the past

few years, its merchandise imports and exports grew more than twelvefold

over the past 15 years or so, making it one of the ten largest trading nations in

the world. However, despite its significance in trade, the Chinese market is

probably among the least understood and studied consumer markets in the

world. Although hundreds of Western companies are currently conducting

business with China, few empirical efforts have studied how the Chinese

consumers respond to marketing activities, such as advertising.

After the Chinese economic liberalization policies implemented

by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, US multinationals have substantially increased

their investments in China through joint ventures, setting up subsidiaries and

offices. China and the USA have different cultures, in part, because of their

differences in history. It is important to discuss several notions that define

Chinese culture.

Despite the political upheavals, the Chinese people have

experienced the longest span of homogeneous cultural development of any

society in the world. Chinese culture and tradition, most notably

Confucianism, is particularly deep-rooted. Chinese people are very

self-conscious of their cultural heritage. Finally, since the creation of the

People’s Republic, a new system of social stratification has been in place with

a small, overpowered party elite at the top and the mass assuming equal social

status below (Wang, 2000). Since the inauguration of the People's Republic in

1949, China has been a state socialist society and remains so despite its

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economic reforms.

The Chinese believe that they are dependent on social groups,

which include relatives, neighbors and personal friends. The Chinese people

attach special importance to human feelings. Human relationship is very

important to them. In the Chinese language, human relationship is called

"guanxi" or connection. Researchers have noted that guanxi is one of the

particularly significant concepts in Chinese culture, which refers to the quality

of a personal relationship outside an individual's immediate family (Lockett,

1988). The Chinese mentality is to work in groups to accomplish a common

goal. As a result, individualism is not prominent in Chinese societies. In the

Chinese culture, privacy is not so highly valued as in the American culture,

whose value judgment is entirely based on individualism.

Americans, however, believe in efficiency and

effectiveness. Thus, competition and action that will contribute to the end

result are regarded as critical and important. Americans believe in logical

reasoning that is based on facts and are usually straight with them. They value

the desired end result, which may be disruptive to relations and the normal

existing patterns. Americans gain their identity through their individual

achievements and behaviors. The American network of relationship exists and

is important for business transactions but appears to be relatively more subtle.

Business relationships and personal relationships are separated because

business transactions are often bounded by legal contracts. Friendships are

formed and dissolved very quickly. Most Chinese view relationships as

lifetime commitments, and thus do not make close friends easily.

The Chinese culture is built on subtlety. The Chinese language

is based on an abstraction of ideas. Typically, the Chinese people are not ready

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to confront each other even if there is disagreement. They are less outspoken

and direct questioning is considered as rude. The Chinese people do not easily

reveal their true feelings to others, instead, they give hints to others about what

they really want. The Chinese get used to hinting because they need to

exercise self-control. Self-control tends to make people appear shy in

revealing their ideas and thoughts in public places. This contrasts with the

frankness in American culture.

Both China and Taiwan have been rapidly developed during the

last couple of decades and struggled with how to reconcile conflict between

traditional values and new values. They are undergoing fundamental

transformations of industrial structures from labor-intensive to high-tech, as

well as rapid social modernization in both work and life styles. They share a

common Confucian cultural heritage and language. However, despite both

are collectivistic societies, China and Taiwan can be seen as different markets

with different economic and cultural settings due to historical effects that

impact on their cultures and hence advertising contents (Tai, 1997). They each

developed distinct political and economic systems over the 50-year separation

after the civil war.

Across the strait in Taiwan, the Nationalist government

established their anti-Communist ideology. The political system in Taiwan is

in sharp contrast to that of the China’s system. Since 1949, the two sides are

knowingly hostile to each other. Taiwan has transformed its autocratic

one-party political system into a multi-party democracy (Chu, 2001). The

historical anti-communist stance of the Nationalist Party has resulted in a

mixture of traditional Confucianism and Western capitalism (Chu, 2001). The

Nationalist government has launched political campaigns to preserve Chinese

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cultural heritage, in order to counter China's anti-tradition stance. This has

far-reaching influences in preserving core Confucian values Taiwan.

Meanwhile, its alliance with the Western world, especially the USA brings in

western influences to the local culture.

Economically, Taiwan along with the Hong Kong, Korea,

Singapore are known as “Asia’s Four Dragons”. This highlights Taiwan’s

role in contributing to the economic development in the region. China,

meanwhile, is in the midst of transiting from a planned economy to a

market-based one and from a rural society to an urban, industrial one. China is

the fastest-growing economy in the world, with per capita incomes more than

quadrupling since 1978. In short, China is a socialist society undergoing

transition towards a market economy while Taiwan is continuing its rapid

industrialization and is economically more developed. Unlike the traditional

Chinese approach which was largely shaped under the centrally-planned

economy, the market economy emphasizes professional competence for the

job, devolved strategy-formulation, formalized organizational procedures, and

financial performance criteria (Child, 1996).

The purpose of this research is to study the cultural differences

between the internet advertising in the US, Taiwan and China by looking into

the web sites of twenty companies whose products are marketed in these three

places. This study addresses the following key questions in advertising. That

is, do the apparent cultural differences that exist among USA, Taiwan and

China influence the advertising appeals and strategies? The question is of

interest to managers who face the challenging task of promoting their products

in different markets. Specifically, this study compares the different advertising

themes across the highly individualistic culture of the USA (Spence, 1985) and

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the highly collectivistic culture of the China (Hsu, 1981) and Taiwan.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Cross-Cultural Communication

Cross-cultural communication can be defined as consisting of

intercultural, multi-domestic, and cross-gender communication or genderlect

communication (Tannen, 1990). Key issues in cross-cultural communication

research include styles of conflict and negotiation (Ting-Toomey, 1985) and

construction of identity and self-disclosure (Ting-Toomey, 1988) in

interpersonal and group contexts. In cross-cultural communication, meaning

and interpretations are derived both collectively and individually through inter

action. Collectively, in the sense that meanings are negotiated between

communicators and, individually, the process of interaction is mediated by

individual perceptions that are subject to one's identity and expectations which

are in turn guided by culture (Gudykunst and Kim, 1996). Thus, it may be

argued that the culture in which norms are developed will be reflected in all

interactions regardless of the communication medium. It has been widely

recognized in cross-cultural research that people derive different meanings and

often key information, however, from the contextual aspects of the interaction

(Hall, 1976). Consequently, it is critical to determine how such cultural norms

affect communication processes. Unfortunately, though, while there are

significant bodies of research on both intercultural and mediated

communication, cross-cultural communication via electronic media has largely

been overlooked (Ma, 1996).

Many academics have introduced into their research the

element of culture. Research efforts were made to develop universal values

that characterize and distinguish cultures (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, 1961;

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Rokeach, 1973; Hofstede, 1980, 1991; Schwartz, 1992). Among these,

Hofstede's (1980) cultural dimensions provided the first empirically and

conceptually based set of value dimensions to compare cultures (Watson et al.,

2002). Since in the beginning of 1990s, Hofstede's typology has been used to

understand differences in consumption values and motivations in marketing

and advertising across cultures and to predict what reflects culture and what

fits with a particular culture (Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996; De Mooij, 1998;

Taylor et al., 1997). Although there are questions of validity and

generalizability of the cultural dimensions (Cutler et al., 1997; La Ferle et al.,

2002), recent replications in European countries have demonstrated that

Hofstede's typology is still valid. Hofstede's (1991) own application to

intercultural management has proven itself just as effective in Asian cultures

as in European ones (De Mooij, 1998, 2000).

