Using localised websites across cultures

Transcription

1 Using localised websites across cultures Are localised websites culturally adaptable? Author: Christina Jacobsen Cand.ling.merc. English IMK & PR School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University Department of Business Communication October 2013 Supervisor: Carmen Heine Number of characters (excl. blanks): 168,216

2 Table of contents 1. Introduction Problem statement Method and empirical data Delimitation Scientific background Theoretical fundament Communication theory The SPA-model The IMC-model Intercultural communication Measurements on culture differences Hofstede Web communication The website in a communicative perspective Websites in an intercultural perspective Internationalisation, globalisation and localisation Standardised, localised and culturally adapted websites Translation for the web Cultural adaption of websites Hofstede s cultural value index applied on web communication Non-verbal aspects of website localisation Case Background The communicative situation What is Danish design and Scandinavian design? Hofstede on DEN, UK and GER cultural values The websites in the genre perspective The analysis RigTig by Stelton The homepage The company profile website The product profile website rep Erik bagger The homepage... 55

3 The company profile website The product profile website rep The product profile website rep Rosendahl The homepage The company profile website The product profile website The product profile website rep Findings RigTig by Stelton Erik bagger Rosendahl Summary The questionnaire Theoretical approach RigTig by Stelton Erik bagger Rosendahl Summary Discussion RigTig by Stelton Erik bagger Rosendahl Comparison of findings Conclusion References... 95

4 List of tables and figures Figure 1: The SPA communication model... 8 Figure 2: The IMC-model Figure 3: Context in the IMC-model. How culture relates to the situational context Figure 4: The "onion diagram" Figure 5: Aspects of web localisation, What web localisation entails Figure 6: The five fields of website localisation Figure 7: A communication model on the cultural adaption of localised websites Table 1: The five stages of website localisation Table 2: The five fields of website localisation Table 3: The meaning of selected colours in Scandinavia, the UK and Germany Table 4: Denmark, United Kingdom and Germany index scores Table 5: Score difference between the native Danish culture and the UK and Germany respectively 43 Table 6: The cultural tendencies of the UK and Germany compared to the Danish values Table 7: The cultural values on the homepage of RigTig by Stelton Table 8: The cultural values on the company profile website of RigTig by Stelton Table 9: The cultural values on the product website of RigTig by Stelton Table 10: The cultural values on the homepage of erik bagger Table 11: The cultural values on the company profile website of erik bagger Table 12: The cultural values on the product profile website of erik bagger rep Table 13: The cultural values on the product profile website of erik bagger rep Table 14: The cultural values on the homepage of Rosendahl Table 15: The cultural values on the company profile website of Rosendahl Table 16: The cultural values on the product profile website of Rosendahl part Table 17: The cultural values on the product profile website of Rosendahl rep Screenshot 1: The homepage of RigTig by Stelton (DEN) Screenshot 2: The company profile website of RigTig by Stelton (DEN) Screenshot 3: The product profile website of RigTig by Stelton rep. 1 (DEN) Screenshot 4: The homepage of erik bagger part 1 (DEN) Screenshot 5: The homepage of erik bagger part 2 (DEN) Screenshot 6: The company profile website of erik bagger (DEN) Screenshot 7: The product profile website of erik bagger rep. 1 (DEN) Screenshot 8: The product profile website of erik bagger rep. 2 (DEN) Screenshot 9: The homepage of Rosendahl - part 1 (DEN) Screenshot 10: The homepage of Rosendahl - part 2 (DEN) Screenshot 11: The homepage of Rosendahl - part 3 (DEN) Screenshot 12: The company profile website of Rosendahl - part 1 (DEN) Screenshot 13: The company profile website of Rosendahl - part 2 (DEN) Screenshot 14: The product profile website of Rosendahl (DEN) Screenshot 15: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 1 (DEN) Screenshot 16: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 2 (DEN) Screenshot 17: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 3 (DEN) Screenshot 18: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 4 (DEN)... 77

5 Abstract As websites have become an important intercultural communication platform for companies, there are several ways for the localisation websites. While it is generally suggested that only culturally customised websites are able to successfully communicate to target audience of foreign cultures, many companies opt for offering localised websites, which are translations of a domestic website. This thesis investigates if localised websites bear the cultural values of the sender and if localised websites can be yet adapted to the culturally influenced preferences of foreign target audiences. For answering these questions, selected websites that represented the homepage, the company profile and the product profile of Danish, English and German localised websites of three Danish companies within the tableware branch were analysed for their cultural elements. As all companies defined their products as Danish design or Scandinavian design, it was assumed that the companies would be especially experienced and aware of communicating cultural values across cultures. In addition, a questionnaire investigated the intercultural web communication approaches of the companies of the analysed websites. The theoretical part of the thesis focussed on communication theories and the role of culture and Hofstede s cultural value index was presented as a tool for measuring cultural differences. Further, the issue of intercultural web communication was elaborated and it was focussed how websites can be adapted to the cultural preferences. Here, Hofstede s cultural value served to explain culturally related preferences in web communication. The practical part of the thesis accounted for the communicative situation of the selected websites. Here, Hofstede s classification of the Danish, British and German cultures were combined to account for culturally related preferences in regards to web communication. The analysis part was introduced by a presentation of the individual companies and their websites. First, the Danish websites were analysed for their cultural elements, and then the English and German websites were analysed for differing cultural values. The results of the individual analyses were then presented for the individual companies, which accounted for the cultural values of the Danish website and whether the English and German websites were culturally adapted to the British and German cultures respectively. The analyses showed that the Danish versions of the localised websites had a great tendency to reflect Danish cultural values. Although the English and German websites included some cultural adaptions, these could not clearly be related to British and German cultural values respectively; while

6 the English websites were moderately adapted, the German websites rarely accounted for the German cultural values. The analyses showed that it is possible to culturally adapt localised websites, although it appeared that the cultural adaptions on the analysed websites were not explicitly suitable for the targeted cultures. In addition to the website analysis, a questionnaire was presented which was designed to obtain data about the intercultural web communication approach of companies of the analysed websites. The questionnaires were answered by representatives of the companies. The questionnaire allowed to explain that the domestic localised websites which overall accounted for Danish cultural values were commonly created by persons with a native Danish heritage. It appeared that a low priority of choosing native English or German translators for the adaption of the localised websites can be related to localised websites that generally do not meet the cultural preferences of the target audiences. In regards to the intercultural awareness of the companies, the questionnaire indicated that the English websites were not considered to target a British audience, but a broad rather a broad international audience. This information indicated that the companies regard the English language as a culturally neutral communication tool and not as an indicator for culturally adapted content. On the other hand, the German language was only seen in relation to a native German audience. Number of characters excl. blanks: 3610

7 Using localised websites across cultures: Are localised websites culturally adaptable? 1. Introduction Websites have become an important communication medium in business communication. The worldwide availability of the internet allows companies to use their website as portal for both domestic and international users, which makes the website an important platform for intercultural communication. According to communication theories, successful intercultural communication situations demand that the sender adapts his message to the cultural needs and values of the receiver, as the same message in a uniform style does not produce the same meaning in every country (Nacar & Burnaz, 2011, p. 274). The role of the website in a communicative perspective is manifold. While it can be seen as a culturally neutral medium for transmitting messages, it can also be seen as genre and text. In this perspective, websites, their content, visual and functional appearance, communicate cultural values, and hence websites will be influenced by the cultural heritage of their creators (Zhao et al., 2003, p. 81). However, it appears that many companies communicate to their international consumers through localised websites, which are translated versions of a domestic website, instead of culturally customised websites, which are completely adapted to the target culture (Singh et al., 2005, p. 10). Assuming that localised websites are influenced by the cultural heritage of their creators and exclude the option for cultural adaptions, while these at the same time are frequently used as communication platform for communicating across cultures, it shall be investigated if localised websites are yet able to include differing cultural approaches which would demonstrate that these are suitable as intercultural communication tools. This issue shall be exemplified by an analysis of the localised websites of three Danish companies that market their products by a highly culturally related term ( Danish design or Scandinavian design ), as it is assumed that these are especially experienced and sensitive in intercultural communicative situations. As recent localisation studies found Hofstede s cultural value index highly applicable to relate communicative preferences on websites to certain cultural values, his theory will P a g e 1 101

8 serve to explain whether the domestic Danish websites, as source for other localised websites, particularly represent the cultural preferences of the Danish culture and if the localised English and German language versions have been culturally adapted to the preferences of a British and German target audience respectively (cf. Schäler (2008), Singh (2011), Singh et al (2005), Marcus et al (2000), Ahmed et al (2008) and Thatcher et al. (2007)). In a more distant perspective, this investigation shall answer whether the communicative approach of these localised websites is oriented towards the native culture of the sender and if localised websites reflect the culture of the receiver, or if the localised websites account for a mix of cultural approaches. In addition, a questionnaire shall investigate the motives behind the analysed cultural approaches of the websites Problem statement Based on the assumption that localised websites bear a certain cultural heritage and avoid cultural adaptions, although these are frequently used for intercultural communication purposes, This thesis investigates if the domestic localised websites of three Danish companies account for the Danish cultural website preferences according to Hofstede s cultural value index, and if the German and English websites have been culturally adapted to suit the website preferences of the German and British cultures respectively Method and empirical data The thesis will be introduced by a theoretical fundament in paragraph 2, which focusses on communication in a general, intercultural and web-based perspective. First, a general approach of communication theories, exemplified by the comprehensive SPA (Sprog på arbejde) communication model and the marketing oriented IMC (International market communication) communication model, will be given. Second, intercultural communication will be focussed, and the complexity of culture will be highlighted. In this connection, it will be discussed how culture and cultural differences can be measured, and here, Hofstede s cultural value index will be presented. Third, web-based communication will be focussed, and it will be elaborated how a websites can be interpreted in a communicative perspective. In this connection, it will be focussed how websites are used for intercultural communication purposes. In addition, the role of translation for the web will be briefly discussed. Hereafter, it will be accounted for the cultural adaption of P a g e 2 101

9 websites, and how Hofstede s cultural value index can be related to culturally related website preferences. In this connection, alternative non-verbal aspects of website localisation shall be briefly named. After the theoretical part, the analysis section in paragraph 3 will be introduced. Here, the localised websites of three Danish companies of the tableware branch that market their products as Danish or Scandinavian design will be analysed for their cultural approach in their Danish, English and German language versions respectively. First, it will be accounted for the communicative situation. Then, the terms Danish design and Scandinavian design will be briefly elaborated, as these account for the referent of the case. Hereafter, the cultural context of the communicative situation will be described by presenting and comparing Hofstede s cultural values of Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany as these are assumed to form the cultural background for the sender and the receivers respectively. Finally, it will be briefly accounted for the genre approach of the selected case. The analysis of the selected company websites will be arranged by company and will be introduced by a brief description of the companies. The analysis will first offer a comprehensive description of the individual websites and will then account for the cultural approaches of the domestic Danish website. Then, it will be analysed if the German and English versions differ in their cultural approaches. The cultural approaches will be described by relating the available website elements in accordance to Hofstede s cultural values, and these will be categorised by four different main areas of website localisation, which were identified and described in the theoretical part. The analysed cultural values of the websites will then be compared to the cultural values of the Danish, British and German cultures. In this way, it will be elaborated whether the Danish website accounts for typically Danish website preferences, and if the English and German websites are adapted to the website preferences of British and German receivers. Finally, common and individual preferences of the website analyses will be discussed. As a supplement to the theoretical investigation, a questionnaire that has been answered by representatives of the companies whose websites have been analysed, will be presented in paragraph 4. The questionnaire investigates if the companies are aware of intercultural web communication issues, and in this way, the questionnaire seeks to answer the question whether the analysed cultural approaches of the websites were intended or not. First, the individual answers will be presented and it will be accounted for eventual common statements. Finally, the statements of the questionnaire will be related to the results of the website analysis. First, the results of the website analysis and the questionnaire will be discussed for the individual companies. Finally, common approaches will be elaborated and general tendencies will be discussed. P a g e 3 101

10 1.3. Delimitation The websites that shall be investigated in this thesis are chosen due to their localised appearance in their Danish, English and German language versions. All companies are located in Denmark, belong to the tableware industry and market their products as Danish and/or Scandinavian design respectively. The size of the company as well as their national and international market position are not considered. The English and German websites are only related to cultural values of the United Kingdom and Germany respectively, although other countries with English and German official languages might have been considered as potential target cultures. Due to the limited extend of this thesis, it was not possible to obtain data about the actual perception of recipients of the targeted markets. Instead, this thesis relies on the cultural description of Hofstede s cultural value index, as his cultural theory allowed to compare the selected nations as such. This thesis especially focusses the role of the sender in the intercultural communicative situation. Therefore, the theoretical findings of the website analysis are extended by a questionnaire which researches the sender s practical approach of web communication. For offering a detailed description of the case of this thesis, the theoretical findings of the website analysis and the questionnaire follow a qualitative approach. Regarding the website analysis, this means that only three company websites have been chosen and that not the entire websites will be analysed. Instead, certain website types will be selected to account for general tendencies of the websites cultural approach. Further, the analysis will only focus on content that can be interpreted culturally. The analysis will not focus on translation related communicative adaptions, such as the quality of language or general linguistic features of the texts. Likewise, the technical realisations of website localisation will not be considered Scientific background This thesis follows an inductive approach, accounting from specific observations to broader generalisations. Thus, scientific knowledge is obtained through testing and systemising of empirical data. Further, this thesis accounts for a hermeneutic approach, which seeks to obtain knowledge through the systematic interpretations of actions or texts (Baran & Davis, 2012, p. 13). Looking for hidden or deep meaning in people s interpretation of different symbol systems, as for example in media texts, P a g e 4 101

11 hermeneutics can be categorised as interpretive theory approach. In this thesis, it will be interpreted how the content of localised appearing websites include cultural elements and how these reflect the cultural values of the intended targeted audiences. In this relation, the dialectic process of this thesis also follows the hermeneutic circle, which asserts that the part (i.e. the text or elements of the text) can only be understood from the whole (i.e. the cultural context), while the whole, in turn, can only be understood from its parts ( (Prasad A., 2002) as cited in (Prasad P., 2005, p. 34f)). Thus, the individual analyses outcomes of the three company websites are interpreted and understood in relation to each other. The analyses therefore offer data for a deeper understanding of the entire investigated issue. This includes, that the smallest cultural elements of the websites are understood in terms of a large cultural context (cf. (Cohen M. Z., 2000, p. 72ff). The interpretive nature of hermeneutics also implies that the outcome of the research is influenced by the subjective knowledge and the cultural context of its interpreter. However, I will seek to reduce the present subjectivity by constantly offering the reader theoretically founded background knowledge for reflecting on the issue of this thesis. Although this thesis is led by a hermeneutic objective, it is inspired by a positivistic approach, as a clear, precise and constructive investigation of a given issue shall contribute positively in a societal manner. In the positivistic perspective, reality is not simple and unchangeable but complex and thus, theories that seek to investigate elements of reality need to embrace this complexity (Langergaard et al., 2006, p. 96ff). In this thesis, there will be used several theoretical approaches in order to form complex theoretical approaches. For instance, theoretical approaches of communication will viewed in an intercultural perspective and this knowledge will be used to discuss the role of intercultural aspects in terms of web communication. Further, theories on website localisation will be combined with general cultural theories for then being able to create a model for analysing the cultural approaches on websites. Finally, the theoretical findings of this thesis will be supported by empirical data which is obtained through a questionnaire. On the first view, this method accounts for a quantitative approach, as the questionnaire includes standardised questions which shall be answered by all respondents. However, the overall approach is qualitative: First, the three selected participants function as representatives of the companies whose websites have been analysed. Second, the questions have been formulated as open questions, offering the respondents to answer without presented or implied choices. As this thesis in general, the questionnaire follows an inductive approach, which implies that the obtained issue of intercultural communication issues on the web, implied by localised websites, is the source for the questionnaire. Further, the questionnaire follows a naturalistic inquiry, as there is no P a g e 5 101

12 attempt to manipulate the selected participants for the purpose of evaluation. Relying on a naturalistic inquiry, the collection of qualitative data combined with an inductive approach, the questionnaire can be categorised as exploratory evaluation research. It seeks to understand the outcomes, and to consider which outcomes may be important to identify key variables, which then could be further researched by quantitative methods (Patton, 1987, p. 37). Following a holistic approach, the questionnaire is interpreted as a qualitative method to understand situations as a whole (Patton, 1987, p. 17f). In this perspective, it is assumed that the description and understanding of an issue s social and political context is essential for the overall understanding of the given issue. By focussing on the complexity of a situation, the holistic perspective avoids to offer an evaluation, which is isolated, unrelated and out-of-context. Thus, the questionnaire serves as a supplement to the results of the theoretical analysis. P a g e 6 101

13 2. Theoretical fundament The content of the following section will build the theoretical fundament of the thesis. First, I will give an overview of the terms culture and intercultural communication. In this connection, I will investigate how cultural differences can be measured and compared. Hereafter, I will focus on web communication and how websites can be culturally adapted. In this connection, I will examine the concepts of globalisation, glocalisation and localisation. I will then look on the website as a genre for investigating common structures of websites Communication theory The following section will give an overview of communication theories, by accounting for a general communication model (the SPA-model) and a communication model on international market communication (IMC-model). The focussing on general communication models shall illustrate the role of culture, and this basic knowledge shall later be used to account for intercultural communication issues on websites The SPA-model The Sprog på arbejde (SPA) communication model has been created to illustrate relations and connections between text, message, sender and receiver in a dynamic situational perspective of communication and can therefore be categorised as a relational communication model. It was inspired by other relational oriented communication models, such as from Bühler, Jakobsen, Henriksen and Togeby, and in this way, the SPA-model unites the elements of a range of popular communication models and functions hence as a representative communication model. (Ditlevsen et al., 2007, p. 62f) The central element in the model is the text, as all acts of communication are made through or via texts (Ditlevsen et al., 2007, p. 34). The Latin derivation of the word text, textere or textum which means (to) weave, highlights the importance of the cohesion of a text s elements. Regarding a text as sign, in a semiotic perspective the coherence of a text can explained from a syntactic, semantic and pragmatic perspective, which account for the relation between signs, the relation between sign content and sign expression and the relation between signs and their interpreters. P a g e 7 101

