Intercultural Issues in Online Communication

In these times of rapid increase of internet usage, the question arises for multinational companies (MNCs) whether to standardise or adapt their internet presence to different cultural groupings or even subcultures. The authors attempted to address this problem with an approach relatively new up to now. Global players have already realised their opportunities to add value to their company by setting up a high quality internet performance and a properly designed website. This raises the question whether these companies could use their basic home country website for all cultures or if any adaptation should be conducted. If so, it has to be determined on the one hand to what degree an adaptation still aligns with the corporate identity or on the other hand if the companies should rather respect the culture of the respective market they are operating in. The overall target of this research is therefore to assist MNCs by producing recommendations concerning the promotion of products and services for a particular transnational consumer group. Therefore, country-specific websites of companies rooted in different cultural origins are selected for this research, namely EgyptAir, Mercedes-Benz and SonyEricsson. This publication targets at companies seeking to develop a foreign market in particular the Arab cultural area. Moreover, it is aimed to create an awareness for differences in consumer behaviour and in the resulting opportunities global companies are faced with.