Measuring cultural adaptation on the Web: a content analytic study of US and Japanese Web sites

Web sites reach global audiences by nature, and as such necessitate country-specific cultural adaptation. The paper proposes a framework to measure cultural values embedded in Web sites and tests it using a content analysis of U.S. and Japanese company Web sites. The results provide evidence that country-specific Web sites reflect national cultural values. The proposed framework can serve as a guide for developing culturally congruent Web sites. (C) 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.