14 Regarding a text as a tool for reaching a certain objective, a text can also be said to bear certain functions, which the German linguist Bühler categorised as expressive, appellative and informative ( (Bühler, 1934/1982) as cited in (Ditlevsen et al., 2007, p. 39f)). These three functions are directly related to the actors of the communicative situation, namely the sender, the receiver and the referent. Due to this connection, all of the three function will always be present in any communicative situation, and this linkage is has been highlighted by connecting lines in the SPAmodel. Due to their direct relation to the actors of the text, all three functions will always be present in any text (though some functions will be dominating). Context Genre Sender Text Receiver Referent Figure 1: The SPA communication model SOURCE: Ditlevsen et al, 2007, p. 34 The text is surrounded by the context, which refers to all elements that surround the communicative situation and that have an influence on the text. The three main elements, which have a dominant influence on the text in the communication process are the sender, the receiver and the referent. To the left, there is the sender. He is the initiator of the text, and he is hence responsible for the formation of the text. To the right, there is the receiver of the text. He is the part that is influenced the most by the text, as he registers, processes and retains the text. While a first view on the model would suggest that there is only one receiver, it is crucial to distinguish between the intended and actual receiver, which might not always correlate. P a g e 8 101

15 Besides the sender and the receiver, also the referent plays an elementary role in the communication model. Representing the element to which the text refers, the referent is a passive element in the production and reception process. Other elements of the context that influence the communicate situation, but which are not explicitly highlighted in the model are the influences of time, space and persons. In addition, the context is influenced by factors of text publicity, status differences between sender and receiver as well as presuppositions. In this model, also the medium is counted as part of the context. Finally, the role of genre, which Bathia defines as an instance of a successful achievement of a specific communicative purpose using conventionalized knowledge of linguistic and discoursal resources (Bathia, 1993, p. 16) is highlighted. In the communicative situation of the SPA-model, genre is surrounded by striped lines for highlighting that it unites all elements of the communication model; the text, the three actors and the context. Thus, genre also has an important influence on the structure and actual appearance of a text The IMC-model The international market communication (IMC) model has been created by Frandsen et al and is a communication model which focusses on business communication (Frandsen et al., 2005, p. 51ff). Although the model on the first view seems to include the same elements as in the SPA-model, there are some major differences, which allow to view the action of communication from a more culturally focused perspective. First, the model places the sender as the initiator of the text, which is explicitly highlighted by the production process. In this way, the model also indirectly differs between text-internal and textexternal senders or even primary and secondary senders, as these can be counted as actively influencing the production process of the text. In the same way, the model places the receiver as the actor that is responsible for the reception of a text, and therefore receivers can be categorised as text-internal and text-external as well as primary and secondary in nature. The text is placed as central element in the model that is structured by rhetoric strategies, which are to a certain degree influenced by genre, media as well as context and culture. In the IMC-model, the referent is highlighted as the product or brand, and its denotative and connotative meanings. P a g e 9 101

16 CONTEXT / CULTURE MEDIA GENRE Sender PRODUCTION (Code) TEXT (Rhetoric strategies) Referent RECEPTION Receiver Figure 2: The IMC-model SOURCE: Frandsen et al, 2005, p. 52 In comparison to the SPA-model, the context element in the IMC-model has been supplemented by the element of culture. In this way, the model distinguishes between the situational context and culture, which influences the situational context (see Figure 3). Culture Situational context Figure 3: Context in the IMC-model. How culture relates to the situational context SOURCE: Frandsen et al, 2005, p. 64 The IMC-model illustrates that context and culture have an influence on the choice of medium which in turn influences the genre. In this way, the model emphasises that the medium functions as link between context/culture and genre, as it is argued that the media will have an influence on the communicative characteristic of the text. In turn, genre is not only influenced by the medium, but P a g e

17 plays an own active part by influencing the text. This activity is explicitly named as coding, referring to how signs are arranged in order to create meaning, and hence coding influences text production and text reception. As the use and perception of codes are culturally influenced, the issue of coding becomes especially interesting in an intercultural perspective, as it bears the potential to imply misperceptions between two different cultures. The following section will therefore focus on the issue of intercultural communication; what culture implies and practical methods for understanding cultural differences Intercultural communication Viewing communication as a process of sharing meanings, intercultural communication occurs when the people that create shared meanings have different cultural perspectives and values (Sadri & Flammia, 2011, p. 10). In other words, any communication between two persons that do not share the same cultural background can be described as an act of intercultural communication. As culture shapes a certain group s shared attitude of what is perceived as normal and appropriate behaviour, it also affects common expectations to what is perceived as normal communication. In fact, the role of communication and culture are undeniably interlinked as it is argued that culture, its views and rules, are learned through communication (Wood, 2006, p. 160). Generally, culture is described as a construct but its definitions vary. In this way, culture can be described as a system of behaviours, meanings, mental characteristics, artefacts or a combination of those elements (Minkov & Hofstede, 2013, p. 16f). While it is argued that the preference for the definition of culture depends on an author s own cultural background (also known as an ethnocentric perspective), this cultural research of this thesis shall be based on a culture definition which is widely accepted among international scientists. For this reason, the definition of the cultural scientist Geert Hofstede will be used, who defines culture as the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. The element mind denotes an individual s thinking, feeling and acting, and hence the mind effects an individual s beliefs, attitudes and skills, which form the predominantly invisible part of culture, namely values. On the other hand, the visible aspects of culture are symbols, heroes, rituals (as illustrated in Figure 4): Symbols are defined as words, gestures, pictures, and objects that carry often complex meanings recognised as such only by those who share the culture (cited in (Hofstede, 2001, p. 10) referring to (Cohen M., 1974, p. 23) and (Griswold, 1994, p. 19)). P a g e

18 Heroes are defined as persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, who possess characteristics that are highly prized in a culture and thus serve as models for behaviour (Hofstede, 2001, p. 10). Rituals are defined as collective activities that are technically unnecessary to the achievement of desired ends, but that within a culture are considered socially essential, keeping the individual bound within the norms of the collectivity. (Hofstede, 2001, p. 10) Symbols Heroes Rituals Values Figure 4: The "onion diagram" SOURCE: Hofstede, 2001, p. 9 The relation between the visible and invisible elements of culture are illustrated in Figure 4, Hofstede s onion diagram. Here, the practices of symbols, heroes and rituals are visible for an outside observer, while the meaning of these actions are represented as values that are invisible for an outside observer. Depending on the variation of elements of this construction of culture, cultures differ from each other. Keeping in mind that Hofstede s culture definition denotes a group or category of people (see above), the term culture is often used in relation to describe national cultures. In this connection, the following section will account for the systematic description of cultural differences, with a special focus on Hofstede s cross-cultural index Measurements on culture differences For explaining cultural phenomena, various scientists have implied systems which allow to compare cultural behaviour and preferences. These studies are commonly based on quantitative researches whose results are then interpreted for making sense of the observed data. Most existing indexes that P a g e

19 are designed to be used for comparing phenomena across societies rely thus on the collection of comprehensive data from a high range of societies, which ensures the scientific reliability 1. (Minkov & Hofstede, 2013, p. 62ff) For this thesis, the well-known cultural index by Geert Hofstede has been chosen to explain cultural differences, as his work allows to compare cultural differences by nation Hofstede Geert Hofstede s cultural value indexes are among the most cited theories for the measurement of cultural differences. His study can be classified as directly across societies study, which assigns scores to societies on a variable. The societal indicators are then used for constructing dimensions of national culture (Minkov & Hofstede, 2013, p. 68). His indexes are based on a comprehensive attitude study on attitudes. From 1967 and 1973, Hofstede collected over 116,000 answered questionnaires by the employees in 20 language and 72 countries of the multinational corporation IBM (Hofstede, 2001, p. 41ff). Based on the analysis and results of the questionnaire, Hofstede accounted for four cultural dimensions on which cultures differ: Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism and masculinity vs. femininity (later also long-term vs. short-term orientation, which seeks to explain Eastern and Western cultural preferences. However, these shall not be focussed in this thesis). The power distance (PDI) dimension is an indicator of how people handle human inequality (Hofstede, 2001, p. 79). Hofstede defines power distance as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept power is distributed unequally (Hofstede, 2001, p. 98). In this way, the power-distance index illustrates to which degree people of a given society accept inequality, and serves as indicator of how power, prestige and wealth are distributed in a society (Jandt, 2007, p. 172f). Power distance is one of the cultural values which are learned at an early stage of life. For example, in high power distance cultures, children are expected to be obedient towards their parents whereas children in low power distance cultures are treaded as equal persons. Likewise, the relation between persons of low and high status are also represented in the overall society. In high power distance cultures, high status persons are more respected and tend to have a greater influence on issues than persons of a lower status. In this way, countries of high power distance cultures also tend to be more authoritarian. On the other hand, low 1 This approach can also be described as nomothetic approach, focussing to offer a generally applicable approach. P a g e

20 power distance cultures are characterised by a more equal distribution of power, prestige and wealth. (Jandt, 2007, p. 172ff) The uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) is defined as the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations (Hofstede, 2001, p. 161). This feeling is expressed through nervous stress and hence, persons that are influenced by a high uncertainty avoidance tend to demand written and unwritten rules for being able to predict the future. High uncertainty cultures can be described as active, aggressive, emotional, compulsive, security seeking and intolerant, while low uncertainty avoidance cultures are contemplative, less aggressive, unemotional, relaxed, accepting personal risks and relatively tolerant (Jandt, 2007, p. 174). The individualism index (IDV) describes how people define themselves and their relationship with others. In this way, individualism refers to a society in which the ties between individuals are loose: Everyone is expected to look after him/herself and her/his immediate family only. Thus, in these cultures the individual interest is more in focus than the interest of a group. On the other hand, collectivism refers to a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Thus, these cultures value the interests of the group over the interest of the individual. (Hofstede, 2001, p. 225). The masculinity index (MAS) describes how a culture s dominant values are assertive or nurturing by focussing on the social role of men varies across cultures (Jandt, 2007, p. 159ff). Masculinity stands for a society in which social gender roles are clearly distinct: Men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success; women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. Femininity stands for a society in which social gender roles overlap: Both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. (Hofstede, 2001, p. 297) Web communication During the last years, websites have evolved from being a communication supplement to a main communication element in business communication (cf. (Mast et al., 2005, p. 331)). The advantages of websites in businesses relations are that these account for a considerable low-cost communication channel with a worldwide availability, which offers the possibility to combine texts with entertaining multimedia elements. While these are generally created to target a certain target audience, the global reach of websites entails the potential of reaching audiences that were not initially intended. This is especially true for English websites, as these today still account for the dominant language on the web. However, the increasing amount of non-native speakers of English that are accessing the P a g e

21 World Wide Web challenges translators and web localisers, as there is an increasing demand for websites that are available in other languages than English. This is especially true for the European region, which on the one hand is a characterised by a large number of people with internet access; on the other hand, these people differ widely in their native language. On this basis, this section will first account for the website in a communicative perspective. Hereafter, it will be focussed how websites can be culturally adapted and the differences between standardised, localised and culturally adapted websites will explained. In addition, the role of translation for the web will be discussed. Then, it will be accounted how certain website preferences can be related to Hofstede s cultural value indexes. Finally, the issue of visual website localisation will be briefly named The website in a communicative perspective Regarding the communicative position of websites, websites can be seen as text, genre and medium (Askehave & Nielsen, 2004, p. 1). These perspectives shall be briefly introduced. First, the website can be viewed as a text. This perspective would place the website as the central element of a communicative situation, which can be best described by an analysis of the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics, as well as the language functions (cf. paragraph 2.1). In this connection, Cheung et al defined website functions, which he categorised as: Company overview/ info, products/services, what s new, search, employment opportunities, interactive feedback, customer service/assistance, index/directory, financial acts, links to other sites, online business services/ utilities, guest book, FAQ, and messages from the CEO (Cheung & Huang, 2002, p. 380f). While these functions shall not be further discussed, this view highlights that the website as a text does not only account for one text, but for a composition of several texts with different functions. Regarding a website as a medium, it can be said to be characterised by three main properties (Askehave et al., 2004, p. 11f). First, the web is characterised by intertextuality, as websites and their texts are surrounded by other texts by link connections. This relation of web texts is commonly known as hypertext, which can be seen in two perspectives: On the one hand, a content-oriented perspective sees hypertexts as a type of network by regarding it as a non-sequential text system. On the other hand, hypertext can be defined by analysing how they are accessed by the reader, focussing on the reading-process of hypertexts (Askehave et al., 2004, p. 13f). Second, the web is characterised by its global reach, which makes websites potentially immediately available for any internet user in the world, making messages available for intended but also unintended receivers. Third, the web is characterised by a certain immateriality, as web texts in comparison to texts in print P a g e

22 media can be changed within a short amount of time. Finally, the accessibility and virtuality of the web makes it hard to distinguish between the roles of the actual senders and receivers of a given message. Despite hypertexts, another important character of websites is its multimedianess, which has the ability to combine and unite different kinds of mediums (text, images, sound and animations) into one format (Askehave et al., 2004, p. ff). In addition, Okazaki highlights the importance of interactivity and classifies two major categories of interactivity, namely reciprocal communication and personalised choice and/or attention (Okazaki, 2004, p. 85). Accordingly, in a reciprocal communicative situation, the customers active responses are encouraged through ing, questionnaires or data registration device, while personalised choice/attention refers to the function that allows consumers to pinpoint the particular information that interests them, or to identify their problems and access trouble-shooting suggestions. As the focus of this thesis lies in the cultural adaption of websites, this focus on the interaction between sender and receiver of websites will not be further described. Viewing a website as a genre, the focus lies on the structuring of a text (here: website), and how this structuring is influenced by the sender, receiver and the context (cf. paragraph and Figure 1). Besides the purposive nature of genre, it is influenced by conventionalised verbal and visual rhetorical strategies. Thus, the construction of the website as a genre will highly depend on societal and cultural perceptions, and hence, a website has a great potential of misperception in regards to intercultural communication, as meaningful interpersonal can only appear when members of a culture jointly construct and maintain genres (cf. (Eggins, 2004, p. 50)). Generally, genre is analysed by three main constituents, namely a communicative purpose, a move structure and rhetorical strategies ( (Swales, 1990) as cited in (Askehave et al., 2004, p. 3f)). The communicative purpose shapes the genre. In regards to websites as a genre, a website s receiver (a user) would have certain expectations towards the layout and content of a website. In this connection, Cheung et al identified four major business purposes of websites, namely general publicity, customer support, online information exchange and www sales (Cheung & Huang, 2002, p. 380). Move structure account for the rhetorical moves which give genre its characteristic cognitive structure. In this way, every move serves a typical communicative intention, which in turn are realised by verbal and non-verbal rhetorical strategies (Bathia, 1993, p. 30) (cf. (Askehave et al., 2004, p. 17ff). Despite conventionalised structures of certain moves, it appears that a website s moves are not fixed but rather flexible in regards to their order, and likewise, Askehave et al state P a g e

23 the website genre exploits the entire spectrum of rhetorical creativity (Askehave et al., 2004, pp. 5f, 24). In connection with rhetorical strategies, register should be named as it describes the variety of language (syntax) that is influenced by the characteristics of the situation in which it is used. It can be analysed by the dimensions of field, tenor and mode (Collins & Hollo, 2000, p. 259); Field refers to what a text (here: the website) is about and hence often relates to lexis, the language used. Tenor refers to the social relationship between the interactants. Mode refers to the possibilities of immediate feedback between interactants. (Andersen, 2012, p. 9)appendix 1. However, as this thesis is focussed on the communicated cultural values of localised websites and not on the linguistic structure, register will not be further focussed. In any way, the interpretation of the website s role in a communicative situation is a complex issue, as all three functions are applicable to any communicative context. Relating to the IMC-model, a website can therefore account for a text, as the central element in a communicative situation which is influenced by all present factors, or as part of the context, namely as media and genre which function as influencer on the central text element (cf. Figure 2: The IMC-model). In any perspective, a website will be culturally influenced, as culture influences the context which in turn surrounds all elements in a given communicative situation. In this thesis, websites will be regarded in their genre and text perspective, as these are culturally influenced. In this way, websites will be focussed in a genre perspective, as it is assumed that a website s structural and rhetorical realisation is culturally influenced, and at the same time, this thesis will mainly focus the website as a text, as the culturally influenced structural and rhetorical approaches are realised here Websites in an intercultural perspective Due to the internet s global reach, many companies are using websites for communicating to international audiences for e.g. attracting new potential customers. Recognising the cultural differences of their consumers, there are various options for companies for adapting their products and communication to the needs of customers of a foreign culture Internationalisation, globalisation and localisation When targeting customers of foreign cultures, businesses have several options to reach their new customers. The very concept of extending the trade of a product or service outside the domestic market is commonly known as internationalisation, which is defined as the process of generalising a product P a g e

24 so that it can handle multiple languages and cultural conventions without the need for re-design (The Localization Industry Standards Association as cited in (Pym, 2006, p. 2)). It is important to notice that the targeting of a new audience has been planned, but that the communication process is mainly based on translation, which generally is considered as source-text orientated approach with only little focus on the actual cultural needs of the target audience (Pym, 2010, p. 125). Eventually, internationalisation becomes a part of globalisation (often abbreviated as g11n ) which is the process of making a concept/ process/ product acceptable and usable the world over through internationalisation and localisation (Gouadec, 2007, p. 39). Localisation (often abbreviated as L10n ) is a part of globalisation and refers to the process that makes a product linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country / region and language) where it will be used and sold and includes in terms of website localisation technical, visual, and textual modifications (Localization Industry Standards Association (Pym, 2006, p. 2)) (Yunker, 2002, p. 17). Other authors describe a successfully localised product or service as one that through its culturally and linguistically adaption appears to have been developed within the targeted local culture (Cyr et al., 2004, p. 1199) (Schäler, 2008, para. 3). In either way, a successful localisation process will be characterised by its thorough knowledge of the selected target audience and the ability to use communicative channels (media) for reaching this audience. Localisation is therefore, although it often perceived as new phenomena within the marketing area, a well-known principle of adapting foreign ideas and practices to other cultures 2. The relation between the concepts of globalisation, internationalisation, localisation and translation are also known as GILT, which Pym describes as: Within a company that has been globalized, products are internationalized so they can then be localized quickly and simultaneously, and part of that localization process is translation. (Pym, 2010, p. 125) Finally, a recent term in regards to intercultural and transnational activities in marketing relations is glocalisation which is a combination of the terms globalisation and localisation and refers to the impact of global issues, trends, ideas and events on the local environment and vice versa (Douglas & Mills, 2004). In terms of web communication, it has been argued that glocalisation refers to the consistency of underlying themes, structures, strategy and templates in the adapted approach, but there is a local look and feel (Sutikno & Cheng, 2012, p. 60). In either way, regarding glocalisation as a factual influence for intercultural web communication, the senders should not only concentrate to adapt the language of their web content, but should consider if and how their target locale has been 2 For instance, Christianity can be named as one of the oldest successful localisation processes; originating in the Middle East, it has been spread across the world. P a g e