Since the beginning of 1990s, several researchers in marketing

and advertising recognized the potential applicability of Hofstede's cultural

dimensions. The typology also proves to be useful for comparing cultures and

explaining the variety of values used in advertisement content across cultures

(Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996; De Mooij, 1998; Milner and Collins, 2000;

Taylor et al., 1997). Hofstede (1980a, 1980b) however concentrated on

culture itself, the aim of his research was concerned with "national cultures",

i.e. those cultural characteristics that are specific to a particular nation. He

attempted to determine empirically the main criteria by which the national

cultures of 40 independent nations differed. This was carried out by

conducting a massive survey, using a single questionnaire and sending it to the

employees working in subsidiaries of the American multinational IBM, across

40 different countries. These 40 countries, on the basis of their responses to

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the questionnaire, were given an index score for each dimension, enabling

Hofstede to rank countries against these four identified dimensions.

Although the research focused on cultures of different nations,

it can be argued that Hofstede's findings can also be applied to a variety of

cross-cultural communication situations. As the respondents of the

questionnaire were employed by the same company, with similar jobs and

ensuring that age categories and sex compositions were similar, the only

remaining difference in this research was that the nationalities of these

employees differed. Thus, this cultural difference can be a direct explanation

of the different responses received from employees of different countries.

Hofstede's research has led to the identification of four

dimensions of national culture. Before we even begin to consider where the

"virtual internet nation" fits into these rankings, it is necessary to establish an

understanding of Hofstede's four cultural variables, these being: Power

distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism-collectivism and Masculinity-

femininity.

Power Distance

Power distance refers to the extent to which people see

authority as a basic fact of society. When members of the society willing to

accept a hierarchical structure and there is a high degree of social distance

between individuals reflected in every human contact, the society are said to

have a high power distance. People in high power-distance cultures expect

clear directions from authority figures in relation to a particular course of

action, while cultures with less power distance have little tolerance for

authority and are more likely to make their decisions on the basis of facts and

reasoning (Hofstede, 1991). Consumers in high power-distance cultures may

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benefit from advertising that offers expert advice and clear, specific

recommendations. In cultures with less power distance, the presentation of

information and facts to assist consumers in their reasoning may be more

effective (Zandpour and Harich, 1996).

The meanings and perceptions of hierarchical society vary from

country to country and companies therefore must deicide whether to project a

prestigious value in a particular market. Japan is thought to have a high

power distance, with members of the society willing to accept a hierarchical

structure. In such a market, the degree of social distance between individuals

is reflected in every human contact, because people expect either to be

subordinates or to have subordinates (Hofstede, 1984)

In high power distance societies there is a preference for a

dictatorial, autocratic style of management. Decisions are taken from the top

and dictated throughout the organisation. Conversely low power distance does

not readily accept inequality. There is an attempt that inequality and

positions of status are minimised. The decision making process is a

consultation process, including managers at both senior and junior levels and

should not be restricted to the top levels or the "senior management team".

Hofstede's research produced a power distance index, listing

countries of high power index to those of low power index. Power distance

therefore to some extent addresses the issue of whether or not status is

important. It can be said that those nations with a high power distance place

great emphasis on social status and positions of power, whereas those with a

low power distance tend to emphasize on personal competence.

Individualism-Collectivism

Individualistic cultures emphasize the goals of individuals

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rather than group concerns and needs (Ting-Toomey and Korzenny, 1989; Kim

and Gudykunst, 1988). People in individualistic cultures stress initiatives and

achievements and depend more on factual information for decision making as

opposed to seeking group harmony and consensus (Gudykunst et al., 1985). It

is the goals shared with an in-group that determine one's behavior in

collectivistic cultures. Therefore, collectivist cultures are more non-verbal and

communicate through contextual and implicit codes that are based upon

culturally defined social expectations and rules (Gudykunst, 1984). Scholars

of cross-cultural communication, most notably Hall (1976) and Ting-Toomey

(1988), regard Hofstede's dimension of individualism as a crucial dimension

of variability across cultures. It is also a key dimension in understanding

interpersonal and group interaction and communication processes. In an

individualistic culture, individuals are loosely integrated with others and

values of their own self interest and that of their immediate family only. In

contrast, in collectivistic cultures, individuals relate to larger collectivities and

groupings and themselves as integrated with the whole.

Collectivism is where the members of a society operate within

a close knit social framework, with a high emphasis on loyalty to members of

that social framework. People from collectivist cultures tend to focus more on

the impacts of their actions on ingroup members and more willing to share

resources with them. They tend to emphasize the integrity of ingroups and

de-emphasize their independence from ingroups (Triandis et al., 1988). It is

noted in particular that cultures of East Asia emphasize ingroup harmony. One

must present to others as modest as possible and avoid conflict with others.

Furthermore, confrontation is highly undesirable (Triandis et al., 1988). As a

result, social control mechanisms, such as shame and religious beliefs, are

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used more widely in collectivist cultures than are mechanisms of internal

control, such as guilt which are more frequently used in individualist cultures.

According to Hofstede's (1980) cultural scale, Japan was rated

as highly more collectivistic than the US, therefore, it is reasonable to assume

that Japanese web sites tend to exhibit more collectivistic values than US sites.

Interestingly, a more recent investigation reported a higher degree of

individualism in Spanish print ads than in their US counterparts (Taylor and

Wolburg, 1997). Past research reports that whereas the Japanese places

emphasis on subtlety in advertising appeals, Americans prefer direct and

explicit selling messages (Ramaprasad and Hasegawa, 1992; Mueller, 1987;

Lin, 1993). Such differences are closely linked with their distinct

communication styles, especially in terms of high versus low cultural context.

Here, "context" refers to the facts or information taken for granted about the

subject under discussion, and has been identified as a key distinguishing

feature between eastern and western culture (Hall, 1976).

Mueller (1987) asserted that Japanese advertisements are not

"westernised", yet the usage of the traditional collectivistic Japanese values,

such as "group consensus appeals", decreased considerably from the1970s to

the 1980s. Mueller (1992) replicated her 1987 study with Japanese magazine

samples and confirmed that Japanese advertisements are still likely to use

traditional cultural values such as "collectivism" and "soft sell" appeals, and

that if anything the tendency to use traditional values has increased.

Masculinity-Femininity

The masculinity dimension indicates that degree to which

traditional male values are important to a society (Hofstede, 1980). According

to Hofstede, masculinity and femininity are two ends of a continuum. Certain

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values such as assertiveness, competitiveness, rational and unemotional are

linked to masculinity and values such as caring, nurturing, concern for people,

quality of life and emotional factors are linked to femininity. So where the

emphasis is placed on male dominance, materialism, clearly defined gender

roles etc., the society is considered as a masculine society. The

masculine-feminine dimension discriminates between culture particularity

with respect to values related to winning, success and status, which are the

commonly used advertising appeals. Masculine cultures tend to have an

achievement ideal, to value productivity and try to be the best while feminine

cultures are more concerned on quality of life and care for other people's

feeling (Hofstede, 1980).

