Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 297-312 |
| Journal | International Marketing Review |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
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An investigation of global versus local online branding. / Murphy, Jamie; Scharl, Arno.
In: International Marketing Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2007, p. 297-312.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - An investigation of global versus local online branding
AU - Murphy, Jamie
AU - Scharl, Arno
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Purpose - Draws upon Hofstede's cultural values and Rogers' diffusion of innovations to investigate relationships between search engine popularity and a company's preference for global versus local online branding.Design/methodology/approach - Investigates the global versus local domain name selection strategies and web site popularity of multinational corporations based on their organizational characteristics and Hofstede's cultural values of their host countries.Findings - Organizational size, industry and two cultural values - individualism and masculinity relate to how companies adopt innovations, in this case selecting and promoting a global or local online identity. For their web presence, most For-tune Global 500 companies use the global.com domain rather than a local country domain. The results also suggest a virtual divide in online visibility, favoring.com companies over companies using country domains.Research limitations/implications - Limitations of this study include the lack of a longitudinal perspective and a possible Google bias - towards English content - in its proprietary PageRank metric. Future research could validate the results with other third-party data and enrich the independent variables through automated web content analysis.Practical implications - In countries with strong cultural values of masculinity and collectivism, international business managers should consider paying homage to local domain names for web site and employee email addresses.Originality/value - Extending diffusion of innovations and cultural research to domain name selection and search engine popularity, this study underscores the importance of culture in international branding research.
AB - Purpose - Draws upon Hofstede's cultural values and Rogers' diffusion of innovations to investigate relationships between search engine popularity and a company's preference for global versus local online branding.Design/methodology/approach - Investigates the global versus local domain name selection strategies and web site popularity of multinational corporations based on their organizational characteristics and Hofstede's cultural values of their host countries.Findings - Organizational size, industry and two cultural values - individualism and masculinity relate to how companies adopt innovations, in this case selecting and promoting a global or local online identity. For their web presence, most For-tune Global 500 companies use the global.com domain rather than a local country domain. The results also suggest a virtual divide in online visibility, favoring.com companies over companies using country domains.Research limitations/implications - Limitations of this study include the lack of a longitudinal perspective and a possible Google bias - towards English content - in its proprietary PageRank metric. Future research could validate the results with other third-party data and enrich the independent variables through automated web content analysis.Practical implications - In countries with strong cultural values of masculinity and collectivism, international business managers should consider paying homage to local domain names for web site and employee email addresses.Originality/value - Extending diffusion of innovations and cultural research to domain name selection and search engine popularity, this study underscores the importance of culture in international branding research.
U2 - 10.1108/02651330710755302
DO - 10.1108/02651330710755302
M3 - Article
VL - 24
SP - 297
EP - 312
JO - International Marketing Review
JF - International Marketing Review
SN - 0265-1335
IS - 3
ER -