25 influenced in regards to the issue the intended message Standardised, localised and culturally adapted websites Being accessible to a broad international audience, the web as such has been argued to be an optimal tool for cross-cultural marketers, as it is possible to create standardised and localised culture specific content (Luna et al., 2002, p. 399). Therefore, websites are commonly used by businesses as part of the concepts of internationalisation, globalisation, localisation and glocalisation. As internationalisation and globalisation mostly function as referral to the description of greater superordinate business processes, the linguistic and cultural adaption principles of localisation are commonly used to describe the linguistic and cultural adaption of websites. Hence, Singh defines website localisation as the process of adapting websites in accordance with linguistic, cultural, technical, functional, legal, and other locale-specific requirements of the target market (Singh, 2011, p. 7). Thus, culturally adapted websites are able to provide the visitor with culturally appropriate content which corresponds to his values, heroes and rituals. (Luna et al., 2002, p. 399) In general, domestic websites are taken as source for measuring the extent to which a local website differs from the original counterpart. It is then determined whether a local website can be classified as a standardised website, which is closely related to their source website, as a localised website which is a translation of a source website or a culturally customised website, which is individually designed to satisfy the cultural needs of its target group. Table 1 illustrates Singh and Pereira s categorisation of the five different stages of localisation of websites, which take a domestic website as source for other local websites: Standardised websites Semi-localised websites Localised websites Highly localised websites Culturally customised websites Table 1: The five stages of website localisation SOURCE: Singh et al, 2005, p.10ff The same web content for domestic as well as international users. (The company has not chosen to communicate to their international consumer in terms of translation, internationalisation or localisation) Appear standardised but provide their international users with contact information about foreign subsidiaries Offer international users some country-specific web content which has not been adapted but translated from the source text Include country-specific information such as time and date, postcodes and number formats Design reflects a complete immersion in the culture of the target market. Websites include cultural adaption in respect to the local culture s perception, symbolism and behaviour P a g e

26 Overall, Table 1 highlights that website localisation is appears through the creation of relevant content for the targeted audience. Obviously, an important step toward website localisation is translation which allows the sender to communicate in the same language as his target audience. However, the table also emphasises that the strongest degree of website localisation, namely culturally customised websites, is not reached by translating source texts but by creating content that is adapted or especially designed to the cultural needs of the target audience (translations for the web will be discussed in ). However, while it seems that a successful localisation requires the full localisation of all source text content, it is argued that it in fact can be culturally appropriate to only translate source content. In this way, it is argued that general information can be translated while especially texts with certain marketing objectives cannot be translated but might even require to be exclusively produced by locales of the target culture ( (Singh, 2011, p. 102f), (Esselink, 2000, p. 38f)). Although various studies have shown that consumers prefer localised websites to standardised websites, there is no uniform guideline for the process of successful website localisation (Singh & Pereira, 2005, p. 5)). Hence, it depends on the individual sender to elaborate if and to what extent the content of their source texts can be directly transferred, translated or fully localised for becoming culturally appropriate for the target audience. In this relation, Luna et al suggest that ideally culturally adapted websites are those that include both culturally customised content and content that appears influenced by the differing culture of the sender. According to the authors, the impact of culture of a website can be best understood by analysing the cultural integrity of a website, which is the congruity of a website with a visitor s culture and the manifestations of that culture. A website s cultural integrity can be achieved through content congruity and structural congruity. It is argued, that content congruity can be achieved through the cultural adaption of a website s verbal and non-verbal elements. Structural congruity is reached by customising a website s structure to the needs and expectations of a (foreign) culture. Thus, a website with a low cultural congruity might be too difficult to process for the website visitor who in turn might reject the website. However, a website with a very high congruity might not be ideally appealing to the website visitor either, as perfectly culturally adapted content might appear boring and odd (Peracchio et al., 1997, as cited in Luna et al., 2002, p. 400). Therefore, it is agued that ideally appealing websites are those with a moderately cultural congruity, as these serve with appropriate content and new, challenging elements that stimulate curousity. (Luna et al., 2002, p. 399f) A common issue in regards to contemporary intercultural communication on the web is that internationally operating businesses are unaware or do not realise the need for cultural adaption of their websites. Defenders of standardisation approaches in marketing communication argue that P a g e

27 consumers anywhere in the world are likely to share the same needs and wants (Okazaki, 2004, p. 82). One explanation for this attitude could be explained by Shneor s observation: He argues that the lower the sender perceives the cultural distance between him and the targeted market (the receiver), the lower are the resource commitment and knowledge necessary for successfully serving that market (Shneor, 2012, p. 356). If the perceived distance is low, the businesses tend to opt for standardised websites rather than culturally adapted websites. In the same way, it is suggested that internationally operating businesses are often influenced by the virtuality trap, which suggests that the internet enhances perceptions of cultural similarities and blurs cultural differences (Yamin & Sinkovics, 2006) as cited in (Shneor, 2012, p. 356). On the basis of guidelines for the localisation of websites, Singh created a figure which illustrates the aspects that need to be considered for the localisation of websites (see Figure 5). 6 Cultural customisation of web content Localisation 5 related to policies, procedures, shipping, transactions, etc. 1 Localisation of user interface elements Aspects of web localisation 4 Localisation related to customer support, SEO, and branding Translation, 2 terminology management, and the use of web localisation technologies 3 Global gateway and related technologies Figure 5: Aspects of web localisation, What web localisation entails SOURCE: Singh, 2011, p. 151 Singh created the figure to highlight that successful localisation of a website includes more tasks than the translation of web content. In this way, his figure is concentrated on the practical tasks which P a g e

28 should be included for localising a website successfully. From a linguistic point of view, it is especially interesting how the issues of cultural customisation of web content and the translation and terminology management are realised, as these elements directly relate to the cultural adaption of the written content of the website. In this perspective, the remaining elements mainly serve as frame for the digital / technological localisation of a website. Further, a more distant perspective of Figure 5 makes it is possible to categorise its practically-oriented elements into five superordinate categories of website localisation, namely linguistic, cultural, visual, technical and formal areas (as illustrated in Table 2) 3. Linguistic Translation (2), terminology management (2), Cultural customisation of web content (6) Cultural Cultural customisation of web content (6) Visual User interface elements (1), Cultural customisation of web content (6) Technical Global gateway and related technologies (3), web localisation technologies (2), SEO (4) Formal ( customer support (4)), policies, procedures, shipping, transaction etc. (5) Table 2: The five fields of website localisation With an exception of two elements, all elements of Singh s figure can be categorised into five main categories. First, the cultural customisation of web content (6) cannot be placed in a single category as it refers to both written and visual content that can function as cultural markers (Singh, 2011, p. 150). In this way, the element can account for a linguistic, cultural and visual area of website adaption. Second, branding (4) refers to the adoption of brands or products into a local culture (ibid). Therefore, this term can be viewed as localisation task itself, and it could likewise account for all five main areas of localisation. As the cultural customisation of web content despite its diffuseness is an important step of website localisation, the element is placed in all three main categories. The branding element, however, is due to its autonomous function not found in Table 2. Thus, the categories of Table 2 can be described as follows: The linguistic area of website localisation includes translation and terminology management as these elements directly relate to the adaption of language. 3 The numbers below the details of the categories refer to the numbered categories from Singh s figure (Figure 5). P a g e

29 The cultural area refers to the cultural customisation of web content and is the only element from Singh s figure which explicitly names the adaption of culture. The visual area of website localisation is made up by user interface elements as it refers to culturally customised website design, such as the adaption of menus, tabs, forms, icons and other visual elements that are not globally standardised. The technical area of website localisation includes global interface elements which offers the website visitor to a global landing page for leading the user to local website content, web localisation technologies such as translation and project management systems and SEO which stands for the website customisation for (local) search engine optimisation. The formal field of website localisation includes elements that refer to the surrounding area of the local setup for the realisation of localisation, namely customer support in the local language and policies, procedures, shipping, transactions which likewise have to fulfil the rules of the local culture to be accepted. (Singh, 2011, pp ) This new categorisation allows to research website location from specific scientific angles. As this thesis focusses on the issue how companies adapt their communication to the needs of audiences of foreign cultures, it is especially the linguistic and cultural areas of website localisation which will be focussed. However, as communication is traditionally regarded as a combination of verbal and nonverbal elements, the visual and technical areas of website localisation will be taken to account as well for evaluating the cultural adaptation of the websites. Inspired by Singh s figure on the aspects of website localisation, the five fields of website localisation can be illustrated in a figure ((Singh & Pereira, 2005, p. 10ff) see Figure 5). P a g e

30 Linguistic Translation, terminology management, cultural customisation of web content Formal Customer support, policies, procedures, shipping, transaction etc. Fields of website localisation Cultural Cultural customisation of web content Technical Global gateway technologies, web localisation technologies, SEO Visual User interface elements, cultural customosation of web content Figure 6: The five fields of website localisation Translation for the web Over time, the web has become available for an increasing number of people worldwide. With a growth of a potential audience, also the role of translations for the web has been strengthened, as it functions as a crucial factor for reaching new target audiences. Despite the global influences on the web, a recent report on the usage of content languages for websites shows that English is still the dominating language on the internet. Accounting for almost 56 per cent of all websites, the second and third places, held by Russian (6.3 per cent) and German (5.3 per cent) respectively, are placed far beyond English (Danish only accounts for 0.3 per cent of all counted websites) (W³Techs, 2013)(appendix 2). Likewise, a research of the languages spoken by internet users from 2010 shows that English also here takes the lead as it is spoken by almost million web users. However, the following popular languages differ widely from the languages that P a g e

31 have been found to dominate the web. In this way, the second place is occupied by Chinese-speaking web users, which are estimated to range million users. The languages hereafter only range a fraction of this value, such as Spanish (153.3 million), Japanese (99.1 million) Portuguese (82.5 million) and German (75.2 million) (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2013) (Appendix 3). While there is no definite explanation for this ongoing dominance of English on the web, it is assumed that the fact that the internet was invented in the US might still have an influence on the contemporary language use in the World Wide Web. In either way, these statistics emphasise the dominant role of English on websites and the contemporary mismatch of the used and spoken languages. The fact that an increasing number of people who do not master the English language are going online, leads to the common argumentation that English will not keep its position as predominant language on the internet in future. Although this trend will not dismiss the importance of English as a dominant lingua franca on the internet, web users can expect a World Wide Web that bears a more diverse language use. Especially for internationally operating companies, the growing language diversity on the internet will make it necessary to not only offer websites in English (used as an universal global language) but also in the local language(s) of their consumers. In this way, translation can be highlighted as an important tool for the processes of internationalisation and localisation (see ), as it can be said to function as linguistic and/or cultural adaption of a given product so that it can be understood by different locales (Schäler, 2008, p. 196). A classical definition of the concept of translation is made by Catford who describes translation as the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) [the source language] by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) [the target language] (Catford, 1965, p. 20, as cited in Schjoldager, 2008, p. 17). From a semiotic perspective, Jakobson categorised translation further in intralingual (translations within the same language) interlingual (translations from one language to a second) and intersemiotic (non-linguistic translations) translation types ( (Jakobson, 1959/2000) as cited in (Schjoldager, 2008, p. 18f)). The detailed types of translation, belonging to the microstrategies of translation, will not be described as this thesis focusses on the culturally adaption of website content for different target locales and not on the translational relation between source text and target text as such. Focussing the macrostrategy, the issue of overt and covert translation approaches, which describes whether readers of a text are aware of the fact that they are confronted with a translated text or not, P a g e

32 appear highly relevant for the cultural adaption of texts. On the one hand, overt translations are highly source text oriented (e.g. it transfers presuppositions without cultural adaption) as it is supposed that the reader is aware of that the text has been translated. On the other hand, covert translations are rather target text oriented as it is assumed that the receiver is unaware or not interested in the fact that he is confronted with a translation (Schjoldager, 2008, p. 30ff). As a form of mediation between primary parties in a communication, covert translations best describe the communicative relation between sender and receiver of websites that appear culturally adapted, as I presume the target audience to be unaware of the fact that the content of these websites are translations of some source text. However, when confronted with a localised website, which is available in various language versions, the target audience might indeed be aware to be confronted with a translation. This situation can be said to be especially true if the language and/or regional selection of a website cannot be chosen from a culturally neutral opening welcoming menu when entering a website, which is able to hide an eventually localised website approach. Thus, Luna et al suggest for internationally operating companies to offer websites where the visitor has the choice to select his native language when entering the homepage of the company as the individual content of the websites can then be tailored to the values symbolised by the language. (Luna et al., 2002, p. 399f) Although the mere approach of supplying a website in another language can function as an activator for the native speakers of the chosen language, it is argued that effective translations are those that are realised by translators that at least master the target language as their native language. Only in this way, it is possible to transfer the meaning of a (foreign language) text into the most suitable way that suits the cultural value system of the targeted audience (Luna et al., 2002, p. 398) (Hofstede, 2001, p. 21f). As the first acquired language of people shape their cognition and emotions, it is therefore the personal cultural background of a translator which will have some influence in his way of interpreting and hence translating messages. In this way, it is suggested that a translator s role in website localisation should not be limited to the textual translation as such. Rather, he/she should be given an insight to which visual surroundings the target text will be placed, as it is argued that visual clues allow a more accurate translation of web pages, dialogues, menus and other visual elements and hence a more culturally oriented localisation outcome (Singh, 2011, p. 146). Despite the complexity of translation and the adaption of web content as such, it appears that many companies use machine translation tools when localising their websites. With an average accuracy of around 75 per cent, the translation outcomes of machine translations are not 100 per cent reliable as translation technologies still struggle to interpret given contexts of source texts correctly. Despite the P a g e

33 technological evolution over the years, contemporary translation systems lack to understand the processed information and hence they are unable to understand the translated outcome. Criticising machine translations of web content, also Singh et al make clear that languages do not only differ in terms of characters, syntax rules, and punctuation, they also differ in terms of their origin, their emphasis on history and tradition, their use of dialects and rhetorical styles, their use of symbols and metaphors, an even in their use of persuasive strategies (Singh et al, 2004, p. 71). Likewise, it is argued that machine translation will never reach full accuracy as long as computer systems are unable to read and process information similarly to how a human reads and processes information (St. Germaine-Madison, 2007, p. 40). Despite this inability of understanding processed information and its context, machine translation systems struggle with grammatically related issues and local language rules of languages that are the official languages in more than one country (e.g. British English and US English). Combined, these lacks can result in translation outcomes that appear overall unsuitable for the target audience (Baron, 2003, p. 39ff) 4. As I interpret localisation as the way of creating culturally appropriate web content (see Table 1), it becomes questionable whether translation can be regarded as adequate tool for website localisation. Thus, the following section will focus on ways to culturally adapt websites by offering content that covers the cultural needs of the target locale Cultural adaption of websites Although translations are an important tool for the localisation of websites, it is argued that translation only constitutes per cent of a localisation process ( (Localization industry association (LISA), 2000) as cited in (Singh et al, 2004, p. 81)). A research on translations for web communication highlights that the mere translation of a site, even though it may be of good quality, is not sufficient to ensure that its initial acceptance can be maintained (Nantel & Glaser, 2008, p. 120). Likewise, Faiola et al criticise that the contemporary localisation focus still lies predominantly on translation and highlight that there are far more important human factors [ ], which are rarely considered by Web site developers, emphasising the need for new strategies for web communication that is able to respond on the cross-cultural challenges (Faiola & Matei, 2007, p. 144). As the global access to the World Wide Web increases, it appears that there is a growing twist between the website localisation approach of website senders and the cultural demands of the 4 However, it should be noted that that automised translations systems have been found to be able to deliver professional translations when the information is constructed in simple terms and phrases that are low in context. St. Germaine-Madison describes the case of the Caterpillar company which successfully implemented a machine translation system based on a human edited and later automised translation memory (St. Germaine-Madison, 2007, p. 37ff). P a g e

34 receivers of these websites, which has not yet been solved. The question how websites can be appropriately adapted to receivers of differing cultural values has also lead scientists to focus on the development of cultural adaption strategies as an alternative to classical translations. In the perspective as a medium (cf. para ), the web and its tools can be considered as culturally neutral, but the communications who wield them are not (Zhao et al, 2003, p. 81) (cf. (Ahmed et al., 2008, p. 13)). In this way, also Thatcher highlights that considerations of a globalised or homogenised web culture do not exist (Thatcher, p.141). Various researches found that only culturally adapted websites are those that communicate most effectively, and in this connection Singh et al found that consumers prefer localised and adapted websites than standardised websites ( (Gevorgyan et al., 2009, p. 404f) (Singh et al., 2004, p. 82)). While Singh et al and Thatcher et al highlight the necessity for the cultural adaption of web content in localisation processes, it becomes clear that there is a need for comprehensive tools for the cultural adaption of websites which go beyond translation of website content ((Thatcher et al., 2007, p. 141) (Singh, Kumar, & Baack, 2005, p. 73)). Relating to the lack of definite strategies or guidelines that help localisers to deal with the so-called deep level adaption of websites, which describes an underlying cultural value system, Schäler accounts for the high usability of Hofstede s cultural indexes (Schäler, 2008, para. 4). Likewise, also other studies on the research of possible scientific methods for the cultural adaption of websites rated Hofstede s cultural indexes (see ) as a valuable source for explaining differences in web communication across cultures (cf. (Thatcher et al., 2007), (Faiola & Matei, 2007), (Singh et al, 2004), (Ahmed et al., 2008), (Xie et al., 2009) and (Burgmann et al., 2006)). Overall, these studies found that the cultural heritage of the persons involved in the construction of a given website has a significant influence on how these construct the content and layout of their website. In this relation, Hofstede s cultural index predominantly proved to be able to explain the observed recurring tendencies of the analysed websites of certain cultures, and hence Hofstede s index can be used as a tool for the successful adaption of websites for foreign cultures. As it became increasingly popular to project Hofstede s cultural approach onto web communication, Gevorgyan et al made a research that questioned whether the theoretical findings relating to Hofstede s cultural index on web communication can in fact applied to the practical preferences of people from different cultures (cf. (Gevorgyan et al., 2009)). In their empirical testing of the relationship between internet user s cultural background and their web design attitudes, the researchers found that the cultural adaption of online communication produced positive outcomes. Thus, the authors found that the long-standing argument that online marketers should make their P a g e