Uncertainty Avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance can be defined as "the extent to which

people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid these

situations" (Hofstede, 1980). In strong uncertainty avoidance societies, there is

a need for rules and formality to structure life (De Mooij, 1998). People strong

in this dimension are related to anxiety, need for security, dependence on

experts and the application of information (Hofstede, 1980, 1991). Cultures

that are characterized by high uncertainty avoidance may react more favorably

to communication that offers explicit, logical and direct information to reduce

perceived uncertainty. They take measures to reduce uncertainty such as

follows:

life long employment;

adherence to rules and regulations;

refusal to tolerate deviant ideas or behaviour;

resisting innovation; ignoring concepts;

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high power distance.

In strong uncertainty avoidance societies, members are

encouraged to anticipate the future, make forecasts; create institutions

establishing security and stability; avoid or manage risks. In contrast to a weak

uncertainty avoidance society, members have a high tolerance for uncertainty;

willing and ready to take risks and perhaps have low expectations and a

fatalistic outlook.

An additional national cultural characteristic which influences

the diffusion of communication technologies is high and low communication

context as presented by Hall (Hall & Hall, 1987). Communication context is

"the information that surrounds an event and is inextricably bound up with the

meaning of that event" (p.7). Events and context combine to produce meaning

from communication, and their importance varies among different cultures. In

other words, in high-context cultures, meaning is found in the nature of the

situation and relationships, while in low-context cultures meaning is found in

the words. Cultures in which communication context is highly valued is called

high context cultures. Past studies of cross-cultural advertising have found

contrasts between high-context and low-context cultures. With respect to

communication, low-context cultures tend to use more copy, argumentation,

facts and data than high-context cultures (De Mooij, 1998). High-context can

be recognized by the use of indirect communication using more symbols.

Furthermore, high-context cultures strive for subtlety, patience

and empathy, while low-context cultures value straight talk, assertiveness and

honesty. Hall explains that high-context cultures also value collective needs

and goals and create "us-them" categories, while low-context cultures value

individual needs and goals and believe that every individual is unique.

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Ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s culture is superior to all

others, is another national level cultural variable suggested by Herbig (1994)

to impact innovation. As Herbig sees it, cultures low on ethnocentrism will be

able to accept ideas from other cultures, leading to a higher degree of

innovativeness. This may also mean such cultures will more readily diffuse

certain innovations, especially those developed in other cultures.

A second way in which ethnocentrism may affect diffusion of

communication technologies is through language. Low ethnocentrism implies

a greater acceptance of ideas from other cultures. Ideas from other cultures

will be shared in a variety of languages, which implies cultures low on

ethnocentrism will support a greater number of languages. Language barriers

have been shown to inhibit diffusion of communication technologies.

The Internet and Cultural Development

Goodenough (1971) defines culture as "a set of beliefs or

standards, shared by a group of people, which help the individual decide what

is, what can be, how to feel, what to do and how to go about doing it". This

definition also matches the initially emergent but now promoted as a code of

behaviour for internet users: "netiquette" (network etiquette). "Netiquette

springs from the values of the internet" (Morris, 1998). Underpinning values

and codes are a strongly felt sense of identity and belonging. This is apparent

in numerous internet articles, for example: "... if there is one thing that seems

to captivate people more than anything else from the moment they first make

contact with the internet it is that inexplicable sense of civic pride and

community spirit that bonds each of us to every other user on the net"

(Deutsch, 1993).

As the world becomes more connected through technology, two

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competing hypotheses have emerged regarding the effect of globalization on

culture. These hypotheses are discussed in more detail by Webber (1969),

Yang (1986), and Ronen (1986). One hypothesis, convergence, suggests that

cultures will become more similar as they modernize because they must pass

through a "relatively fixed pattern of development" (Coughlin, 2000, p. 422).

In addition, "the rapid growth of telecommunications and computing

technology ... holds profound implications for possible societal convergence"

(Coughlin, 2000, p. 428). The Internet could play a key role in this process.

The opposite hypothesis, divergence, suggests that cultures tend to resist

assimilation and adapt technologies in culturally distinct ways.

Most research on global or international information systems

takes a divergence perspective, pointing out the problems that can occur when

cultural differences are ignored. Fernandes (1995) and Del Galdo and Nielsen

(1996) provide guidance on user interface design and point out problems that

have occurred when user interfaces designed for one culture have been applied

to another. More recently, researchers have been interested in cultural

implications of global e-commerce issues (Davis, 1999).

Will the internet eventually turns all cultures of the world into

one monolithic culture where all the important beliefs and background are the

same? In one sense, it would appear so. When participants of widely disparate

cultures come to interact, what happens is that there emerges a culture which

is devoid of historical backgrounds that give each local culture its separate

identity. The newly emerging culture plays no part in the ritual of a traditional

culture. In short, it has become sanitized and modernized. Soraj Hongladarom

(1998) called this ‘Cosmopolitan Culture’, a culture believed to be exported by

the internet and not the traditional western culture. It is claimed that the

24

internet is a homogenizing cultural force. Since cosmopolitan culture is neutral

on most respects, the claim that the internet will bring it about is rather trivial.

When people from all parts of the world communicate with one another, it

happens mainly through texts. Communication therefore requires that

participants share at least some sets of values and assumptions together. As

Donald Davidson (1984) argues, they have to accept that what others say is

largely true. Thus these sets of values and assumptions already exist in a

text-mediated community, even though texts are the only means of

communication, maintaining the community. These values, however, do not

belong to any local, traditional culture, but are whatever that make global

computer-mediated communication possible.

Using Hofstede's cultural variables as a framework, how does

the culture of the internet map out? The use of the internet is totally

unrestricted. Anyone can gain access to the internet, there is no hierarchical

structure that needs to be followed or nor there be any bureaucratic procedures

that need to be satisfied. The whole set up is of an informal nature, there is no

emphasis on status or acceptance of inequality, every user is of equal status

and power. The very nature of the internet is to promote interaction, by no

means does this serves to dictate to its society, on the contrary it provides a

platform for independent thinkers. This virtual culture possesses very much

those characteristics that lean towards low power distance.

The internet initially reflects the collective nature emphasised

in developing nations where the notion of cooperation and sharing prevail. "To

grasp the culture of electronic living on the internet, it helps to understand that

it was born and bred in an atmosphere of sharing" (Sterne, 1995). Group

orientation was accentuated, there is a portrayal of the Confucian ethic, an

25

ethic that does not advocate individualism . However this was the culture

created by the first wave of internet settlers, "the spirit was one of pioneers

cooperating with each other in the exploration of new territories" (Besser,

1998). Thus the internet began its emergence with the focus on free

information for all.

The internet was developing, and in the same way that a

developing nation strives to achieve. The internet has thus been developing a

clash of cultures, advertising was being transformed from an informational

function, i.e. one which was concerned with contributing to the common good,

to something that was now more commercial and considered intrusive.

Cooperation and sharing are fading from the internet, the move from

collectivism to individualism has begun. Nonetheless there are still those

among the internet society that are "fighting for the preservation of their

culture" (Besser, 1994). There are those that still believe that the real magic

lies in "the sense of civic pride and community spirit that bonds each of us to

every other user on the net" (Deutsch, 1993). However we cannot ignore the

fact that the internet has experienced a culture clash, which is paving the way

forward in a more individualistic fashion.

