Collectivist and Individualist Influences on Website Design in South Korea and the U.S.: A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis

Abstract

When websites are constructed to appeal to various cultures, designers must ensure that those sites are easily navigated by members of those various cultures. The integration of design features into company-sponsored websites may differ between cultures with different communicative predispositions. This content analysis examines collectivist and individualist cultural influences on the design of organizational websites originating in South Korea and the U.S., and particularly how temporal and communication differences are revealed through the decisions designers make to use certain kinds of interactivity and rich media tools. Findings confirm that South Korean websites are more likely than U.S. websites to conform to polychronic time-management tendencies and preferences for high-context communication. Implications for both researchers and Internet marketing communications managers are discussed. © 2009 International Communication Association.