35 Web sites culturally oriented is well grounded and conclude that Hofstede s model is relevant and applicable to cross-cultural computer-mediated communication (Gevorgyan et al., 2009, p. 404f) Hofstede s cultural value index applied on web communication On the basis of the previous researches, which proved that Hofstede s cultural value index is applicable for the analysis of the cultural adaption of websites, the following section will present a summarised overview of the web communication interpretations of Hofstede s cultural value index by Schäler (2008), Singh (2011), Singh et al. (2005), Marcus et al. (2000), Ahmed et al. (2008) and Thatcher et al. (2007). The complexity and richness of this summary indicates that website localisation should not merely focus on translation, but it should prioritise to focus on an overall cultural adaption of the website. Appendix 9 illustrates a detailed overview of the individual interpretations of Hofstede s cultural value index. The summary will later be used as source for the analysis of selected localised websites for their cultural values, and for this reason, the individual interpretations will be arranged by the four of the five previously named main categories of website localisation processes (culture, linguistics, technical and visual) (cf. Table 2). High individualism cultures Culture The content of websites in highly individualistic cultures is characterised by its focus on the user s needs. Besides the basic need of freedom and personal space, also the user s individual needs, such as personal development, self-realisation, self-actualisation and individual interest are highlighted. By communicating the uniqueness of their services, the websites seek to suggest the user potential personal achievement and self-creation by demonstrating that consumerism and materialism are indicators for success. Youth and action, as well as the focus on newness and uniqueness, are the dominating values on these websites. The social morality is focussed on issues of truth, instead of relationships. As part of its overall focus on serving the individual needs of the user, the websites are characterised by offering a thorough privacy statement. Linguistic The content structure is characterised by a straight communication style that might include controversial and/or argumentative speech, and tolerates and encourages extreme claims. Technical The technical area accounts for individualised navigation designs. P a g e

36 Visual The website design is characterised by an independence theme and a high degree of personalisation. Images are used to highlight the importance of the individual and/or the given product. Low individualism cultures Culture Websites of collectivistic cultures highlight the user s role as part of a society or a group. In this way, affiliation, consensus and collective interests are especially highlighted as part of an overall sense for social morality for relationships. The focus on a national identity, tradition and even religion are used to highlight the societal relation of the website and its user. Eventually, the website seeks to attract the user by using a family orientation. Further, issues of interpersonal relationships, social recognition and hierarchy are highlighted. In addition, it is expected that the user shares personal information. Overall, the motivation based on personal achievement is underplayed, and images of success are demonstrated through achievement of socio-political agendas. Regarding the user as a part of a given society, prominence is given to aged, experienced and wise leaders, and emphasis on change tends to be oriented towards tradition and history. Linguistic The rhetorical style is adapted to this general social approach by making use of official slogans and subdued hyperbole and controversy. Technical Due to its overall group focus, websites of collectivistic cultures are likely to offer their users loyalty programmes and community relations, which can be realised by offering newsletters, clubs and chat rooms. Visual The visual setup of the websites in low individualistic cultures is oriented towards a family theme. It is likely, that images and symbols of the national identity are used, and the websites have a tendency to show their products in a social context. High uncertainty avoidance cultures Culture Websites in cultures that are characterised by a high uncertainty avoidance value are dedicated to offer their users security and comfort. They are eager to inform the user about the results of any action taken before the user s actual engagement, which is further highlighted by testimonials. P a g e

37 The website s relation to the real life is heavily communicated by referring to tradition (and eventually religion) and potential local stores. Linguistic The linguistic structure is characterised by a high level of formality and rigid rules that communicate precision and punctuality. This approach is eventually combined by the use of local terminology. Technical In a technical perspective, it is likely to that free trials or downloads are offered. Further, these websites offer a high degree of transaction security, which is realised by offering the user customer service and toll-free numbers. The user is guided through the website s navigation. Visual The design approach is rather traditional as it is characterised by simplicity. Any ambiguities are reduced by a redundant use of visual elements such as colours, typography and sound. Low uncertainty avoidance cultures Websites in cultures with a low uncertainty avoidance score are characterised by focussing on evolution and change and these websites therefore show a comparably high tolerance of ambiguity and vagueness. Linguistic The content is complex and includes a maximum of content and choices, and the communication style includes flexible rules and shows tolerance for informality. Technical This overall complexity of the website content is supported by a rather unstructured navigation. Visual An intensive and diverse usage of colours, typographies and sounds. High power distance cultures Culture Websites of high power distance cultures are characterised by their strong focus on hierarchy. Persons with certain power or expertise are especially focussed, such as leaders and other experts. The websites value status and therefore focus proper titles and awards. The focus lies on the role of authority and social and moral order. The websites present the communicating company with pride and inform the visitor about the internal company hierarchy. The websites focus tradition (and eventually religion) and inform the visitor about their aimed progression in a vision statement. P a g e

38 Linguistic The prevailing focus on hierarchy is also represented in the highly structured content approach of these websites. Likewise, these websites are keen on security and restrictions, and offer content that can only be accessed by selected users. Visual On a visual area, the websites present images of important persons and logos. Low power distance cultures Culture Websites in low power distance cultures are characterised by their overall approach towards equality. In this way, inferiors and superiors as well as leaders and the population at large are respected equally. Overall, there is only a minor focus on authority, certifications or expertise. Prominence is given to citizens, customers or employees, and likewise, these websites are not likely to relate to hierarchies or other social orders. Technical The websites are designed to offer any user free access to any available information without restrictions. High masculinity cultures Culture Generally, the content of websites of high masculine cultures is characterised by its focus on social order. In this way, most researchers have found the clear distinction of gender roles to be an important characteristic. In this way, men and women are referred to gender stereotypical manners. Likewise, there is a tendency of differentiating by other social orders, such as age and social position. Ambition, competition and material success as well as product effectiveness are important values. Additional attention is eventually gained through games and competitions on the website. Linguistic In a linguistic perspective, men and women are addressed separately. Technical The website layout is characterised by its strong focus on functionality, offering quick results and limited tasks. Visual In this way, there is a preference for realism themes, which are designed to serve the user immediately with the content that is needed. Likewise, media elements (graphic, sound and P a g e

39 animations) are mainly used for utilitarian purposes and the navigational setup are likewise characterised by its orientation towards exploration and control. Low masculinity cultures Culture Men and women are not ascribed to certain stereotypic roles. Likewise, these websites communicate equality and solidarity, and there is an overall focus on the quality of life instead of material success. Linguistic The content follows an aesthetic appeal and therefore, the websites are open for poetry and unifying values. Further, websites of low masculinity cultures address gender indiscriminately. Technical There is a focus on mutual corporation, exchange and relational support. Visual Websites of low masculinity cultures have a special focus on visual aesthetics Non-verbal aspects of website localisation Recognising that the localisation of websites should not solely be seen as an action of verbal communication, this section shall briefly account for potential cultural influences on the visual elements of websites. As written communication, also visual elements are culturally sensitive as the interpretation of their meaning as well as their usage is culturally influenced (Sadri & Flammia, 2011, p. 190ff). This view has been stated by numerous researches which found that the design of websites are culturally influenced (cf. (Burgmann et al., 2006), (Marcus & Gould, 2000), (Hillier, 2003, p. 11), (Cyr et al., 2004, p. 1199), (Hermeking M., 2007, p. 166) and (Zhao et al., 2003) (Singh & Pereira, 2005, p. 40ff)). Generally, the visual layout of websites is described as website design, which can be defined as a specific set of instrumental or technical, economic, social, aesthetic, and symbolic attributes or qualities of a site which have to contribute to its users satisfaction, which in turn depends on the users cultural habits and values ( (Hermeking M., 2000) as cited in (Hermeking M., 2007, p. 166)). In this connection, it is also argued that the design s specific characteristics amongst others depend on the genre of the website, which highlights the previously discussed role of the website as a genre (Lawrence & Tavakol, 2007, p. 10). While especially images, icons and flags are recognised as visual website elements that are culturally influenced, less prominence is given to the use of colours (Yunker, 2002, p. 183). Table 3 is a P a g e

40 comprehensive chart of the meanings of colours in Scandinavia, the UK and Germany, which are the focussed countries in the analysis of this thesis. The table is based on the Yunker s global colour chart (Yunker, 2002, p. 483f) and is supported by the findings of Bartel ( B ) and De Bortoli et al ( D ) (cf. (Bartel, 2003, p. 59ff) (De Bortoli et al., 2001)). BLUE WHITE SCANDINAVIA UK GERMANY Strength Cleanliness, water (D), clean (D), poor (D) Evil repellant (D), peace (D), nature (D) Relaxing (B), loyalty (B), melancholia (B), informality (B), censoring (B), tranquil (D), dignity (D), decorum (D) Leisure, sports, peace (D) GREEN Sterility (D) Bourgeoisie (B), good condition (B), Envy (B), Relaxation (B), Environment (D), Catholicism (D), quality (D) YELLOW Warmth, heart (D) Jealousy (B), cowardice (B), Visibility (D), rubber (D) RED Strength Authority, power, government, visibility, temper (D) BLACK Death, formality, dignity (D), mourning (D) Table 3: The meaning of selected colours in Scandinavia, the UK and Germany Loyalty, formality, laziness (B), reliability (D), neutrality (D), romance (D) Nature (D) Hope, conservation, earth (D) Envy, jealousy, cowardice (D), persecution (D), sunshine (D) Death, grief, hopelessness, formality The table illustrates that there are significant differences between the perceived meanings of colours. For example, there are strong differences between the meanings of colours can be seen in the symbolism of blue, which has a special meaning in all three selected countries. In Scandinavia, the colour stands merely for strength, while it has various and differing meanings in Germany and the UK. The only meaning that is shared by between these countries is loyalty. Besides this, Britons interpret blue as relaxing, melancholia and informality. In contrast, the colour stands, beside laziness, for formality in Germany. The manifold interpretation colours demonstrate that the perception and use of colours is culturally influenced. Relating to the issue of this thesis, the table shall highlight that even unheeded elements of web communication can account for culturally related preferences In P a g e

41 terms of website localisation, the potential misinterpretation of colours of a target locale could result in a misperception of the website as such. This brief focus on non-verbal aspects in web communication seeks to highlight, that localisation is more than translation as it demands the harmonisation of textual and visual elements (cf. (Sun, 2001, p. 100f)). P a g e

42 3. Case In the following section, the previous findings on cultural adaption of websites serve as background knowledge for discussing the cultural values of localised websites. I have selected localised websites that are available in Danish, English and German of three Danish companies that operate within the tableware branch and define their products as Danish design or Scandinavian design. These companies have been chosen based on the assumption that companies that market their products internationally in a culturally related approach are especially experienced in intercultural communication. Thus, it shall be investigated if the domestic localised websites of these companies account for the cultural values of the local Danish culture, and if the localised English and German websites have been culturally adapted to the cultural values of their target audiences. First, the overall communicative situation of the case will be presented and illustrated by a comprehensive communication model, which is based on the previously presented SPA-model and IMC-model. Second, the terms Danish design and Scandinavian design, which are the common ground for the chosen company websites of RigTig by Stelton, erik bagger and Rosendahl, and which account for the referent of the communicative situation, will be briefly elaborated. Third, the cultural context of the communicative situation will be described by presenting and comparing Hofstede s cultural values of Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany, as it is assumed that these countries account for the cultural heritage of the senders and target audience respectively. Then, the selected websites will be viewed by their genre approach. The analysis part will first briefly describe the selected companies. Then, the domestic Danish website will be described and analysed for elements which account for the previously researched cultural elements in web communication, based on Hofstede s cultural value index. Here, On the basis of the cultural findings of the domestic website, it shall be analysed whether the localised German and English websites bear differing cultural elements. The results of the cultural analysis of the domestic website and the differing cultural values of the German and English websites will be illustrated in a comprehensive table. An analysis of the written content of the website shall indicate if and to which degree the content of the localised websites have been adapted to the German and British culture respectively. Finally, the findings will be compared. P a g e

43 3.1. Background All of the three companies offer their websites in Danish, English and German language versions, and the adaption strategy of these websites overall follow a localisation approach, as the websites offer international users some country-specific web content which has not been adapted but translated from the source website. In this way, the individual company websites appear equal in their visual layout and content, but the language has been adapted to be understood by the target audience. For analysing the cultural values of these three websites, three common websites will be chosen for being able to compare the results of the companies approach. The selected websites are: The homepage A company profile website A product profile website The equal background of these websites across the three company websites allows to examine if and how the localised websites have been adapted to the cultural needs of their target locale and if these adaptions correspond to the previously described cultural preferences of the selected cultures in accordance to Hofstede s cultural value index The communicative situation For presenting the general communicative situation of the case, a new communicative model (Figure 7) has been created to illustrate how culture influences the production and reception of websites. The model is based on the SPA model and its context element is supplemented by the culture element of the IMC model (see section 2.1). In this model, context but also culture have an influence on all active parts in the communicative situation, the sender (in the case of this thesis with a Danish cultural identity), the receiver (in this case with a Danish, British or German cultural identity) and the referent. The website, which in the SPA model is named as text, is surrounded by genre which is likewise influenced by the context and cultural factors. In the position of a central element in the communicative situation, the genre plays a crucial role, as the active parts will have an expectation towards the content and setup of a given website. As previously named, these expectations will be culturally influenced (see section 2.3.1), and the question to be solved in this thesis is if the domestic localised website bears approaches of the cultural values of its sender, and if it is yet possible to adapt this localised website to the cultural values of foreign receivers. This issue is illustrated in Figure 7. The yellow dotted line between the sender and the website (point P a g e

44 1) illustrates that the sender transmits some cultural values of his domestic culture to the localised website, and the localised website thus bears these cultural elements (illustrated by the yellow dotted frame). In an intercultural situation, the question is whether the sender is aware of the cultural values of the receiver (illustrated by a red-dotted arrow, point 2), and if the sender adapts the cultural elements of his previously created website to the cultural preferences of his target audience (point 3). If the localised website has been culturally adapted by the sender, the crucial question is, whether these adaptions suit the cultural values of the target culture (point 4). (Context) / Culture 2 Genre Sender (DEN) 1 3 Localised website 4 Receiver (DEN / UK /GER) Referent (Danish/ Scandinavian design) Figure 7: A communication model on the cultural adaption of localised websites First, the active elements (sender, receiver and referent) in the communicative situation of the case can be described as follows: Sender The intended senders of the websites are the companies, e.g. RigTig by Stelton, erik bagger and Rosendahl. The actual senders might be some external communication companies and/or website related professionals e.g. web designers or copywriters. As the actual senders can include a broad range of persons with differing professions, the actual senders might or might not have a profession in web communication and cultural competencies. P a g e

45 Receiver The intended receivers of the websites are existing or new customers as well as other persons with an interest in the company or its products that understand Danish, German and/or English respectively. Due to the global accessibility of the websites, the actual receivers might also include non-intended receivers such as competitors of the company. Referent Overall, the referent of the websites are the individual companies products that stand for Danish design or Scandinavian design. Concerning the selected websites, it can be expected that the referent of the company profile websites is the company and its historical achievements, the referent of the product profile websites will be the companies Danish or Scandinavian designed products, and the homepage will have the website as such as referent. In this way, the product profile websites will have a concrete referent, referring to physically existing objects, while the company profile websites and the homepages will have an abstract character, referring to non-physical objects (cf. (Ditlevsen et al., 2007, p. 53f)). Context Although this account of the communicative situation regards the website as a message, the complexity of the communicative role of the website (cf (The website in a communicative perspective)), allows to regard the website simultaneously as medium. As medium, the website is globally accessible at any time. The copies of the selected websites were retrieved between the May and October 2013 (erik bagger ( ), RigTig by Stelton ( ) and Rosendahl ( )) What is Danish design and Scandinavian design? As common ground for the selected websites, all Danish companies market tableware products that stand for Danish and/or Scandinavian design, and thus these terms form the overall referent of the communicative situation in the present case. However, these terms are not only used by the tableware industry, but also by a range of other Danish companies of various industries and branches, which is due to the fact that neither Danish design or Scandinavian design are fixed terms (cf. (Kristensen, 2001, p. 3f)). In this section, I will therefore elaborate on the meaning of these terms, by first accounting for the meanings of the terms Danish and Scandinavia as well as design. Hereafter, I will give a short overview of the emergence of the terms Danish design and Scandinavian design. P a g e

46 In a semantic perspective, the terms Danish design and Scandinavian design are constituents of the terms Danish (or Scandinavian ) and design. Obviously, Danish mainly denotes a geographically fixed area, namely Denmark, its 5.5 million inhabitants and the official spoken language in this area. In comparison, the term Scandinavian seems rather complex, as there is no exact definition of Scandinavia as such. Some sources denote the region of Scania (denoting the peninsula of Sweden and Norway) as Scandinavia, while others also denote Denmark as part of Scandinavia, referring to the historically dominant political roles of the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish kingdom in the Northern European region (cf. Appendix 4 ) (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013). Finally, there are sources that also include the former colonies of these three kingdoms, namely Finland (formerly ruled by Sweden), Iceland (formerly ruled by Norway and later Denmark) and the Faroe Islands (officially belonging to Denmark, though partly autonomous) in their definition of Scandinavia (Østergård, 1997, p. 5ff). In this thesis, I will regard the term Scandinavia to denote the traditional Scandinavian countries, namely Denmark, Sweden and Norway, as there is a general accept for these countries to be called Scandinavian, and as the Danish companies of this thesis describe their products as Scandinavian. Looking at the second constituent of Danish/Scandinavian design, the phrase design denotes a highly complex term in many regards. While Krippendorff interprets the term as design is making sense (of things) (Krippendorff, 1989, p. 9), John Heskett s definition highlights the complexity of the term: Design is to design the design of a design (as cited in (Kobuss & Hardt, 2012, p. 26)) This citation represents the various functions of design it can function as a general concept and policy, an activity, a plan or intention and a finished outcome and a product (Hardt, 2013) (appendix 5). In a communicative perspective, the sender of the message (a certain design or designed product) is the designer while the receiver is the (potential) consumer. In this perspective, it is the role of the designer to form his design in a way that the receiver is able to decode it (with a desired attitude). In fact, it is argued that consumers seek to buy uniquely designed products that represent significance and meaning in their lives and thus, regarding design as a unique message which is understood and valued by its receivers, has the ability to function as a marker of social and cultural status (Gabrielsen et al., 2010, p. 89). In this way, it is stated that products of perceived good design are perceived as being higher in quality, more accessible, better looking and longer lasting by its consumers (Leslie & Rantisi, 2009, p. 182), and thus, successfully communicated design has the P a g e