Hofstede's notion of uncertainty avoidance is the extent to

which society fosters conformity and avoids predictability. The internet society,

however, is so diverse and embraces so many different ideas. The terms

creativity and innovation feature strongly amidst the internet despite that these

notions would be unthinkable in an uncertainty avoidance society with an

emphasis on avoiding innovative ideas, accepting defined rules and

regulations. All these are against the norm of the internet which constantly

throws out new ideas, invites comments, encourages interaction rather than

26

acceptance. The virtual society enjoys challenge and the freedom of

expression and there are no restrictions as to what can and can not go onto the

internet.

The final variable is masculinity-femininity. It is difficult to

brand the internet as one or the other as it reflects characteristics of both. The

aggressive, competitive nature is certainly present on the internet as illustrated

by what some consider intrusive advertising, yet the caring, nurturing

characteristics also fill up the net, with support and care for members of the

internet society through support groups or exchange of e-mail or on-line

chatting. Like the mix of individualism and collectivism the internet embraces

a mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics. Although the

geo-demographics show more male users, there has been an increase in the

number of female users being drawn to the net; it is difficult however, to

decide as yet which direction the virtual culture will take on Hofstede's fourth

cultural variable.

The Role of Internet in Communication

Since 1992, several researchers have explored how the internet

has influenced and transformed organizational communication. The world

wide web is a distributed information system for accessing the resources of the

internet. Debashis Aikat (2000) has concluded web sites offer significant

advantages as a medium for organizational communication. Some of these

major advantages are: global dissemination of data at lower cost, updated

information, multimedia content, and unlimited access to a global audience.

As a medium for organizational communication, the web has a greater degree

of media richness, as illustrated by past studies. Heath (1998) observed that

the web could be used to conduct rich dialogues on issues. Steinfield (1992)

27

suggested that computer-mediated communications can help achieve

organizational and competitive objectives. The low cost of information and

opinion delivery on the web has put on par companies, governmental agencies

and activists.

With its open platform and easy access, the web has assumed

an important role in formal and informal communication systems in an

organization. Hagins (1996) used critical mass theory to stress that it is crucial

for innovations to achieve sufficient utility in order to succeed. For instance,

easier access to information can facilitate education, training, and employment,

thereby transforming the information-poor from economic dependents, from

tax consumers to taxpayers. The web's interactive features, ability to offer

multimedia contents, and its capacity to accommodate customization

inexpensively (Kling, 1994) have increasingly attracted the attention of firms

and commercial enterprise.

Marketers face several challenges as they seek to determine the

best way of establishing their firm's presence on the web, mainly because of

several unique characteristics of this medium. First, the web represents a

relatively easy and extremely inexpensive way to advertise, lowering the

barriers to entry for small businesses. Kling (1994) suggests that the cost of

advertising on the web is likely to be a small fraction of equivalent advertising

in a newspaper. At the same time, this also results in reduced distinctiveness,

since a company's web-site has to compete with thousands of other web pages

selling similar products and services. Second, the web challenges the

traditional hierarchical system of distribution channels. Because of lower entry

barriers and more widespread exposure, manufacturers, distributors and

retailers can all set up web sites selling essentially the same products and

28

services. Third, unlike traditional communication channels such as newspapers

or television, customers are in greater control of selecting and processing

information about the firm. In other words, it is entirely up to the customers to

decide which web pages to browse and how much information to obtain.

Finally, the width and efficiency of the web allows wider availability of

hard-to-find products and a wider selection of items (Hoffman et al., 1995).

The most revolutionary characteristics of the internet are its

ability to foster communication within small, specialized interest groups; to

provide greater choice and flexibility in content consumption; and to move us

further away from the mass society paradigm (Dizard, 1994; Negroponte,

1995). The internet allows releases from the restrictions imposed by the

conventional format of mass media (Esrock, 1997; Noll, 1997; Samoriski,

1996). Based on interviews with public relations practitioners in organizations

with web sites, Hill, Laura Newland and White, Candace (2000) explored

perceptions about the value of the web as a communications tool, and how it

fits into the communications mix. Practitioners believe a web site symbolizes

an organization's competitiveness, enhances an organization's image, and

increase the practitioner's personal sense of professionalism.

A research study by Esrock, Stuart, L. and Leichty, Greg B.

(1999) investigated the intersection between corporate web pages and the

publics they serve. It is revealed that, while the typical corporate web pages

are used to service news media, customers and the financial community, it is

not being used to its fullest potential to communicate simultaneously with

other audiences. The researchers found that about one-third of corporate web

sites are assertively used to communicate with a multiplicity of audiences in a

variety of information formats.

29

For small companies, the web reduces barriers to entry since

anyone can set up a web site with relative ease. Thus, all-sized companies

must learn how to use the web effectively. Furthermore, as the consumer is

exposed to more and more web advertising, from small as well as large

companies, the issue of advertising clutter and advertising value will gain

more importance. Increasingly, consumers are using filters to avoid web

advertisements from loading on their web pages. For many web users, web

advertisements disrupt flow on web sites, potentially leading to an interruption

in the hierarchy-of-effects sequence (Rettie, 2001).

The web is a medium with characteristics such as constant

message delivery, audience selectivity, multimedia capacity, measurable

effects, global reach, audience controlled advertising exposure, and

interactivity. It is essential to discern web advertising's properties. By

definition, advertising is "any paid form of non-personal presentation and

promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor" (Kotler, 2001).

Thus, web advertising's broad forms consist of impersonal commercial content

paid for by sponsors, designed for audiences, delivered by video, print, and

audio. Its depth ranges from corporate logos, banners, pop-up messages,

e-mail messages, and text-based hyperlinks to official web sites (Briggs and

Hollis, 1997; Ducoffe, 1996; Newhagen and Rafaeli, 1996; Schlosser et al.,

1999; Singh and Dalal, 1999). It is unique in its interactive ability to control

information and reflect back on itself, feed on itself, and respond to the past

(Bezjian-Avery et al., 1998).

Since the early 1960s proponents of globalization have

assumed that economic development would lead to converging needs and

tastes of consumers, and facilitate standardization of marketing and

30

advertising. Meanwhile critics have indicated that markets would become

more diverse and their cultural differences would prevent such standardization

(Agrawal, 1995; De Mooij, 2000). The influence of culture is particularly

important in advertising strategy across the borders, because communication

patterns are closely linked to cultural norms in each market (Hong et al., 1987).

And thus, if advertising differences across cultures can be standardized, the

task of the advertiser can be much simplified (Albers-Miller and Gelb, 1996).

Although the internet's growth has exploded, internet sales

were nearly nonexistent before mid 1990s. However, in 2000, US sales were

$27.3 billion and in 2001, it exceeded $30 billion. The tremendous growth of

consumers connecting to and purchasing via the web suggests a lucrative

audience for advertising messages. The computer and communication

technologies have changed the classical ways of advertising as well as many

other areas of life. The web has become one of the best advertising platforms

as marketers had great flexibility and control over the advertising materials

(Ducoffe, 1996). With the rapid growth and increasing accessibility of the

internet, a growing number of advertisers have built the internet into their

media mix to take advantage of the computerized advertising environments. A

US Commerce Department report estimates that traffic on the internet is

doubling every 100 days and is expected to reach one billion by 2005

(Ingersoll, 1998). Joseph et al. (2001) indicated that the internet is growing

faster than all other preceding technologies. Rosner (1996) indicated that

students are the most frequent users of the web and represent an important

market segment for understanding web advertising in the present and into the

future.

