Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Interactivity on Web-Site Advertisings in Taiwan and the United States

• Main Authors: Tsai-Fang Yin, 殷彩芳
• Other Authors: 林傑毓
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/wmpxpp

碩士 === 長榮大學 === 經營管理研究所(博) === 95 === Because of the development of network technology, the commercial potential of internet advertising is bottomless. Internet advertising includes various categories, among others, web-site advertising can help enterprises promote corporate image, show corporate products, and even reach the objective of online trading. Whereas interactivity is an important advantage for web-site advertising to attract consumers, this thesis will use the method of content analysis to investigate the advertising interactivity of several main enterprise web sites in Taiwan and the United States. The interactive functions are categorized into three dimensions: consumer-message, consumer-marketer, and consumer- consumer interactivities. Cultural difference criteria of high versus low context, power distance, and individualism-collectivism are used to explain the differences of interactivity between these two countries. To compare the interactivity degree of web-site advertising, the interactivity functions are also classified into five levels of interactivity. According to an analysis of 162 web-sites in Taiwan and the United States, the findings indicate that web-site advertising in different cultures will exhibit significantly different degrees of interactivity. The U.S. web-sites tend to emphasize consumer-message and consumer-marketer interactivity functions, which imply Western culture characters: low context and high power distance. However, Taiwanese web-sites highlight consumer-consumer interactivity functions, which imply the Eastern culture character: collectivism. In addition, the more complete the interactive functions are, the higher the level of interactivity will be. Both the completeness of interactivity functions and the interactivity level for the U.S. web-sites are higher than their Taiwanese counterparts. It seems that the U.S. web-sites own more competitive advantages in the internet market. In summary, the interactivity of web-sites is indeed influenced by different cultures. The present findings suggest that it would be better for global marketers to take localization approaches in their web-sites based on the local culture.