47 ability to add significant value to even domestic products. The terms Danish design and Scandinavian design clearly communicate their geographical and cultural heritages of Denmark and Scandinavia respectively. I regard the term Scandinavian design as superordinate to the term Danish design. Thus, the specific description of Danish design therefore also applies for Scandinavian design, and general descriptions of Scandinavian design likewise apply for Danish design. Referring to the country of design, these labels therefore refer to the so-called Designed-in Country which is defined as the country in which either a part of or the entire finished product is designed 5 (Jaffe & Nebenzahl, 2006, p. 28). Consumers that are confronted with products that are communicated as Danish or Scandinavian designed will thus also be confronted with their subjective attitudes and connotations of these regions (cf. (Larocheet al., 2005), (Kragh & Djursaa, 2001)). The marketing of terms that account for certain cultural roots and the complex approach of design, companies that market their products as Danish or Scandinavian designed need to be keen on thoroughly communicating the value behind a given designed object. In regards to an intercultural communicative situation, Heskett states that [design] Business should respond to different cultural needs in ways that improve lives: by designing products ( ) that are accessible, appropriate, understandable, and pleasurable, in ways they can absorb into their patterns of life. (Heskett, 2002, p. 133). Thus, it is assumed that internationally operating companies that market Danish design or Scandinavian design communicate in a cultural sensitive way and hence, it is assumed that the selected companies of this thesis represent a branch that is especially experienced and sensitive in their intercultural web communication approach Hofstede on DEN, UK and GER cultural values As described in the previous section, the perception of Scandinavian and Danish design is influenced by the cultural values that a receiver holds. In a communicative perspective, it is the culture, and thus the context, which significantly influences how the sender of a message communicates and how the receiver of a message interprets this message. In the case of Scandinavian and Danish design this implies: While Scandinavian or Danish persons are familiar with the values and history of their cultures, persons with a different cultural heritage are in the need of an explanation of the approach of the given designed objects. Regarding the approach of the senders to communicate a message in a 5 The Designed-in Country should not be confounded with the Made-in Country, which (usually) refers to the country where the final production of a product takes places. (Jaffe & Nebenzahl, 2006, p. 29) P a g e

48 desired manner to their receivers (e.g. to communicate that Danish/Scandinavian designed products are desirable), the senders must adapt their message to the culture of the receiver. For this reason, it is essential that the sender is aware of differences between his own culture and the culture of the receiver. In this connection, Hofstede s cultural value index offers a valuable tool to understand one s own cultural values and to understand the cultural preferences of another given culture. This section shall therefore define the cultures of the senders of the websites that have a Danish cultural heritage and based on the Danish cultural values, cultural similarities and differences to the addressed receivers of the selected websites shall be given. As the selected websites are available in Danish, English and German, I assume these websites to target the citizens of Denmark as well as the United Kingdom and Germany, which are the largest countries in Europe that use English and German respectively as their official languages. According to Hofstede, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany account for the following values of his cultural index: PDI UAI IDV MAS DENMARK UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY Table 4: Denmark, United Kingdom and Germany index scores. SOURCE: (Hofstede, 2001, p. 500) Regarding Denmark as the native culture of the chosen companies, it becomes clear that the international websites of these companies should be aware of some crucial cultural differences. The culture of the Danish senders is characterised by low power-distance, uncertainty-avoidance and masculinity scores and a high individualism score. On the first view, the most striking difference between the Danish culture compared to the German and British culture is seen in the masculinity index. Here, both the German and the UK values count a surplus of 50 points above the Danish score. In addition, the UK and German values in the power distance index are equally 17 points higher than the Danish value (18 points). Also the uncertainty avoidance in the German and British culture is higher than in Denmark, though the German value (+42 points) outreaches the UK value (+12 points). Finally, the German and UK culture differ in their individualism index scores. Compared to Denmark, P a g e

49 the British culture reaches a higher score (+15 points), while the German culture reaches a lower score (-7 points). From this brief comparison, it can be seen that senders with a Danish cultural heritage that seek to communicate to British and German receivers should generally seek to adapt their communication to higher values of masculinity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. However, regarding the differing individualism scores, German texts should be lowered in their individualism approach, while English texts (targeting an UK audience) should be increased in their individualism approach. IDV UAI PDI MAS DENMARK (74) (23) (18) (16) UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY Table 5: Score difference between the native Danish culture and the UK and Germany respectively Appendix 10 illustrates the website preferences of the Danish, British and German cultures according to the interpretations of Hofstede s cultural value index, and the table shall be used as tool for analysing the cultural elements of the localised websites (cf and appendix 10). The culturally related web elements have been arranged by the previously described categories of website localisation, cultural, linguistic, technical, and visual (cf. Figure 6 and Table 2). In this way, the cultural category accounts for general value approaches of the website content, the linguistic category accounts for certain culturally influences on the linguistic realisation of the website content, the technical category accounts for the cultural interpretation of selected technical-related features, and the visual category accounts for culturally influenced visual realisations of the website and its content. IDV UAI PDI MAS DENMARK ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY Table 6: The cultural tendencies of the UK and Germany compared to the Danish values P a g e

50 Again, the Danish cultural scores are regarded as source for illustrating the British and German scores, which are either higher ( ) or lower ( ) in comparison to the Danish culture scores (cf. the approach of Table 6). This means that e.g. the British UAI score of a value of 35 (representing a general low score compared to the middle score of 50) will be interpreted as high UAI score, as it is higher than the Danish score of 23. Significant score differences, referring to a score difference of over 15 compared to the native Danish culture, are highlighted by a + besides the indicators and. Therefore, also Germany, which is a country with prevailing individual values (67 points), has is listed as culture with collectivistic approaches, as the German score lies below the Danish score of 74 points. In this way, it is emphasised that the highlighted values are those that should be taken carefully into account. Thus, the table serves as indicator for the Danish sender on which cultural scores they should be especially sensitive to adapt their websites to a culture The websites in the genre perspective Finally, the websites shall be described in the genre perspective. Here, the website concentrates on the culturally influenced structuring of websites (cf , The website in a communicative perspective). A brief description of the general genre approach of the companies in the present communicative situation shall illustrate how the selected websites are possibly influenced by the cultural heritages of their actors. Communicative purpose The overall motive for the Danish companies to create their company websites is to reach existing and potential customers in order to inform them about their brand and the value of their products. The websites can thus be classified as general publicity or product-based websites, where existing and potential consumers are informed about a company s products (cf.(cheung & Huang, 2002, p. 380) (Laroche et al., 2001) as cited in (Okazaki, 2004, p. 81)). In regards to the multiple language versions, it becomes clear that the companies seek to communicate to an international audience which is not restricted to the domestic Danish market. Regarding Bühler s classification of language functions (the informative, the appellative and the expressive language functions (cf. page 8)), the websites can be expected to bear a predominant informative function, as the sender will seek to inform the site visitor about his company and its products. The websites will therefore be characterised by a sender-oriented approach, which suits the previous description of the communicative purpose of the websites. However, as any given text will always include all language functions, the website texts will also include appellative functions for activating the reader to take certain action and expressive language functions that express emotions of the sender. P a g e

51 In a detailed perspective, the communicative purpose of the individual webpages can be defined as: 1. The purpose of the homepage is to introduce the visitor to the website as such. 2. The purpose of the product page is to inform the visitor about the company s products. This page might also offer the visitor to order these from the page or lead to offline retailers. 3. The purpose of the company profile page is to inform the visitor about the company as such. Here, some details about the company history, contemporary issues as well as future perspectives can be presented to the visitor. Due to the previously discussed complexity of websites, no certain moves which can be predicted. As previously discussed, genre is highly culturally influenced. In this thesis, it is assumed that the structural preferences of the website as genre can be explained by the previously described culturally related preferences in web communication (cf ). The following analysis will research which cultural preferences are present on localised websites that are used across cultures, and how these cultural values correspond to the cultural preferences of the target audience The analysis Assuming that the websites of the Danish companies have been created by persons with a Danish background, the Danish websites of the three selected companies represent the domestic website, whose content then has been used as source for the English and German language versions respectively. Thus, this analysis will first account for the communicated cultural values of the Danish websites, and the English and German websites will then be analysed for differences in their cultural approach. This implies that the analysed cultural values of the Danish website are present in the English and German websites respectively, unless differences are explicitly named. An exception to this is the category linguistic, which describes the cultural values in the linguistic realisation of the website content, as it is supposed that it is not possible to completely transfer the cultural values that are represented in linguistic realisations (cf. para ). The individual cultural values will be illustrated in a comprehensive table at the end of the individual website analyses. These will later be used for a comprehensive table of the cultural values of the analysed company websites. P a g e

52 RigTig by Stelton The brand RigTig by Stelton sells tableware products and is a subsidiary of the Danish joint stock company Stelton a/s (aktieselskab), which has its head office in Copenhagen 6 (RigTig by Stelton, 2013)(appendix 7). RigTig by Stelton seeks to attract a modern urban consumer group between years (see appendix ) Accordingly, the brand name symbols the Danish word rigtig ( right ), referring the right products with the right design that are right for the environment and at the right prices, and includes the name of the mother company for stating the high quality and general design approach of the products (see appendix ) The websites which will be analysed is the homepage, the company profile website Our history (Rig-Tigs historie) and the product profile website, which is represented by the website Our values (Rig-Tigs værdier) as the content of this website describes the motivation and general approach of the company s products. The complete website analysis can be found in appendix 23, and copies of the RigTig by Stelton websites can be found in appendix The homepage The Danish homepage contains only little written content and has a plain white background. The central element on the homepage is an image with a dominating light brown colour that illustrates a kitchen utensil holder, which presumably is a product of the brand. Creative drawings in a style of a mathematic formula (using + and = ) illustrate the functional approach of the product. In the lower left corner, a hint to the designer of the product can be found, Klaus Rath design. In addition, a promotional image has been placed on the central image. Above the central element, there are links, which amongst others refer to the different language versions of the website as well as an added search field. In addition, two links lead to the brand s presentation on social media platforms. To the left of the central element, there is a menu section, which shows the main pages of the website. A big red brand logo has been placed above this menu. Below the menu, there are two additional boxes which further promote the brand s presentation the social media. 6 On the websites, the company name is described as RigTig by Stelton, RIG-TIG and RIG-TIG by Stelton. In this analysis, I will use the name RigTig by Stelton to describe the company. However, in citations I will use the given brand name. P a g e

53 Screenshot 1: The homepage of RigTig by Stelton (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Linguistic The homepage bears features of low uncertainty avoidance values as the presence of two main menus (to the left and on top of the page), which combine site navigation elements and external links (an e-shop, the mother company and social media), offers a complexity for offering maximal content. Technical The homepage includes a low power value approach as the homepage does not include any barriers to access content and hence, it is designed to provide information to any visitors on an equal basis. In addition, the homepage includes a low individualism approach, as the main menu offers the user to subscribe a newsletter. Visual The homepage includes a low masculinity approach, as it focusses on visual aesthetics. This can be seen in the overall white and light brown colour approach, illustrating even the original blue and red coloured logos of Facebook and YouTube in a light brown colour. Further, this can be interpreted as an overall a low uncertainty avoidance approach, which focusses on some colour coding. For example, white refers to nature and the red colour of the logo to strength (Scandinavian colour interpretations, cf. Table 3). Overall, the homepage design corresponds to a high individual cultural approach as the website design follows an independent theme and offers an individualised navigation design and features a centrally positioned image that illustrates a product on its own. P a g e

54 The German and English versions The German and the English homepages are widely identical with the Danish homepage, including only a minor visual adaptions. Cultural The German promotional Facebook box bears a low individualism approach, as the invitation to connect with the company is formulated on a more personally basis. Linguistic The linguistic approaches of the German and English websites are identical to the Danish website, and thus accounts for a low uncertainty avoidance approach. Summary DEN UK GER Cultural IDV Linguistic UAI UAI UAI Technical IDV PDI Visual IDV UAI MAS Table 7: The cultural values on the homepage of RigTig by Stelton The company profile website The Danish company profile website bears the headline Rig-Tig s (his-)story (Rig-Tigs historie) and can be accessed through main menu link About Rig-Tig (Om Rig-Tig) and the subordinate link History (Historie). The menus to the left and on the top of the website are identical to those of the homepage, with an exception to the promotional boxes in the left menu, which have been removed. The website has a plain white background colour, and the central element on the website is a light brown image which illustrates handwritten drafts of the brand name. The website content is about the brand its values and target audience, how the brand name was chosen and how the brand is linked to its mother company Stelton. P a g e

55 Screenshot 2: The company profile website of RigTig by Stelton (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture Overall, the website is characterised by a heavy use of high individualism cultural values, as the user s needs are highly focussed. Further, the brand s focus on design and functionality can be interpreted as a personal benefit for the customer, and as focus on newness and uniqueness. In addition, a prominence of youth and action can be found explicitly in the description of the brand s target group. Finally, the consumers are respected as individuals by not expecting them to by the brand s product at any price (para. 5). However, the brand s focus on sustainability accounts for a minor collectivistic cultural approach, as the user is expected to act as a part of a society with common interests 7. A general emphasis on the benefits of design and the offering of flexible products can be interpreted as an approach of highlighting some quality of life, which is a low masculinity value. However, these issues on design and product flexibility can also be interpreted as an offer for personal development of the consumer, which accounts for a low power distance culture. The website includes values that are ascribed to high uncertainty avoidance cultures. The highlighting of the connection to the mother company Stelton shall guarantee the quality of the new brand, and further, it is highlighted that experts have been consulted for finding an adequate brand name. The last named example could further be interpreted as a minor approach of a high power distance culture, as experts stand for adding a high social status approach to the brand. 7 As the high individualism approach dominates, it will be highlighted with a + in the summary. P a g e

56 Linguistic The rhetorical style can be described as argumentative, which is a sign of high individualism. Overall, the website text is written to explain the brand and its values to the reader, and the text paragraphs are introduced by leading headlines, which are formulated as questions, simulating possible questions of consumers. An approach of low uncertainty values can been seen in rather informal phrases and personal anecdotes of the sender. Technical The website includes widely identical technical approaches as the homepage, and thus it bears a low power distance approaches and low individualism values. The added send to a friend function could be interpreted as an additional low individualism approach, as the user can share the website content with other users. Visual The surrounding frame of the website is widely identically with the homepage, and thus the website bears low masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance values in its overall approach towards visual aesthetics and colour coding respectively. Also, the homepage design corresponds to an high individualism cultural approach as the website design follows an independent theme and offers an individualised navigation design. The German and English versions Visually, the German and English websites Our history (In German: Unsere Historie) are identically to the domestic Danish website. Both language versions are reached by the same navigation link. In addition, the written content of the company profile websites does not appear to be highly culturally adapted. However, both websites include additions to explain the Danish meaning of the brand name. Culture The German version includes an added high power distance approach, as the dominant role of the mother company Stelton is further emphasised, e.g. the mother company is directly named as company (Unternehmen) and is further articulated as House of design (Designhaus) (para. 4). Linguistic The German and the English website includes the argumentative rhetorical style of the domestic website, which accounts for high individualism values. P a g e

57 The German website includes rather formal formulations with some local terminology, which is a high uncertainty avoidance value. For example, the headline is named history (Historie), which is a rather formal formulation for story. Also, in para. 1, the Danish approach of calling their company as brand (brand), has been adapted to series (Serie), and to the greatest possible extend (weitestgehend). In para. 4, the German phrase thanks (to) (Dank) has been added to describe the affordable price level of the products in a more formal way. Examples of local terminology can be found in para. 1 quite simply (schlicht und ergreifend) and para. 4 it is foreign to our nature (es liegt uns volkommen fern). The English website includes some colloquial phrases which account for a low uncertainty avoidance. For example, para. 4 is introduced by Well,, and another example can be found in para. 5, describing the companies target group as RIG-TIG is actually for. I It should be named that the English website include American English phrases, e.g. para. 5 socializing and para. 3 realizing. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER +IDV UAI PDI MAS IDV UAI IDV PDI IDV UAI MAS IDV UAI PDI IDV UAI Table 8: The cultural values on the company profile website of RigTig by Stelton The product profile website rep. 1 The Danish website on the company s values bears the headline Rig-Tig s values (Rig-Tigs værdier), and can be accessed through the main menu About Rig-Tig (Om Rig-Tig) and the sublink Rig-Tig s values (Rig-Tigs værdier). The website includes a plain white background and includes a dominant image with a light brown background including the English words function, design and resources, which are written in black capital letters in a hand-written style. The image is placed in the left upper corner, the website text is placed to the right of the image. P a g e

58 Screenshot 3: The product profile website of RigTig by Stelton rep. 1 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) The written content of the website is structured by sub headlines. The text accounts for the core values of the brand, namely function, design and resources, and it is described how the company designed the product s packaging, materials as well as the functions to be environmentally friendly. As part of the last paragraph, there is a link that leads the user to a website that explains the company s mission and vision Read here about RIG-TIG s vision & mission (Læs her om RIG-TIGs Vision & Mission). Culture Overall, the website text is characterised by high individualism values, focussing the needs of the user. This approach can be especially found in paragraph 2 and 3, where it is highlighted that the companies products are designed to gain the life of the consumer, the product functions are highlighted as being superior in its function and design compared to regular products. In paragraph 4-7, the company thoroughly highlights its approach of offering sustainable, environmentally products, which accounts for a low individualism approach, underplaying the approach of personal achievement and focussing the user as a part of a society with common goals. However, this general collectivistic approach is explained in high individualism perspective, highlighting the indirect personal gain for the consumer in paragraph 4 and The dominating high individualism approach will be marked with a + in the summary. P a g e