New technology is opening doors for consumers as well as

31

advertisers to a consumer-driven economy. Increasingly, the challenge for the

marketing community is to learn how to reach targeted customers with this

new technology, which is replacing the old notion of media. The web's shift in

communication pattern from the old media's "seller to buyer" flow to the new

web "buyer to seller" flow is so significant that web advertising is undergoing

strategic realignment (Watson et al., 1998).

Despite web advertising has surfaced as an important

advertising media, there exists a minimal amount of published research on

evaluation of web advertising. The extant literature suggests web advertising

has the potential to be as effective as advertisement in more traditional media

(Gallagher et al., 2001), web users' perceptions of web advertising are

generally positive (Schlosser et al., 1999), and users’ level of interest in

clicking on the site are significantly correlated with attitude toward web

advertising (Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2002). Consistent with these assertions,

web advertisement tends to increase loyalty and may be more effective in

brand alliance than TV or print ads (Briggs and Hollis, 1997).

A number of studies published focusing on how advertisers and

consumers perceive the web as a source of advertising. Leong et al. (1998)

explored the perceived position of the effectiveness of the web as an

advertising medium vis-à-vis several traditional media from the perspective of

business managers and operators. Their sample considered the web site to be

similar to direct mail on the key attribute of ability to convey information and

detail. In addition, the web site was regarded as being most distinctive from

television, telemarketing and radio. Goldsmith and Lafferty (2002) studied

the effects of viewing web sites on internet advertising. They found that

consumers who felt that web sites improved their perceptions of brands saw

32

more advantages in web advertising.

One relevant study was conducted by Brackett and Carr (2001)

to compare college students' attitude toward web advertising to the attitudes of

people familiar with the web in Ducoffe's (1996) study. Their student sample

found web advertising to be irritating, annoying, or insulting people

intelligence while Ducoffe's sample did not. In addition, students predicted

that web would overtake television advertising as the most valuable source of

information.

To get a better understanding of consumers' web advertising

beliefs and attitudes, we examined the published literature regarding beliefs

and attitudes of consumers toward advertising in general. Bauer and Greyser

(1968) were the first to examine attitude toward advertising systematically;

they assessed advertising beliefs as two clusters: economic and social effects.

Succeeding studies have used variations of Bauer and Greyser's two factor

model (Muehling, 1987). More contemporary studies suggested several facets

of consumers' advertising evaluation. Alwitt and Prabhaker (1992) found that

consumers' perceptions of television advertising span six dimensions, and in a

follow-up study (Alwitt and Prabhaker, 1994), they observed that consumers'

advertising evaluations comprise six dimensions. Mittal (1994) describes ten

consumer advertising perceptions and beliefs in his study. Finally, Pollay and

Mittal (1993) support a seven-factor belief model, representing three personal

uses of advertising: product information, social role and image, and

hedonic/pleasure, along with four social effects of advertising: good for the

economy, materialism, value corruption, and falsity/no sense.

HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

Corporate web pages are a valuable medium through which

33

corporations can communicate effectively with potential international

consumers. In this study, advertising content studies were adapted to construct

a research framework for a cross-cultural comparison of web advertisements,

on the basis of three explanatory variables, i.e. information content, cultural

values and creative strategies.

Information Content

A pioneering study by Madden et al. (1986) identified more

information cues in Japanese print ads than in their US counterparts, arguing

that Japanese consumers tend to demand more detailed product information

than do Americans. Hong et al. (1987) echoed this finding, concluding that

Japanese magazine advertisements contained a higher number of information

cues than US samples. More recent explorations attempted to analyse

information content in cross-cultural online advertising. Ju-Pak (1999) and

Yoon and Cropp (1999) reported no significant differences between UK, US

and Korean web advertisements, while Oh et al. (1999) found US

advertisements offered more information than their Korean counterparts (48

per cent). This result is backed up by the work of Chung and Ahn (1999) who

concluded that banner advertisements in the USA were more informative than

those in Korea (31.5 per cent).

The level of uncertainly avoidance can be characterized as low

tolerance of ambiguity (Hofstede, 1984). People with low tolerance of

ambiguity are likely to act as rigorous information seekers in purchasing

decisions (De Mooij, 1998).

To evaluate the informativeness of commercial advertisements,

a coding scheme based on the Resnik and Stern (1977) paradigm of objective

information content evaluation is commonly used (Fay and Currie, 1994).

34

Resnik and Stern's (1971) method has been extensively used to study different

media like magazines, newspapers and television as well as to study the

information content of media in other countries and cultures (Chan, 1995;

Khan et al., 1991).

An “informative ad” is defined to have at least one of these

cues, which enables consumers to make intelligent and rational buying

decisions. This instrument has been replicated in almost 60 studies

(Abernethy and Franke, 1996). It allows the informational elements of the

advertisement to be separated from the emotional elements, allowing them to

be examined in isolation. In general, the vast body of extant research is

unanimous in acknowledging the legitimacy of the copy-point as a separate

and measurable advertising construct (Fay and Currie, 1994). It is also

generally agreed that the greater the number of copy points, the more

informative the advertisement.

Determining the information content of commercial web pages

is likely to give rich insight, not only into the persuasibility of current

commercial pages, but also into the objectives of firms in establishing

web-sites. Mueller (1991) pointed out that if an advertising agency aims to

produce a uniform advertising campaign for a variety of markets, this could be

most easily achieved through a message limited in information content. Thus,

Resnik and Stern's system appears to be appropriate for analysing cultural

variability between different culture's web pages.

As Yoon (2000) pointed out, information levels are mostly

influenced by the medium's nature of involvement. Here, the term

"involvement" means the extent to which consumers are motivated by or

interested in acquiring specific information. Several researchers have reported

35

empirical evidence demonstrating that the internet contains a higher level of

information because it is a highly involved medium, primarily because it can

be viewed as a combination of both electronic and print media (Hoffman and

Novak, 1996; Yoon, 2000).

Cultural Values

The relationship among individuals in a given culture is

intimately linked with societal norms (Hofstede, 1980). Just as individualism

has been considered a core social value of western culture, collectivism has

been considered a fundamental principal in eastern culture (Gudykunst and

Ting-Toomey, 1988; Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995). In an

advertising context, Lin (2001) suggests that within an individualistic culture

the appeals used are those of "modernity", "youth" and "enjoyment", while

Cheng (1994) indicates that appeals such as "group consensus" and "tradition"

are more likely to be conveyed in a collectivistic culture. Advertisers are more

likely to present very specific facts that can assist individuals in their decision

making in high individualistic cultures and use more image-based or symbolic

appeals that point out the positive social consequences of a particular purchase

in collectivist cultures.

Frith and Sengupta (1991) content analysed magazine ads in

the USA, the UK and India, reporting significant differences in the usage of

individualism. Belk and Pollay (1985) pointed out that Japanese

advertisements use more status and materialistic appeals than their US

counterparts.

Cheng and Schweitzer (1996) developed a typology for 32

cultural values, which was originally based on Pollay's (1983) 43

contemporary advertising values. This typology can be considered a useful

36

method of measuring contrasts in eastern and western cultural values. The

reason being that the researchers incorporated traditional Confucian values in

order to identify cultural differences reflected in US and Chinese television

commercials. Using a similar scale, Ji and McNeal (2001) found that US

children's commercials place higher emphasis on individualistic values than

Chinese ones.