59 A high power distance approach can be seen in the highlighting that the company corporates with a group of excellent designer s from all over the world (para. 3), which can be interpreted as an approach of communicating superior quality, giving the consumer the possibility to state his social status by the promoted products. Finally, an approach of high uncertainty avoidance is represented by a focus in tradition, which shall guarantee the consumer reliable and qualitative products. Linguistic The website includes various high individualism values, which is represented by argumentative speech and the toleration of extreme claims. In this way, it is claimed that consumers will save time, space and dish-wash and it is highlighted that the company reduces its packaging to a minimum, and the issue of product sustainability is projected as a personal gain for the consumers. The content is also characterised by a low uncertainty avoidance approach as the text includes informal phrases, e.g. colloquial language use. Technical The website includes widely the same approaches as the company profile website, and thus it bears low power distance approach and low individualism values. Visual The surrounding frame of the website is widely identically with the company profile website, and thus the website bears low masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance values in its overall approach towards visual aesthetics and colour coding respectively. Also, the homepage design corresponds to an high individualism approach as the website design follows an independent theme and offers an individualised navigation design. The German and English version The visual appearance of the German and English websites are identical to the Danish website. As the company profile website, the upper navigation menu has not been linguistically adapted while the left main menu has been translated into German and English respectively. Culture The German and English websites include a low masculinity approach by the use of personal pronouns in the headlines, creating a more solidary and equal relation between the sender and receiver. P a g e

60 In the English version, there is a minor collectivistic approach in paragraph 7, as the message indirectly prompts the reader to act responsible to nature, treating him/her as a part of a society with a common interest. Linguistic Overall, the English and the German websites have adapted the argumentative speech the extreme claims of the Danish website, which accounts for high individualism values. The German website includes formal and local language elements which account for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. The English version includes linguistic changes, as it includes a range of contractions and some colloquial formulations, which account for a low uncertainty avoidance approach. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER + IDV UAI PDI IDV UAI IDV PDI MAS IDV UAI MAS IDV UAI Table 9: The cultural values on the product website of RigTig by Stelton Erik bagger Erik bagger a/s is a Danish joint stock company (aktieselskab), has its head office in Herlev, Denmark, and was founded in The principal shareholder of the company is the joint stock company Imerco Holding a/s which owns the Danish chain Imerco, which trades amongst others tableware (erik bagger, 2013) (appendix 8). Erik bagger produces and sells products, which follow a modern, timeless and pure Scandinavian design approach. The websites which will be analysed are the homepage, the website Our mission (Vores mission), and two websites which represent a missing product profile website, namely the product website Light storage designed by Josefine Bentzen (Light Storage designet af Josefine Bentzen) and the P a g e

61 website Every day a party (Hver dag en fest), which offers a suggestion for using erik bagger products. The complete website analysis can be found in appendix 24, and copies of the erik bagger websites can be found in appendix The homepage The erik bagger homepage includes a centrally located image slideshow which automatically shifts between 8 available images. The first image of the slideshow bears the headline Catch the moment and illustrates two moving feet, which leave footprints on a sandy ground. A text has been placed on the right side of the image, and in the upper right corner, there is a dominant black logo including the initials eb, which refer to the brand name, erik bagger 9. Below the slideshow, there is a bottom row of nine boxes which include links to a broad range of internal websites (e.g. products, social media presentation, design, catalogue, suggestions, feedback wish). Below the box row, on the left side, a plain homepage link which is includes the text erik bagger denmark has been placed. The navigation menu is placed above the central image. To the right of the main menu, there is a search field, and above this field, there are icons of a printer, a site map as well as a Danish, British and German flag. These icons give the user the opportunity to print the homepage, to view a sitemap of the entire website and to choose between a Danish, English and German version of the website. 9 As only the first image of the slideshow includes a text, only this slide will be taken into account in this case. P a g e

62 Screenshot 4: The homepage of erik bagger part 1 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Screenshot 5: The homepage of erik bagger part 2 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture The website bears high individualism values as there is a general focus on the user s needs and it is highlighted that the products of the company stand for newness and uniqueness. There are also signs P a g e

63 of a low individualism approach as the visitor is addressed as a part of the company s consumer group and he/she is expected to be willing to provide personal information. The company describes that it stands for a modern Scandinavian design approach, which indicates a certain tolerance of vagueness, and hence a value of low uncertainty avoidance cultures. The main menu represents a high uncertainty avoidance approach as the user can choose to find a local retailer and company partners, which allows the visitor to regard the company as trustworthy. Finally, a description of wanting to eliminate boring design for bringing new life into everyday life can be interpreted as a general openness towards evolution and change, representing a low uncertainty avoidance value, but also an approach of focussing the quality of life, representing a low masculinity approach. Linguistic Overall, the website is characterised by a plain language, which includes some poetical approaches, which is a typical low masculinity value. The text also includes extreme claims, which is a sign of high individualism. Technical The navigation menu bears high individualism values as its multiple content choices represent an individualised navigation design. This complexity also approaches for a low uncertainty avoidance value. In addition, the homepage is designed to provide information to any visitor, which is a sign of a low power distance approach. Visual The website bears high individualism values focus on products or persons by themselves. In addition, there are high power distance elements (e.g. the Seidenfaden Design box) which highlights an important person of the company, and company logo has been placed on the central image element which highlights the identity of the sender. The homepage includes a range of colours, which is a sign of a low uncertainty avoidance approach. However, there is a tendency for the use of a white background colour and black elements and framings, which abates the visual complexity and hence, stands for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. P a g e

64 The German and English versions Culture On the German website, there is an increased focus on describing the product s effectiveness, which can be interpreted as a rather high masculinity approach. In addition, the German description of the Scandinavian design approach concentrates on presenting a clear and simple design approach, excluding an innovative description, which is an approach towards a higher uncertainty avoidance value. Linguistic The English and the German websites both include low masculinity approaches and high individualism approaches. The German content includes formal as well as local language phrases, which can be interpreted as a high uncertainty avoidance approach. In addition, the German website includes elements, which bear an increased focus on a to the point information, which is a high individualism structural value. Technical The German and English navigation menus are widely identical to the Danish navigation menu, but its elements have been reordered. Design Whether the visitor has accessed the English or the German homepage versions is indicated by a coloured British or German flag respectively. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER IDV UAI MAS IDV MAS IDV UAI PDI IDV UAI PDI IDV MAS UAI MAS IDV UAI MAS Table 10: The cultural values on the homepage of erik bagger P a g e

65 The company profile website The company profile website is accessed via the main menu The company (Virksomheden) and bears the headline Our mission (Vores Mission). The text of the website is written on a plain white background, and in the upper left corner, a fitted black-coloured eb logo has been added. The text is surrounded by the navigation menu above, and the row of boxes below. Screenshot 6: The company profile website of erik bagger (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture As the homepage, the company profile website includes the bottom row of boxes, which includes collectivistic elements. As the first two paragraphs of the text are identical with the text of the first slideshow image of the homepage, its content bears high individualism approaches and elements of high and low uncertainty avoidance values in their cultural orientation. The third and fourth paragraph account for the company s mission of integrating consumers in the developing process of products, and they call for dialogue with their consumers through their social media presence. Thus, these paragraphs are characterised by a low individualism approach. However, the commitment of the company to let consumers participate in the development of products can also be interpreted as a low masculinity P a g e

66 and low power distance approach, referring to equality and solidarity between producer and consumer. Finally, the company claims to use the feedback of the consumers for a creative development of the term Scandinavian design, which can be interpreted from three cultural angles. First, the statement can be interpreted as a high individualism approach (focussing what is new and unique), second, it can be interpreted as tolerance of vagueness and hence a low uncertainty avoidance approach, and third, it can symbolise equality between company and consumer, which is a low power distance approach. Linguistic As the first two paragraphs of the text are identical with the text of the first slideshow image of the homepage, which bears poetical characteristics, these paragraphs, bear a low masculinity approach. The structure of the text bears individualism approaches as there is a frequent use of extreme claims. Further, the appearance of colloquial phrases highlight a low uncertainty avoidance approach. Technical With an exception to the slideshow element, the website includes the same technical approaches as the homepage, and thus the technical approach is characterised by high individualism values and low power distance approaches. Visual As on the homepage, the row of boxes on the company profile website account for predominantly high individualism values, with a high power distance element. In addition, the use of colours account for low and high uncertainty avoidance approaches. (cf. the description of the homepage on visual appearance) The German and English versions The German and the English versions have not been adapted in a technical or visual perspective. Culture The German version includes an approach of a slightly increased power distance value, as the company is described as joint stock company. Linguistic The German and English websites include the same low masculinity approaches and high individualism approaches of the Danish website. P a g e

67 The German and English website texts include local language phrases, which increase the uncertainty avoidance approach. In the German text, the first line has been translated rather informally bears a slightly lower uncertainty avoidance. The English text on the company profile website includes a clear increase of formal language phrases, and hence high uncertainty avoidance values. However, the text also includes two paragraphs with contractions, which lowers the uncertainty avoidance value. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER IDV UAI MAS IDV MAS IDV UAI PDI IDV UAI PDI IDV UAI MAS UAI PDI IDV UAI MAS UAI Table 11: The cultural values on the company profile website of erik bagger The product profile website rep. 1 With no available product profile website as such, the product website Light Storage designed by Josefine Bentzen (Light Storage designet af Josefine Bentzen) will be one of two website which will represent the product profile category. The chosen product website is available through the main menu news, and describes a light storage series. The website has a plain white background and includes a dominant multi-coloured image on the left side, which illustrates the light storage series with some decorative elements. In the upper left corner, there is a light brown eb logo. The website text has been placed on the right side of the website. As on the previously described erik bagger websites, the website is surrounded by a main menu above the content and a row of boxes below the content. P a g e

68 Screenshot 7: The product profile website of erik bagger rep. 1 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture The text is highly focussed on the functionality and effectiveness of the product series which is a masculinity value approach. In addition, the text includes an approach of high uncertainty avoidance as it is named where the promoted series can be bought. In addition, the products are described as timeless (tidløs), which signals tradition in the choice of materials. The explicit naming of the designer behind the product series can be interpreted as another high uncertainty approach. However, the designer might not be known to all visitors. As previously described (cf. description of the Danish homepage s cultural approaches), the boxes Tips & ideas and Watch film about Seidenfaden Design bear high individualism approaches, while the boxes May we ask you? and See our new Facebook fan page are characterised by a collectivistic approach. Linguistic The text is includes short and structured sentences which communicate to-the-point information, which accounts for an individual approach. The overall language style is formal which accounts for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. P a g e

69 Technical The website includes the same technical approaches as the company profile website (see description above), and thus, it bears high individualism values and a low power distance approach. Visual As the homepage and the company profile website, the row of boxes on the company profile website account for predominantly high individualism values, with a high power distance element. In addition, the use of colours account for low and high uncertainty avoidance approaches. (cf. the description of the homepage on visual appearance) The English and German versions The English and German versions, including the linguistic area, are widely identical with the Danish website. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER IDV UAI MAS IDV UAI IDV PDI IDV UAI PDI UAI Table 12: The cultural values on the product profile website of erik bagger rep The product profile website rep. 2 The second representative website for the product profile category is accessed through the main menu tips & ideas (Tips & ideer), and bears the headline Every day a party (Hver dag en fest). The website suggests the visitor to use the company s tableware not only for fine occasions but also in everyday situations. The website has a plain white background and to the left, there is a black and white picture of a laughing boy, and a bright green eb logo has been place on the upper left side corner of the image. P a g e

70 To the right, there is a text. As in the previous described erik bagger websites, the website is surrounded by a navigation menu on the top and a row of boxes on the bottom. Screenshot 8: The product profile website of erik bagger rep. 2 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture Overall, the content of the website is oriented towards a low masculinity approach, which can be seen in a general approach of equality, solidarity and quality of life (e.g. the text content suggests to use fine (wine-)glasses for playing with one s children). At the same time, the low masculinity focus could also be interpreted as a low power distance approach, which focusses on equality and personal development. Further, the focus on the quality of life can also be interpreted as a high individualism approach which focusses on the user s needs. Suggestions of changing everyday routines signals a tolerance of ambiguity, vagueness and change, and hence, low uncertainty avoidance values. As previously described (cf. description of the Danish homepage s cultural approaches), the boxes Tips & ideas and Watch film about Seidenfaden Design focus on a high individualism approach, while the boxes May we ask you? and See our new Facebook fan page are characterised by a collectivistic approach. P a g e

71 Linguistic The text includes some informal phrases, which account for a low uncertainty avoidance approach. Some added extreme claims and argumentative speech account for signs of high individualism. Technical The website includes the same technical approaches as the company profile website (see description above), and thus, it bears high individual values and a low power distance approach. Design As the homepage and the company profile website, the available row of boxes on the company profile website account for predominantly high individualism values, with a high power distance element. The website includes an additional individualism approach, as the picture on the website gives importance to an individual (a boy). The use of colours account for low and high uncertainty avoidance approaches. (cf. the description of the homepage on visual appearance) The German and the English versions Overall, the content of the German and English versions have not been culturally adapted. Linguistic The German and the English website texts include the same extreme claims and argumentative speech as the Danish website which account for a high individualism approach. Both websites include some informal phrases which are signs of a low uncertainty avoidance in the content structure. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER IDV UAI PDI MAS IDV UAI IDV PDI IDV UAI PDI IDV UAI IDV UAI Table 13: The cultural values on the product profile website of erik bagger rep. 2 P a g e

72 Rosendahl Rosendahl was founded in 1984 and is a part of the Rosendahl Design Group. The head office is located in Hørsholm, Denmark. The company produces amongst others tableware products that are practical and clean-cut designed and which follow the Scandinavian and Danish design approaches ((Rosendahl Design Group, 2013) appendix 5, (Rosendahl, 2013) (appendix ). The websites which will be analysed are the homepage, the company profile website Rosendahl Design Group (Rosendahl Design Group), the product profile website Wide (lit. full) assortment in all Rosendahl series (Fuldt sortiment i alle Rosendahl serier), which due to its limited content will be supplemented by the product news website News by Rosendahl (Nyheder fra Rosendahl). The complete website analysis can be found in appendix 25, and copies of the Rosendahl websites can be found in appendix The homepage The homepage of Rosendahl includes a great range of content, including product images and texts. In addition, the homepage has an added e-shop function. When entering the homepage, a box pops up website uses cookies (Vi bruger cookies). Describing the homepage from the top to the bottom, the homepage first offers a main navigation menu on top. To the left, above the main menu, there is a row of three links Find retailer (Find forhandler), For the press (Til pressen) and Country: Danmark (Country: Danmark), where the user can choose different language versions by choosing a given country. To the right of the links, Rosendahl Copenhagen has been centrally positioned. It links to the homepage. To the right, there is a search box. Below the navigation menu, there is a text-image of an arrangement of two bread knives, a bread and red onions. Below this headline, six knives, four decorated cutting boards and four knife blocks are illustrated in boxes, which include a description of the name, the features and the price (in DKK) of the items. In addition, there a two text boxes in a light brown and dark purple colour. Below these boxes, there is a dominating image of stabled white plates, where one plate is decorated with a dark purple flower. To the left of the image, there is a text box. Below the image and the text, there are three boxes return, find a retailer, newsletter. Below these boxes, there is a blue bar where there text Rosendahl Copenhagen has been centrally placed. Finally, below the bar, there is a menu of five categories. P a g e

73 Screenshot 9: The homepage of Rosendahl - part 1 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Screenshot 10: The homepage of Rosendahl - part 2 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) P a g e

74 Screenshot 11: The homepage of Rosendahl - part 3 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture The product boxes represent a general approach of high masculinity values, as the website focusses the effectiveness of its products. In addition, some content corresponds to a high uncertainty avoidance approach, as there is information on local stores, a free return and delivery guarantee, a product quality, and the headline promotes a test winning knife. Although the offering of a newsletter in a technical perspective is interpreted as an approach of collectivism (see below), the content orientation of the offered newsletter is described in a high individualism approach, highlighting the personal benefits for the user. In addition, a pop-up box in informs the user about the website s use of cookies, which indicates an individualism approach. Linguistic The website s maximum of content combined with rather informal phrases represent low uncertainty avoidance values. Technical As the content of the homepage is available to all visitors, it bears a low power distance approach. Further, the homepage bears a collectivistic approach as the visitor can subscribe the company s newsletter on the bottom of the page. While the complex arrangement of the content is a low uncertainty approach, the Find retailer search box function offers the user to find a local retail store, functioning as customer service and representing high uncertainty avoidance. P a g e

75 Visual Overall, the homepage includes a composition of numerous text and image elements following a certain colour scheme, and this approach towards visual aesthetics can be interpreted as a low masculinity approach. The coding of the colours and the visual approach of maximising information further accounts for a low uncertainty avoidance approach. Finally, there are high individualism values as the website is designed in an individual way, and as all promoted products are shown by themselves. The German and the English homepages The English and German menus include seven instead of six menu items, and the homepages do not include an e-shop function. Thus, there are elements of the Danish homepage which have not been transferred to the English and German homepage respectively. In this way, the navigation menu does not include a shopping basket, the products boxes do not include a put into basket function, the two promotional boxes on a 30 days free return are not available and the headline test winning breadknife DKK has been left out. In addition, the knife blocks are not shown in the English and German versions. The country selection link above the main menu relates the German language version as Germany (Deutschland), while the English language version is available at the section International. Although the website is not explicitly targeted at the UK market, I will consider the cultural values of the UK for the website analysis. In means of content adaption, it should be named that the cutting board Grand Cru Smørrebrikker (lit. a board for sandwiches ) has been replaced by another product, the Grand Cru small chopping board in the German and English versions. Culture The headline of the product boxes Knives & chopping boards is in the German and English version described as Rosendahl Grand Cru knives & cutting boards, and this added highlighting of the company signals the status of the sender and its products, and can thus be interpreted as high power distance approach. The description of the newsletter box in the English and German version does not highlight any personal gains for the user. Instead, it is highlighted that the company will do its best (in German: Wir bemühen uns) to deliver content that the consumer might be interested in. Therefore, the German and English newsletter approaches bear collectivistic values, focussing the user as a part of a (consumer) group with common interests. P a g e

76 The 30 days free return box has been replaced by a Danish Design (in German: Dänisches Design) box in the German and English version respectively. However, the English and German boxes differ in the realisation of the box content: The English box describes Rosendahl s Danish design approach in a functional manner, highlighting a certain product quality, which accounts for high individualism values, highlighting unique product values. The German box explains Danish design by authenticity, functionality and tradition, which accounts for a high uncertainty avoidance value and a high masculinity approach respectively. This high uncertainty approach on the German website is further supported by the fact that the boxes on the website include prices of the promoted products in the local currency, euro. Linguistic Three elements of the German and English menu have been rather formally adapted, which is a sign of a high uncertainty avoidance (e.g. the Danish menu link For the flat equals Kitchenware or in German Cooking (Kochen)). In addition, the English version includes a colloquial formulation which accounts for a low uncertainty avoidance approach 10. Technical The English and German main menus include a contact link, which is a sign of high uncertainty avoidance. Summary Culture DEN UK GER IDV UAI MAS IDV PDI IDV UAI PDI MAS Linguistic UAI UAI UAI Technical Visual UAI PDI IDV UAI MAS UAI UAI Table 14: The cultural values on the homepage of Rosendahl 10 Possibly, also the German version uses this colloquial formulation but the text is covered by the added Read more link. P a g e

77 The company profile website The company profile website is surrounded by the previous described dark blue main navigation on top of the page and a light brown bottom menu. The company profile website as such includes a plain white background and a dominant, blurred picture of a white office building on the top. Below the image, there is a text. The text accounts for Rosendahl s innovative and creative design approach since its founding in 1984, and it is highlighted that the company is proud to be a representative of the Danish design tradition. Screenshot 12: The company profile website of Rosendahl - part 1 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Screenshot 13: The company profile website of Rosendahl - part 2 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) P a g e

78 Culture A pop-up box informing the user about the website s cookie policy accounts for a high individualism approach. There is a low masculinity approach, as the text focusses on the quality of life and equality. Also, there are examples of a high individualism approach, as the uniqueness of the company s products are highlighted, and the user s needs are focussed. Elements of an underlying sense of equality and morality as well as low hierarchies in mental models account for a low power distance approaches. However, highlighting a corporation with leading designers signal a high power distance approach, as the social status is in focus. The text includes high uncertainty avoidance elements, as there is a focus on tradition. In addition, the company offers to assist the visitor with any inquiries relating to the company s products, which offers the user to be informed about potential implications before he/she buys the company s products. However, the website content also bears slight elements of low uncertainty avoidance values, as there is a focus on evolution and change. Linguistic The website includes linguistic elements of high individualism, represented by extreme claims, and low uncertainty avoidance approaches can be seen in rather colloquial phrases. Technical The fact that the company offers to assist the user with any inquires or questions about the products (para. 4) accounts for a low masculinity approach. This approach can also be interpreted as customer service and thus as a high uncertainty avoidance approach. In addition, the main menu includes a contact link which is likewise a sign for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. As the website is accessible for any visitor and includes no restrictions, the website accounts for a low power distance approach. Visual The website is characterised by a realism theme that focusses on to-the-point information, which accounts for a high masculinity value. Further, the simple website setup, which includes redundant cues to reduce ambiguity, accounts for a high uncertainty avoidance. The English and the German versions Overall, the English and the German versions are widely identically with the Danish version. P a g e

79 Culture The English and German websites include the high individualism approach of the Danish website, but the German headline includes an added personal approach, which accounts for a low individualism approach. Linguistic The English and German website texts include the same extreme claims as the Danish website (cf. the linguistic description of the Danish website) and thus, these bear signs of high individualism. The English website content includes predominantly formal phrases which are signs of a high uncertainty avoidance. However, there is a minor approach of a rather informal approach, which lowers this overall high uncertainty avoidance approach. The German text content includes formal phrases which account for a high uncertainty avoidance value. Summary Culture Linguistic Technical Visual DEN UK GER IDV UAI PDI MAS IDV UAI UAI PDI MAS UAI MAS IDV UAI IDV UAI IDV PDI IDV UAI Table 15: The cultural values on the company profile website of Rosendahl The product profile website The product website bears the headline Wide (lit. full) assortment in all Rosendahl series (Fuldt sortiment i alle Rosendahl serier) and is surrounded by the previously described main menu on the top and the bottom menu on the bottom of the page. The website is available through the blue main menu and its link series (serier), and it includes a submenu with a light brown background colour, which is placed below the main menu. The main image on top of the website illustrates a table that is laid for a meal. A headline in a light grey box introduces the text below. P a g e

80 The text only consist of one sentence, which welcomes the user to discover more about the company s products on the website. Screenshot 14: The product profile website of Rosendahl (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture The text of the content is focused on the user s needs and seeks to forecast the results of actions before use, and thus, it is characterised by a high individualism and high uncertainty avoidance approach respectively. In addition, a pop-up box informing the user about the website s cookie policy accounts for a high individualism approach. Linguistic The content structure is characterised by a high individualism approach, as the site offers to the point information, e.g. an overview of the company s product series in the submenu, and the enumeration of the same series in the text. The headline can be interpreted as an extreme claim, which is likewise a sign of individualism. Finally, the text bears an overall formality, which accounts for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. Technical As there are no access restrictions, the website bears a low power distance approach. The availability of three menus in total, which offers exploration and control, is a sign of a high masculinity approach. Visual As the company profile website, the product profile website is characterised by a realism theme which focusses on to-the-point information, which is a high masculinity approach. P a g e

81 Further, the website layout is overall simple, which accounts for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. The English and German versions Visually, the English and the German versions are identically with the Danish versions. However, the adapted submenu does not include the items Kay Bojesen, Arne Jacobsen, Picto and Global. Likewise, these series items are not named in the text. Culture The English text does not include an introduction that names the functions of the website, and thus accounts for a lower uncertainty avoidance approach, focussing on precision and punctuality. Linguistic The English and the German websites include the same high individualism approach and high uncertainty avoidance approach as the Danish website by e.g. including to the point information, and offering a simple content layout. Summary DEN UK GER Culture IDV UAI UAI Linguistic IDV UAI IDV UAI IDV UAI Technical PDI MAS Visual MAS Table 16: The cultural values on the product profile website of Rosendahl part The product profile website rep. 2 The second representative product profile website is a website which presents new products. The website is surrounded by the previously described main menu on the top and a menu on the bottom of the website. It is accessed through the main menu item Curious? (Nysgerrig?) and the sublink News autumn 2013 (Nyheder efterår 2013). Besides the previously described main menu, the P a g e

82 website includes a submenu, which includes the links Brochure (Brochure), Newsletter (Nyhedsbrev) and News autumn 2013 (News autumn 2013), which refers to the accessed website. Below the menus, there is an image of some white cups and a flask in a decorative theme. The website is introduced by a text in a grey box. Below this introduction, there are seven colourful image and text arrangements, which present new products of the company. Screenshot 15: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 1 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Screenshot 16: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 2 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) P a g e

83 Screenshot 17: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 3 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Screenshot 18: The product news website of Rosendahl rep. 2, part 4 (DEN) SOURCE: (retrieved ) Culture Overall, the website is highly oriented towards individualism, as the website focusses on new and unique products of the company. The individual text-image arrangements further highlight what the consumer will gain from the new products. The last arrangement bears, however, rather collectivistic approaches, as the product is described as being for the whole family (til hele familien), which positions the consumer as a part of a social group. In addition, a pop-up box informing the user about the website s cookie policy accounts for a high individualism approach. P a g e

84 The website bears low and high masculinity approaches. On the one hand, a low masculinity approach is seen in the focussing of the quality of life, suggesting the products as perfect wedding gifts or by highlighting the products user-friendly features. On the other hand, a high masculinity value is highlighted by the overall focus on the product effectiveness of the individual products in all arrangements. Linguistic All text-image arrangements include factual information about the promoted products e.g. measures, amount, retail prices and a link to a retailer, which are a signs of high uncertainty avoidance. In addition, five of the seven arrangements include a download link for an extended description of the promoted product. The website content includes high individualism values, as there are various extreme claims about the product by e.g. describing the products as indispensable. Overall, the content complexity of the text-image arrangements, which include factual and subjective claims, account for low uncertainty avoidance values. In addition, the website content also includes some colloquial phrases. While these would account for an informal language use, some of the phrases can also be interpreted as an approach of using local terminology, which is a high uncertainty avoidance approach. The availability of three menus and the inclusion of fact-oriented product information in the textimage arrangements are signs of a certain structured access to information, which is a high power distance approach. Technical The availability of three menus in total account for a rather unclear and complex navigation structure, and thus a lack of control can be interpreted as low uncertainty avoidance value. The websites provides detailed product information to any visitor, which is a low power distance approach. The appearance of a pop-up box, which informs the user about the use of cookies, is a sign of a high power distance approach. Visual The design of the website is characterised by a high individualism approach, as the website bears independent and personalised visual elements, and in addition, all text-image arrangements show the products by themselves. The overall visual complexity of the website is also a sign of a low uncertainty avoidance. P a g e

85 The German and the English versions The German and English websites are not available via the main menu but must be accessed by the bottom menu Inspiration and the sublink Product news (in German: Produktneuheiten). In this way, the websites do not include a submenu below the main menu. The websites differ in their layout, as the English website includes five text-image arrangements and the German version only includes three text-image arrangements. Both sites include the first arrangement, Pretty in pink. Rosendahl grand cru and the seventh arrangement Grand cru outdoor. Plastic-fantastic for the whole family (In German: Lasst uns rausgehen! Rosendahl Grand Cru Outdoor). Only the English website also includes the arrangements 2, 3 and 4. However, the German website includes one element, which is not named on the other websites. It bears the headline The blue summer. Rosendahl Grand Cru (Der blaue Sommer. Rosendahl Grand Cru) and promotes a series of blue glasses. As it appears that the texts of the Danish text-image arrangements have been widely rewritten in English and German respectively, the cultural value approach of the English and the German websites will be analysed separately. The English version Culture The English website is characterised by a low uncertainty avoidance content orientation and high individualism approach. For example, individualism can be seen as the needs of the user are focussed, and the products are further described by their new and unique characteristics. Statements that highlight the newness of the products further account for evolution and change approach, which adds low uncertainty avoidance values to the website. The English website also includes a range of low and some high masculinity values. On the one hand, the texts offer the visitor some factual information, which includes information about the products effectiveness and thus account for a high masculinity approach. On the other hand, the products are described as being able to add value to the consumer s quality of life, which is a low masculinity value. In addition, the descriptions account for unifying values, which is a further low masculinity approach. Linguistics As the Danish website, also the text-image arrangements of the English website include factual information about the promoted products, which are signs of high uncertainty avoidance. However, P a g e

86 these descriptions do not include amount, retail prices and links to retailers, which are a signs of low uncertainty avoidance. The website includes high individualism approaches, as extreme claims are used to describe the advantages of the products. In addition, the website combines approaches of high and low uncertainty avoidance approaches. On the one hand, the website content is complex, including factual and subjective claims. On the other hand, the content structure bears characteristics of high uncertainty avoidance, as local language phrases are used frequently. Technical As the Danish website, the English website bears a low power distance value, as its content is available for any visitor, signs of a high power distance approach due to the appearance of a pop-up box, which informs the user about the use of cookies, and the availability of three menus in total account for a low uncertainty avoidance value. Visuals As the visual appearance is widely identical with the Danish version, the English website is characterised by high individualism approaches and a low uncertainty avoidance. The German version Culture The German website includes a dominant use of high masculinity approaches, focussing on effectiveness of the products. However, one arrangement also includes a low masculinity approach, while highlighting the quality of life, by linking the promoted products to a pleasant situation. The German website includes high individualism approaches, as there is a focus on newness and uniqueness in the description of the products. By claiming that persons with a high social position appreciate the company s products, the the blue summer arrangement accounts for a high power distance approaches. In addition, there is a certain description of a company tradition, which accounts for a high uncertainty avoidance approach. Linguistic As the Danish website, also the text-image arrangements of the German website include factual information about the promoted products, which are signs of high uncertainty avoidance. However, these descriptions do not include amount, retail prices and links to retailers, which are a signs of low uncertainty avoidance. P a g e

87 There are some elements of high individualism approaches, as there is a focus on argumentative speech and extreme claims. However, with a general focus on local terminology and perspectives, the website also follows a high uncertainty avoidance approach. Technical As the Danish website, the German website bears a low power distance value, as its content is available for any visitor, signs of a high power distance approach due to the appearance of a pop-up box, which informs the user about the use of cookies, and the availability of three menus in total account for a low uncertainty avoidance value. Design The overall independent theme and the illustration of products by themselves account for a high individualism approach. Further, website includes low uncertainty avoidance approaches as there is a multiple colour use and the promoted products are illustrated with decorations. The traditional in a blue and grey colour scheme of the navigation menu, however, increase this overall low uncertainty avoidance approach. Summary DEN UK GER Culture IDV MAS IDV UAI MAS IDV UAI PDI MAS Linguistics Technical Visuals IDV UAI PDI UAI PDI IDV UAI IDV UAI PDI UAI PDI IDV UAI IDV UAI PDI UAI PDI IDV UAI Table 17: The cultural values on the product profile website of Rosendahl rep Findings After having examined the cultural values of the localised websites of the three selected companies, this section shall conclude the findings and account for common structures. The tables which accounted for the cultural findings of the website analysis have been merged in three tables which illustrate the complete findings of the individual company websites (see appendix 11-13). P a g e

88 First, it will be accounted for the results of the analysis of the individual company websites. Then, a comparison will follow. The table The columns account for the analysed websites, which are separated in three sub-columns that stand for the Danish, English and German website versions respectively. The rows account for the four categories of website localisation (culture, linguistic, technical and visual) which are categorised by Hofstede s cultural value indexes (IDV, UAI, PDI and MAS). As in the summary, the results of the analyses are indicated by a, which stands for an increase of the value, or a, which stands for a decrease of the value. A green colour indicates that the analysed value is adapted to the culture of the target audience, while a red colour symbolises that the analysed value is not adapted to the culture of the target audience. In case that the analysis found high and low indicators ( ) of a given cultural value, the colour is orange, which signals a culturally neutral element. Focussing on the Danish website as the source for the localised German and English websites, the Danish cultural values are indirectly present in the localised versions unless there has been found explicit differences. This assumption on the indirect common cultural approach of the localised websites is marked in a lighter colour of the categorisation of the actual finding. The colours, however, might not be identically to the colour of the Danish categorisation as cultural values are not equally suitable across cultures. For example, while a low MAS value in the visual approach of the Danish version corresponds to the Danish low MAS culture, this approach appears not suitable for the German or English cultures which are high MAS cultures. Thus, the Danish box is marked with a bright green colour, while the German and English boxes are marked with a light red colour. The number of elements that account for adapted, neutral and non-adapted cultural elements of the individual websites (including the indirect elements) have been summed up on the end of every subcolumn. Below, the total number of the cultural findings have been summed up. In this way, it was possible to calculate the per cent of the adapted, neutral and non-adapted cultural elements. These are later used to illustrate how the cultural elements of the Danish, English and German analysed websites correspond to the cultural preferences of the Danish, British and German target audience respectively (cf. appendix 14-16) RigTig by Stelton In a linguistic and visual perspective, the Danish RigTig by Stelton websites account for values which suit the Danish culture, i.e. high individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, low power distance and low masculinity. The cultural and technical approaches, however, do not account for a Danish P a g e

89 cultural approach, as all websites include low individualism approaches in the technical view and two websites include high uncertainty elements in the cultural view. Overall, the visual and technical areas of localisation have not been changed across the different language versions. Regarding the English and German websites, it appears that the technical and visual approaches of the Danish website have not been adapted. Thus, adaption are only seen in the cultural and linguistic area. Overall, however, these do not follow a clear approach. The only common structures can only be found in the linguistic area, where all adaptions include a high individualism approach, as well as in the cultural area where all approaches follow a low masculinity approach. These suit only the English and the native Danish culture respectively. Overall, it is the homepage which bears the least amount of cultural adaption approaches, while the product profile website includes the most cultural adaption approaches. Regarding the illustration of appendix 14, it appears that the Danish website overall suits the website preferences of the Danish culture, and that these Danish values have been transferred to the English and German websites respectively. However, the English and the German websites do not reflect the cultural preferences of the British and German cultures respectively. Especially the German website does not correspond to the German cultural values Erik bagger All analysed websites bear an identical cultural approach in the visual perspective, and on a cultural basis, all websites include both high and low values of individualism. Likewise, it appears that the technical area has widely not been culturally adapted. With one exception in the first representing product profile website, the linguistic and technical areas of all Danish websites account for Danish cultural values. The first representing product profile website, however, accounts for a mixture of typical and non-typical Danish values. For example, the cultural perspective is non-danish, accounting solely for a high uncertainty avoidance approach and high masculinity values, and in linguistic area is characterised by a high uncertainty avoidance. The technical and visual areas of localisation appear identically across the different language versions. Overall, the English and German website versions have not been culturally adapted to the needs of the English and British cultures respectively. Only the company profile website has adapted its low power distance approach in the cultural perspective to a high power distance approach in the German versions. The English homepage includes an added uncertainty avoidance approach, which suits the British cultural preferences. P a g e

90 Regarding the illustrations of appendix 15, it appears that all websites bear adapted, neutral and non-adapted approaches. With an exception to the first representing product profile website, the cultural values of the Danish websites correlate with the cultural values of Denmark. The English websites are characterised by a mixture of adapted, neutral and non-adapted elements. Interestingly, the first representing product profile website appears highly suitable to the British cultural values. Finally, the German websites appear to be least culturally adapted, and thus the nonadapted cultural values dominate the German figure, which is especially visible in the second representing product profile website Rosendahl It appears that the analysed websites are very differing in their cultural approaches. There are whether definite common approaches across the individual language versions nor across the individual website types. It appears that especially the visual and technical areas of localisation have not been changed across the different language versions. Regarding the Danish websites, it is mainly the homepage and to a minor degree also the company profile website which account for the most Danish culture values. While the German and English websites generally are not clearly culturally adapted, it appears that the homepages overall account for the cultural preferences of the British and German culture respectively. In a broad perspective, it is the first representing product profile website, which accounts mostly for British cultural values. However, none of the German websites clearly represents German values. A website, which comes to the German cultural values, is the homepage and the first representing product profile website. Appendix 16 illustrates that there the Rd websites have not been clearly adapted to the cultural preferences of the Danish, German and British cultures Summary Overall, the analysed Danish websites account for the website preferences of the Danish culture. This is especially true for the websites of RigTig by Stelton (RT), while the websites of erik bagger (EB) and Rosendahl (Rd) also include a range of non-typical Danish approaches. The Rd websites follow a complex cultural approach which includes a non-linear cultural approach among the websites. The websites of RT and EB have in common that these have especially adapted their linguistic approach to the Danish cultural values, while the cultural approach does generally not appeal to the Danish cultural values. There is no general tendency for the adaption of the English websites. While the Rd websites are P a g e