The web content is likely to be bound by host-country values

inherent to the local market. Thus, it is likely that individualistic or

collectivistic values are reflected on the web advertisements, depending on the

level of context and relevant cultural dimensions of the three places.

Creative Strategies

In low context culture, direct hard-hitting rational selling is

common. Whereas in high-context cultures, an indirect and emotional

display of the selling intents is common, this helps avoid a social

confrontation (Pollay, 1983). As a result, soft-sell approaches by using

emotional and psychological appeals are common in high-context cultures.

In low context cultures, the selling is more rational and comparative.

Mueller (1987), Takada and Jain (1991) and Miracle et al. (1992) have all

concluded that high context cultures require more subtle, less direct

approaches to advertising.

Similarly, several studies (e.g. Han and Shavitt, 1994; Lin,

1993; Taylor et al., 1997; Zhang and Gelb, 1996) have found that advertising

appeals need to be modified depending on whether members of the target

audience come from individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures. Clearly, cultural

factors will also play a role in advertising regulation and, more specifically,

product category restrictions. Regardless of how similar some markets such as

37

those in Asia may appear, many differences exist.

"Creative strategies" refer to the execution tactics in which the

general nature and character of advertising messages are specified for more

appealing presentations. Simon (1971) proposed a typology consisting of ten

creative strategies such as "information", "argument", "motivation with

psychological appeals", etc.

Utilising this scheme in a cross-cultural comparison, Martenson

(1987) concluded that commercials used in US television employed more

"brand familiarisation" and "symbolic association" strategies than those in

Swedish cinema did. Comparing US, French and Taiwanese advertisements,

Zandpour et al. (1992) found that US commercials are more likely to transmit

explicit arguments based on symbolism, humour and drama format. Oh et al.

(1999) replicated Simon's scheme for creative dimensions of web

advertisements, finding no significant difference between US and Korean

advertisements.

In a high-context culture, explicit and direct communication

styles are relatively rare, giving preference to implicit, ambiguous and

non-verbal communication based on strong interdependent relationships, while

in a low-context culture, clear and direct verbal expressions are commonly

found. There is a close association between non-verbal and verbal

communication strategies in high and low context cultures, respectively

(Ramaprasad and Hasegawa, 1992; Lin, 1993; Yoon and Cropp, 1999).

According to De Mooij (1998), low context, highly

individualistic countries such as the USA tend to provide more copies and

factual argumentation in commercials, while high context, collectivistic

countries like Japan and Spain employ less wordy, symbolic advertising.

38

Based on the above arguments, I propose the following

hypothesis:

The frequency of usage of information cues, individualistic

value and emotional appeals in internet advertisement

significantly differs in the three places.

These research questions will contribute toward a better

understanding of the cultural differences between the three places, by using

the web sites as an information source and a media channel for advertising

communication.

METHODOLOGY

I will adopt the content analysis approach which is commonly

regarded as a useful method for social science studies, especially in

advertising (Kassarjian, 1977; Kolbe and Burnett, 1991). McMillan (2000)

conducted an analysis of nineteen studies that apply content analysis

techniques to the web found that this stable research technique can be applied

to a dynamic environment. However, the rapid growth and change of

web-based contents present some unique challenges. Nevertheless, researchers

are now using content analysis to examine themes such as diversity,

commercialization, and utilization of technology on the web. Suggestions are

offered for how researchers can apply content analysis to the web with

primary focus on formulating research questions and hypotheses, sampling,

data collection and coding, coder training and reliability, and data analysis and

interpretation.

Traditionally, cross-cultural researchers have found difficulty

ensuring an accurate match of product and target audiences. However, to

provide the strongest test possible for the hypotheses across the places, I

39

choose the first 20 multi-national companies web pages, that advertised one

specific product targets at consumer markets in these three places. To do this I

make reference to the Fortune 500’s. Fortune 500 is a ranking of the top 500

US corporations as measured by gross revenue. The list comprises US-based

public and private companies that file all or parts of their financial results with

a government agency, is compiled and published annually by Fortune

magazine. Though the products are mainly originated from the U.S., it is

found that they all have their local distribution agents in the respective cities,

responsible for formulating marketing and advertising strategies. It is believed

that agents would capitalize on their local knowledge of the cultural variables

of the respective societies in making advertising decisions. Findings are

discussed in light of formulating advertising strategies across these three

places.

Then, using popular search engines (e.g. Yahoo, Google, etc.), I

will single out the first 20 companies which publish web sites in the three

places. For each of these companies, one specific product was chosen with its

respective product-based web page. This resulted in a total of 60 web pages

for analysis (i.e. 20 companies times three places).

Chi square is used to identify if there are any significant

differences among the three places in general and subsequently, identify the

difference between any of the two places.

Unit of Analysis

The major ambiguity in web content analysis is related to the

question as to what is really meant by the term "web site" (McMillan, 2000).

Actually, a given site is a hierarchy of information, connected via hyperlinks

to an infinite number of other sites. Initially, I attempted to limit my analysis

40

to the "home page" or initial screen seen on entering the site. However, home

pages usually consist of indices, icons and symbols that are linked to the next

hierarchy of information, and do not provide much meaningful information.

Thus, our unit of analysis should be defined as product-based web pages for a

given product accessed via hyperlinks to a company’s front page.

Coding Procedures

In examining the information content, Resnik and Stern's (1977)

classification system is employed. Regarding the comparison of cultural

values, Cheng and Schweitzer's (1996) 32 criteria are adopted. To differentiate

eastern versus western values in advertising messages, I further divided the

categories into two groups: independent and interdependent values.

Independent values tend to separate individuals from social context,

representing individualism. They are "adventure", "competition",

"individualism", "modernity", "uniqueness", and "wealth". Interdependent

values are seen as connecting people with social context, representing

collectivism. They are "collectivism", "courtesy", "family", "nature",

"respect for the elderly" and "social status". As for creative strategies, Simon's

(1971) creative strategies were used. The detailed description of the three

categories for coding purposes is as follows:

Contents Categories

Information Content

price or value, quality, performance, components or

contents, availability, special offers, taste, nutrition,

packaging or shape, guarantees and warranties, safety,

independent research, company research, new ideas

41

Cultural Values Adventure, beauty, competition, convenience,

economy, effectiveness, joy, family, magic,

modernity, nature, neatness, quality, respect for

elderly, security, social status, technology, uniqueness,

work

Creative Strategies information, argument, emotional appeals, repeated

assertion, command, brand familiarization, symbolic

association, imitation, obligation, habit-starting

Content examined in Web Advertisement (sources: adapted from Resnik & Stern (1977)), Cheng and Schweitzer (1996), Martenson (1987)).

I will examine the web advertisements of US, China and

Taiwan respectively to determine if any of the above cues are present. For

cultural values, I will focus on independent values, i.e. individualistic values.

Subsequently, I will count the number of cues contained in each web

advertisement, decide on which of the three categories they belong to. I will

then work out the mean number of cues for each of the categories and of each

of the three places.

RESULTS

It is found that the number of the information cues ranged from

three to twelve. All samples contained at least one information cue, and were,

therefore, considered to be informative. The mean number of information cues

for the US and Taiwan samples was similar and yet less than that of China.

The mean number of individualistic value is highest for US

web advertisements. This is followed by Taiwan. China has the least

number in individualistic value. It is apparent that fewer independent values

42

are used in China web pages than in US ones. Meanwhile, collectivistic values

were not common in US web advertisements.

The use of emotional appeals in US web advertisements is the

least compared with China the highest and Taiwan the second highest.

The chi-square suggested that there are significant differences

between the use of information contents, cultural values and creative strategies

in China, Taiwan and the US. The hypothesis therefore is supported. The

result is at Table 1.

Further tests found that there was insignificant difference in the

use of information contents, cultural values and creative strategies between

China and Taiwan (Table 2) and between US and Taiwan (Table 3).

Meanwhile, it showed that there was significant difference between China and

the US (Table 4).

CONCLUSION

All advertisements are found to be more informative. This

finding suggests that the high involvement nature of interactive medium is

closely related to the high level of information content in web pages. Internet

users appear to behave as active information seekers and it is logical to infer

that web advertisers are likely to include more information in their web

advertisements.

The information contents in web advertisements in China are

found to have a higher value than those in US and Taiwan. In US, people feel

less threatened by ambiguous situations. People are willing to take risks in life.

Conflicts and competition can be contained on the level of fair play and are

used constructively. In China, people tend to establish more formal rules,

reject deviant ideas and behavior, accept the possibility of absolute truths and

43

the attainment of unchallengeable expertise. People are concerned with

security in life. Ordinary citizens are incompetent, unlike the authorities.

Conflict and competition can unleash aggression and should therefore be

avoided. Taiwan is second in the frequency in using information contents. One

explanation may be the Taiwanese' fear of a military threat from mainland

China in the past which generally creates a desire to avoid uncertainty.

Advertising, as a form of social communication, is particularly

reflective of culture and its norms (Hong et al., 1987). As advertising reflects

cultural differences and there exists a clear difference between the US and

Chinese cultural patterns, advertising appeals use to communicate how their

products will satisfy customer needs should manifest such differences. For

example, individualistic cultural traits find themselves drawn into advertising

appeals and they become common themes found in US advertisements. It is

natural to predict that culturally-congruent appeals, such as those that

demonstrate collective or group benefits in China or those that illustrate

individual benefits in the USA, are more effective in promoting the products

or services in each country since such appeals should conform to the

prevailing cultural norms.

The individualism in US is higher than that of China and

Taiwan. It is consistent with the previous studies relating individualism to

the west and collectivism to the east. Work by Lodge and Vogel (1987)

recognizes that the major difference between the west and east lies in their

varying emphasis on individualism. Weber's study also linked Confucian ethic

and thus the east to the notion of collectivism. The Confucian ethic does not

advocate individualism. In China, people are less focused on differentiating

the individual from the group and therefore, put less emphasis on

44

self-actualization. This indicates that human ties leading to group, rather than

individual.

China is considered to be a country with a collectivistic culture.

As such, the Chinese society has historically focused on social interests and

collective actions, and de-emphasized personal goals and accomplishments

(Oh, 1976; Li, 1978). In sharp contrast to the US individualistic lifestyle and

resentment of conformity, the Chinese way of life emphasizes interdependence

and conformity. In China, harmony and conformity not only govern all

interpersonal relations, but also receive social and cultural approval (Hsu,

1981). Some researchers have observed that such differences reflect the

fundamental difference in cultural orientations between the two countries on

the collectivist-individual dimension (Ho, 1979).

The US is known for its "rugged individualism". The concept

of individualism is the belief that each person is an entity separate from others

and the group and, as such, is endowed with natural rights (Spence, 1985).

This means people in the US tend to think of themselves as "I" and tend to

classify themselves and each other by individual characteristics, rather than by

group membership. In contrast to cultures which are characterized by

self-sufficiency and interdependency, the American individualism means that

one is not only self-sufficient but that one must strive towards it as an ideal.

The individual constantly remind him/herself that he/she controls his/her own

destiny and does not need help from others (Hsu, 1983). Thus, individualism

is considered central to the American character (Spence, 1985), and American

values such as individual achievement and encouragement of the attainment

are rooted in individualism.

In Western societies where nuclear families are common,

45

loyalties and trust go far and beyond just the family unit. The members of

society in an individualistic society are prone to look after themselves rather

than to function on the basis of a shared loyalty to society. Thus the type of

society you grow up in and the type of values you are exposed to, do to some

extent nurture individualism or collectivism. Needless to say therefore that

where you have a society that honours a collective orientation, this

collectivism will exist both at home and at work.

China is a high context culture in which people are deeply

involved with others and information is widely shared (Hall, 1976). The

continuing dominance of the Communist Party, the existence of the party elites,

and the history of centralized decision making may have contributed to the

great concentration of power in China. Although the Chinese in both China

and Taiwan share the same traditional values, it is reasonable to assume that

the cultural characteristics and the hierarchical centralized command structure

of the Communist Party in China have been mutually reinforcing each other.

This has resulted in the placing of high value on social control. In fact, a

recent study using Hofstede's (1980) value scheme found greater power

distance in China than in Taiwan (Cheng and Chow, 1995).

The power distance is higher in China than that in Taiwan. In

China, superiors and subordinates consider each other as unequal; the

hierarchical system is felt to be based on some existential inequality; power is

the basic fact of society that antedates good or evil and where its legitimacy is

irrelevant. Indigenous organizations centralize power more and subordinates

are expected to be told what to do. Superiors are believed to be entitled to

privileges. This indicates that people in the Chinese countries accept the fact

that power is unevenly distributed in society and business.

46

However, in US, subordinates and superiors consider each

other as more equal; the hierarchical system is just an inequality of roles,

established for convenience and which may change depending on the

circumstances. Organizations have a tendency to become decentralized, with

flatter hierarchies and a limited number of supervisory personnel. Privileges

for the top ranks are essentially undesirable, and superiors are expected to be

accessible to their subordinates.

It was noted that emotional appeals are not used in web

advertisements of the US as often as those of China and Taiwan. Meanwhile,

neither logical reasoning nor comparison, a principal component of

low-context communication was found in China. The less frequent use of

argumentative presentations in China implied that a commonly accepted view,

i.e. emphasis on "soft sell" was sustained in the web advertisements.

Advertisements in low-context cultures tend to be more

informative (Lin, 1993), have more of a hard-sell approach (Mueller, 1987,

1992), use direct and confrontational appeals (Culter and Javalgi, 1992;

Miracle et al., 1992a, 1992b), have a more direct rhetorical style (Caillat and

Mueller, 1996), and stress breadth rather than depth brand image perceptions

(Roth, 1992). On the other hand, advertisements in high context cultures are

likely to be emotional (Biswas et al., 1992), have more of a soft-sell approach

(Culter and Javalgi, 1992; Johansson, 1994; Mueller, 1987, 1992), use indirect

and harmony-seeking appeals (Miracle et al., 1992a, b), and stress depth brand

image perceptions (Roth, 1992).