91 overall adapted to the cultural values of the British culture, the EB websites bear adapted and nonadapted approaches, and the RT websites do generally not correspond to the British cultural values. Overall, the EB and RT websites fail to adapt the technical approach to the cultural preferences of the British target audience. The cultural areas, which have been most adapted to the cultural preferences of the British target cultures by the companies, are: visual (EB), linguistic (Rd) and cultural (RT). The company profile websites are those that are adapted to the British values on all company websites. The analysed German websites do not bear a clear German cultural approach. Two company websites (EB and RT) do overall not suit the German cultural values, while the Rd website is reasonably successful in its cultural adaption approach. The EB websites especially lack to adapt the technical area while RT lacks to adapt the visual area to the German cultural preferences. Finally, it should be noted that the findings illustrate that the visual and technical elements are widely identical for the individual company websites across the different language versions. This states that the selected websites are localised websites, as cultural adaptions are concentrated on the linguistic and cultural areas, which are related to the written communication elements. To conclude, the analysis shows that it is possible to culturally adapt a localised website, although it appears that those adaptions that are made do not fully correspond to the cultural values of the target audience. 4. The questionnaire The questionnaire was designed to investigate whether the companies are aware of intercultural web communication issues, also in relation to their common approach of the term Danish design. The questionnaire seeks to obtain data which indicate whether the results of the website analysis were intended and if the mindset of the company representatives can be related to the analysed cultural approaches of the websites. Therefore, this research is solely focussed on the issue of this thesis, and its results should therefore not be regarded as general representative result for explaining intercultural approaches. The questionnaires were sent to the marketing departments of the selected companies and were asked to be filled out by persons who had some relation to the development of the website. While the questionnaires were filled out erik bagger ( ) and RigTig ( ), the answers from Rosendahl were obtained through a telephone interview ( ), which was due to a lack of time of the respondent. While the questions are identically, it might hence appear that the answers of Rd are more detailed relating to the increased details offered in the orally answering. P a g e

92 As the questionnaire was only created to obtain data that would explain observations of the website analysis, the individual answers will be described in a comprehensive manner, focussing on statements which could be related to the results of the previous analyses Theoretical approach Focussing on the issue of this thesis, the cultural adaption of websites that represent the culturally bound term Danish design, the questionnaire was sent to representatives of the three selected companies who had some relation and influence on the content design of the company websites. Although questionnaires usually are used in quantitative researches, the questionnaire of this thesis can be categorised as qualitative, as the questions are open and were designed to lead selected respondents to give detailed answers with personal motivations relating to their intercultural web communication approach. The research seeks to explain the relation between the previously findings of the cultural adaption of Danish and/or Scandinavian design websites, and whether the senders of the websites are aware of intercultural aspects in web communication and if there is a correlation between cultural awareness and the actual communicated cultural value of the websites. The research can be categorised as explorative, as it seeks to investigate the motivations for the cultural adaption of websites, which is not explained by quantitative, standardised data. However, the quantitative design approach of the questionnaire will allow to compare the answers of the respondents, which shall later lead to define and explain the relation between the opinions of the companies and their intercultural web communication approach. In either way, the answers of the research shall contribute to explain the results of the theoretical findings of this thesis, and clearly. As the previous analysis focussed websites by Danish companies that market their products as Danish design, it was expected that the respondents had a native Danish background, and thus, the questionnaire was provided in Danish. The questionnaire is structured by four themes, namely: 1. General questions related to the website, which questions the respondent about the overall website approach. (4 main questions) 2. Questions to the website text, which questions the respondent to explain the production process of the website content. (3 main questions, 3 sub questions) 3. General questions for the respondent to account for cultural specific questions in relation to the term Danish design and the cultural adaption of their website. (3 main questions, 1 sub questions) 4. Personal questions about the respondent, which provide information about his/her relation and influence on the companies web communication. (5 main questions) P a g e

93 The questions are categorised in order to ensure the motivation of the respondents throughout the questionnaire. All headlines have been categorised as general questions for not influencing the respondent in his/her subjective view on the questions. The questions were formulated prior the website analysis RigTig by Stelton The respondent of RigTig by Stelton has designed the company website, and is responsible for its maintenance (4a). She is native Danish and speaks English and some German, and is an educated engineer and graphic designer (4b-d). The objectives for launching the English website was to reach a broad international audience, while the German website targets a German audience, which is a main export market of the company (1a, 1ai). The websites have been localised due to a lack of resources (1bi). The website was designed externally and its designers were aware of the multilingual purpose (1c). The website is updated internally (1d). The website texts were created internally and were initially written in Danish (2a, 2ai). The texts were translated by a combination of internal and external sources (2c). It was not essential that the creators of the English and German texts respectively had a certain cultural relation to the countries (2ci). Danish design is interpreted as minimalistic and pure in style, and it is not regarded as necessary to communicate the term differently to non-danish audiences (3a-b). The complete questionnaire can be found in appendix (17) 4.3. Erik bagger The respondent of EB has no direct influence on web communication (4a). He is native Danish, speaks English, German and Spanish and has a sales and logistics related education (4b-d). Export is the main reason for EB to publish their localised English and German websites, and the English website shall have a general relevance to persons outside Denmark (1a). The website has been designed externally, and it the designer knew that the website would be used in several languages (1c, 1ci). The website and its texts have been created and are updated externally and by EB (1d, 2a). It was not essential that the creators of the English and German texts respectively had a certain cultural relation to the countries (2ci, 2cii). The main reason for offering localised websites was financial restrictions, and potential advantages of culturally adapted websites seem only relevant when the company s international position will increase (1bi, 1bii). Danish design is interpreted to represent quality, functionality and innovation, and it is regarded as a strong international term which does not need any cultural adapted communication (3a-b). The complete questionnaire can be found in appendix 18 P a g e

94 4.4. Rosendahl The respondent of Rosendahl is responsible for the company s online communication (4a). She is an educated engineer and has previously worked as journalist for online media (4b). She is native Danish and speaks German, English as well as Swedish and Norwegian (4c-d). The English and German websites were created for general publicity reasons (1a). The English website seeks to communicate to a broad international audience, while the German website targets German users (1ai). The localisation layout of websites was chosen to offer an identical company image internationally, and it is highlighted that the website content has been culturally adapted (1bi). The website was designed by a Danish-based internationally operating company, and they were informed that the websites would be used for multiple language versions (1c, 1ci). The website content has been created internally in cooperation with an external copywriter, and the texts are maintained internally (1d, 2a)). The texts were initially created in Danish and have then been translated by native German and British/American translators (2ai, 2c). It was essential that the translators had a cultural relation to the countries (2ci). For their translation, they were given existing marketing material of the company (2cii). Danish design is interpreted as simple, functional and durable (3a). It is assumed that the communication of the term must be culturally adapted, as the perceptions of design and traditions differ across cultures (3c). The complete questionnaire can be found in appendix Summary All respondents had some relation to the company. While I explicitly requested the companies to choose a person that had some relation to the setup and creation of their company websites, one questionnaire (EB) was answered by a person who apparently had no direct relation to web communication. In this connection, the answers of the questionnaire only offers valuable web communication details to a limited degree and due to the lack of insight in the company s web communication approach, the results of EB cannot definitely be related to the results of the website analysis. Despite this, all respondents had a native Danish background and besides Danish, all respondents had some knowledge of German. All companies launched their German and English websites due in an export-related objective. Here, two companies (Rd and RT) named Germany as their main export market. No company mentioned the United Kingdom as a potential target market for their English websites, as these were rather regarded in a broad international objective. Two companies (EB and RT) named that the localisation P a g e

95 approach of their websites were due to additional costs, while one company (Rd) has explicitly chosen to launch localised websites for being able to communicate an identical company image internationally. None of the respondents deemed key advantages in the cultural adaption of their websites. All websites were designed externally, and all website designers were informed about the multilingual use of the websites. All website content was created internally, while one company (EB) cooperated with an external copywriter. Two companies (Rd and RT) stated that the website texts were initially created in Danish, and these companies consciously chose native-speakers of German and English respectively for the translation of the texts. One of these companies (Rd) explicitly demanded that the translators should have a cultural relation to. Further, they demanded specific knowledge of the branch and supplied the translator with existing sales material of the company. On the other hand, one company (EB) claimed that all texts were created simultaneously, and it was highlighted that company had no specific demands to the translators and translations. The translation goal was only to avoid potential blemished translation outcomes of machine translations. In comparison, only one company (Rd) found it necessary to communication term Danish design differently across cultures. 5. Discussion This section shall discuss the findings of the website analysis in paragraph 3 and the findings of the questionnaire in paragraph 4. First, it will be discussed whether the individual company results of the questionnaire can be related to the findings of the analysis. Then, general tendencies will be discussed RigTig by Stelton The analysis showed: The Danish website suited the Danish cultural values, the English website moderately suited the British cultural values and the German website did not suit the German cultural values. The questionnaire of RT indicated that the website texts were initially created in Danish, which links to the great appearance of Danish values on the domestic Danish website. Regarding the English website, it was named that a broad English-speaking audience is targeted, and this can be related to the moderate cultural adaption of the English website to the British cultural values. Interestingly, the German website should target a German audience while the website analysis showed that the German website overall did not account for German cultural values. Regarding the fact that the website has been initially created in Danish, the lack of cultural adaptions of the English and the German websites might be due to the statement that it was not found necessary to assure that the given translators had a native cultural relation to the countries which P a g e

96 the languages target. Presumably, also the limited budget for the company website might have had an influence on the choice of the translators Erik bagger The website analysis of erik bagger showed that the Danish website suited the Danish cultural values, while the English website did only moderately suit the British culture and the German website did overall not suit the German culture. The questionnaire only indicated that the English website seeks to target a broad international target audience, which can be linked to the moderate cultural adaption of the website. However, the website indicated that the English website was created to suit a British target audience as the British national flag was used to symbolise the English language version of the website. As for RT, it was not considered essential that the creators of the English and German websites had a cultural relation to the targeted cultures, which might explain why the English and German websites overall do not account for British and German values respectively. As named in the findings of RT, also the limited budget for the company website might have had an influence on the choice of the translators Rosendahl The website analysis indicated no clear cultural approach of the Danish, English and German websites, which makes it difficult to account for general cultural tendencies. The questionnaire indicates that the English version targets a broad international audience while the German website should target a German audience. While the English websites might appeal to some other English speaking culture, the diverse cultural approach indicates that it is not one certain culture which has been focussed. Interestingly, the company respondent stated that to them, it was essential that the translators of the websites had a native English and German cultural background which should assure the cultural appropriateness of the localised websites. In addition, it was claimed that the approach of localised websites instead of offering culturally customised websites was willingly chosen, as the company seeks to communicate an equal company image across cultures and markets. In this connection it was highlighted that although the websites might appear as simple localisations the content of the websites were adapted to the cultures of the target audience. While it appears that the written content of the websites, represented by the linguistic and cultural areas, bears differing cultural approaches for the individual website versions, the general approach of offering culturally suitable websites does not correspond to the findings of the website analysis Comparison of findings Comparing the findings of RigTig by Stelton, erik bagger and Rosendahl, several tendencies become visible. It appears that RT and EB did not expect their translators to have a personal cultural relation P a g e

97 to the targeted countries, and that these websites have overall not been adapted in the English and German version respectively. Thus, only the Danish websites correspond to Danish cultural values on these websites, which might be related to a potential Danish cultural heritage of the persons who created and adapted the English and German website content respectively. The Rosendahl website does not indicate any certain cultural approaches although the localised websites were planned to appeal to the cultural preferences of the target audiences. While the company has consciously chosen to opt for a localised website strategy across cultures, the content approach of the websites appears differing among all website types and language versions. Thus, it can be concluded that it is possible to culturally adapt localised websites, especially in regards to the cultural and linguistic localisation areas. However, the present cultural adaptions in the analysed websites did not clearly correspond to the cultural values of the target audience. Concluding that the analysed companies seek to culturally adapt their localised websites to the cultures of their target audiences, it appears that the companies yet fail to follow a clear cultural approach across the individual websites and the different language versions. Finally, it should be named that the cultural adaption of English websites seem to be more complex than other language versions, as the companies do not intend to reach a British target audience only but a rather international, and hence non-defined an complex target audience. 6. Conclusion Based on the assumption that localised websites bear a certain cultural heritage and avoid cultural adaptions, although these are frequently used for intercultural communication purposes, the aim of this thesis was to investigate if the localised websites of Danish companies account for the Danish cultural website preferences according to Hofstede s cultural value index, and if the German and English websites have been culturally adapted to suit the website preferences of the German and British cultures respectively. For answering these questions, selected websites that represented the homepage, the company profile and the product profile of Danish, English and German localised websites of three Danish companies within the tableware branch were analysed for their cultural elements. As all companies defined their products as Danish design or Scandinavian design, it was assumed that the companies would be especially experienced and aware of communicating cultural values across cultures. In addition, a questionnaire investigated the intercultural web communication approaches of the companies of the analysed websites. P a g e

98 The theoretical part of the thesis was introduced by basic communication theories. Hereafter, it was accounted for the issue of intercultural communication, and in this connection, Hofstede s cultural value index was presented as a tool for measuring cultural differences. The issue of intercultural communication was then examined in terms of web communication. Here, it was focussed how websites are used for intercultural communication purposes and it was examined that websites can be interpreted as text, genre and medium in a communicative perspective. Then, it was focussed how websites can be adapted to the cultural preferences of new target audiences. In this connection, special attention was given to the role of translation for the web, as it appeared that translations are used as a main tool for the cultural adaption of websites. Hereafter, it was examined how Hofstede s cultural value index can be used to explain culturally related preferences in web communication. Finally, non-verbal aspects of website localisation have been briefly named. The practical part of the thesis was introduced by accounting for the common communicative situation of the selected websites. A special focus was given to the cultural context of the communicative situation. Here, it was accounted for Hofstede s classification of the Danish culture and these values were then compared to the British and German cultures respectively. Combined with the previously accounted statements of Hofstede s cultural values in regards to web communication preferences, a table was created which illustrated what cultural values Danish, British and German websites would typically include in regards to the cultural, linguistic, technical and visual areas of website localisation. The analysis part was introduced by a brief presentation of the individual companies. The analyses of the individual websites were first introduced by a brief description of the website. First, the Danish website was analysed for its cultural elements applying to the cultural, linguistic, technical and visual areas of localisation, and then the English and German websites were analysed for differing cultural values. The results of the individual analyses were then presented for the individual companies, which accounted for the cultural values of the Danish website and whether the English and German websites were culturally adapted to the British and German cultures respectively. The analysis showed that the Danish versions of the localised websites had a great tendency to reflect Danish cultural values. Although the English and German websites included some cultural adaptions, these could not clearly be related to British and German cultural values respectively; while the English websites were moderately adapted, the German websites rarely accounted for the German cultural values. The analyses showed that it is possible to culturally adapt localised websites, although it appeared that the cultural adaptions on the analysed websites were not explicitly suitable for the targeted P a g e

99 cultures. The method of categorising the cultural website preferences by four main areas of localisation was able to reflect that the localised website approach of the analysed websites were especially concentrated on the technical and visual perspectives, as these areas were generally not culturally adapted. In this way, it appeared that the cultural adaption of localised websites is especially concentrated on the cultural and linguistic areas of localisation. The analyses showed that two of the three companies had a common approach in their cultural adaptions of their websites: The Danish websites accounted for Danish cultural values, while the English websites moderately accounted for British cultural values and the German websites did overall not account for German cultural values. One of the three analysed websites did not account for typically Danish, British or German cultural values on any websites. In addition to the website analyses, a questionnaire was presented which was designed to obtain data about the intercultural web communication approach of the previously analysed websites. The questionnaires were answered by representatives of the companies. The questionnaire showed that the English websites targeted a broad international audience while the German websites targeted a German audience. Two of three websites were initially created in Danish and for those companies it was not essential that the translators had a cultural relation to the culture of the target audience. In addition, these companies did not found it necessary to communicate their common culturally related term Danish design in accordance with the cultural identity of their target audience, which did not confirm the assumption that these companies would be especially sensitive in intercultural communication situations. The other company has explicitly chosen native speakers for the translation of their localised websites, and it was found necessary to communicate the term Danish design in a culturally sensitive manner which suited the cultural identity of the receiver. In addition, only the last named company respondent stated that the localised website approach was willingly chosen and was not due to financial limits and this company. The questionnaire allowed to explain that the domestic localised websites which overall accounted for Danish cultural values were commonly created by persons with a native Danish heritage. It appeared that a low priority of choosing native English or German translators for the adaption of the localised websites can be related to localised websites that generally do not meet the cultural preferences of the target audiences. In regards to the intercultural awareness of the companies, the questionnaire indicated that the English websites were not considered to target a British audience, but a broad rather a broad P a g e

100 international audience. This information indicated that the companies regard the English language as a culturally neutral communication tool and not as an indicator for culturally adapted content. On the other hand, the German language was only seen in relation to a native German audience, which excludes other cultures with German as the official language (e.g. Austria and Switzerland). Thus, future researches on the cultural relation of websites should seek to take the actual target audience into account, before assuming a dominant culture with a given official language to be the main target audience of a website. While the findings of this thesis state that it is possible to culturally adapt localised websites, it should be researched whether the target audience indeed prefer thoroughly culturally adapted websites or not. As indicated by Peracchio et al and Luna et al (p.15), perfectly culturally adapted websites might appear boring and odd and that challenging elements in web communication can stimulate curiosity. This notion might indeed apply for the analysed company websites of this thesis, as the communication of culturally related terms such as Danish design might indeed opt for an intercultural web communication approach which willingly includes certain elements of the domestic culture. Finally, future researches on the cultural classification of websites and their content should seek to include further cultural theories than Hofstede s cultural value index. His theory regards cultures in a broad perspective which allows to compare various cultures. However, it cannot be sure if his theory is the most appropriate approach for explaining web communication preferences, as these might not only be influenced by cultural preferences. In web communication, Hofstede s theory leaves no space for individual preferences that cannot be explained by nationally defined cultural phenomena. P a g e

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