Individualistic cultures are generally low-context and

collectivist cultures are generally high-context (Hofstede, 1991; De Mooij,

1998). In highly individualistic cultures like US's informational advertising

47

messages are most likely, while in collectivist cultures, like Hong Kong,

consumers prefer more transformational advertising messages. Japanese, Arab

and Mediterranean cultures are considered as high-context due to their

extensive networks and close personal relationships. Low-context Americans,

German, Swiss and Scandinavians, on the other hand, require more context

specific information in their communications as their types of relationships do

not make this information inherent to the communication event itself. Teboul

et al. (1994) draw connections between Hall’s communication context and the

use of communication technologies. They raise questions about the ability and

satisfaction of persons from high and low context cultures to communicate

through non-visual media (i.e. email).

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH SUGGESTIONS

This study stressed on three key aspects of internet advertising:

information content, cultural values and creative strategies used in web

advertisements. These elements are considered basic components of

cross-cultural differences.

Additional attention should be paid to the following points.

First, a broader sample from a larger number of cultures should be obtained to

make the conclusions more comprehensive. As with small samples, the

statistical analysis undertaken may not detect statistically significant

differences, when in fact such differences may indeed exist in the population.

Thus, we should be fully aware of minimising the danger of type 2 error

(falsely accepting the null hypothesis) by presenting only those results at the

most stringent confidence levels of 95 per cent being the minimum.

Second, this investigation examined only a certain aspect of

web advertisements. Future research may include other dimensions of the web

48

pages so as to provide a clearer picture of the cross-cultural differences.

Finally, the study did not control for the classification of

products. Mueller (1991) pointed out that advertising contents are likely to be

influenced by the relative importance of the purchase decisions: product

involvement. The level of involvement is to a large extent determined by the

product type. Product type therefore may possibly be a moderating variable

that intervenes cross-cultural advertising communication. The findings of this

study indicate that the nature of the product affect the usage of the elements in

the three categories. A similar appeal for a personal product was preferred by

subjects from both an individualistic culture and a collectivistic culture. In the

case of a non-personal product, a culturally-congruent appeal was liked better.

If such findings are widely generalizable, it is probably advisable for

advertisers not to assume that culturally-congruent advertising appeals will

always work for many different products.

The implications of this study seem to be twofold. First, in

addition to understanding critical cultural differences, one should also realize

that there are factors which can determine the degree of success in employing

culturally-congruent advertising appeals. This potential inhibition effect in

using a culturally-congruent appeal due to the existence of extraneous

moderators should be kept in mind when introducing an advertising appeal

into a particular culture and when formulating advertising strategies across

markets. Second, the results also suggest that there can be situations where one

type of appeal can be successfully employed across different cultures.

Advertising standardization is based on the belief that needs and wants of

people are basically the same across different countries and that a carefully

conceived and executed appeal can reach consumers of every nation. There

49

may be implications for companies which want to standardize their global

advertising strategies and appeals.

50

Table 1: Summary of the Use of Information Contents, Cultural Values and Creative Strategies in Web

Advertisements in China, Taiwan and US

The Mean No of Information Content, Cultural Value & Creative Strategy

in China, Taiwan & US

Information

Content

Cultural Value

Creative Strategy

Total

China 11.3 3.5 15.1 29.9

Taiwan 8.7 6.7 10.8 26.2

US 6.2 12.4 6.3 24.9

Total 26.2 22.6 32.2 81

Degrees of freedom: 4

Chi-square = 10.0396423467029

p is less than or equal to 0.05.

The distribution is significant.

51

Table 2: The Use of Information Contents, Cultural Values and Creative Strategies in Web Advertisements in China

and Taiwan

The Mean No of Information Contents, Cultural Value & Creative Strategy

in China & Taiwan

Information

Content Culture Value

Creative Strategy

Total

China 11.3 3.5 15.1 29.9

Taiwan 8.7 6.7 10.8 26.2

Total 20 10.2 25.9 56.1

Degrees of freedom: 2

Chi-square = 1.8197081824469

For significance at the .05 level, chi-square should be greater than or equal to 5.99.

The distribution is not significant.

p is less than or equal to 1.

52

Table 3: The Use of Information Contents, Cultural Values and Creative Strategies in Web Advertisements in Taiwan

and US

The Mean No of Information Contents, Cultural Value & Creative Strategy

in Taiwan & US

Information

Content Culture Value

Creative Strategy

Total

Taiwan 8.7 6.7 10.8 26.2

US 6.2 12.4 6.3 24.9

Total 14.9 19.1 17.1 51.1

Degrees of freedom: 2

Chi-square = 3.27376714023408

For significance at the .05 level, chi-square should be greater than or equal to 5.99.

The distribution is not significant.

p is less than or equal to 0.20.

53

Table 4: The Use of Information Contents, Cultural Values and Creative Strategies in Web Advertisements in China

and US

The Mean No of Information Contents, Cultural Value & Creative Strategy in China & US

Information

Content Culture Value

Creative Strategy

Total

China 11.3 3.5 15.1 29.9

US 6.2 12.4 6.3 24.9

Total 17.5 15.9 21.4 54.8

Degrees of freedom: 2

Chi-square = 9.71138017371851

p is less than or equal to 0.01.

The distribution is significant.

54

General Motors Corporation (US)

Packaging

Adventure

Beauty

Emotional Appeal Performance

Component

Guarante

Packaging

Component

Special Offer

56

General Electric (Taiwan)

Brand Familiarization

Packaging

Economy

Quality

Brand Familiarization

New Idea

Emotional Appeal

57

Companies & Product Categories Surveyed

Product Category Company Electronic & Computer Microsoft, 3M, Dell, IBM, HP, Motorola Automobile Ford Motors, General Motors Industrial products General Electric, Dow Chemical, Caterpillars Health care P&G, Johnson & Johnson Banking & Finance Citigroup Inc. Bank of America, Morgan

Stanley Insurance AIG, CIGNA Food & Drink Coca Cola, McDonald

Websites Surveyed

China Taiwan US HP www.welcome.hp.com/

country/cn www.hp.com.tw www.hp.com

Dell www.shop.dell.com.cn www.oc.com.tw www.dell.com

Microsoft www.microsoft.com/china

www.microsoft.com.tw www.microsoft.com

3M www. 3m.com/intl/cn www.3m.com.tw www.3m.com

IBM www.ibm.com.cn www.ibm.com.tw www.ibm.com

Motorola www.motorola.com.cn www.motorola.com.tw www.motorola.com

P&G www.pg.com.cn www.pgtaiwan.com.tw www.pg.com

Johnsons & Johnsons

www.jnj.com.cn www.jnj.com.tw www.johnsonsbaby.com

Citigroup www.citibank.com.cn www.citibank.com.tw www.citibank.com/us

AIG www.aig.com.cn www.aig.com.tw www.aig.com

CIGNA www.gehealthcare.com/cnzh

www.cigna.com.tw www.cigna.com

Morgan Stanley

www.morganstanleychina.com

www.morganstanley.com.tw

www.morganstanley.com

Dow www.chemport.ipe.ac.cn

www.e-safety.com.tw www.dow.com

Caterpillar www.zhongguo.cat.com

www.caterpillar.com.tw

www.cat.com

58

General Motors

www.gmchina.com www.ge-taiwan.com www.gm.com

Coca-Cola www.coca-cola.com.cn

www.coca-cola.com.tw

www.coca-cola.com

McDonald www.mcdonald.com.cn

www.mcd.com.tw www.mcdonald.com

59

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