Portsmouth Business School
Dr. Wegdan Hagag
Analysing the cultural influence on the user interface: an investigation of tourism websites in two countries
Department: Human Resource and Marketing Management
Email: wegdan_haggag@yahoo.com
Nationality: Egypt
Director of Studies: Professor Colin Wheeler
Year of graduation: N/A
Thesis summary
The perception of the internet as a global medium may lead managers to forget cultural barriers that may still remain. It seems that the major obstacle for companies extending their e-business globally is to understand global consumers and to overcome cultural barriers and language differences on the web. The necessity to consider the effect of culture on marketing has been stressed by the international marketing literature, since culture influences peoples needs and wants and the way they consume products end services. When companies use the internet to interact with individuals on a global level, cultural issues need to be taken into account.
Research objectives:
- To provide guidelines for cultural adaptation of the web interface for an effective use of websites as a communication medium.
- To develop a suitable model for website localisation and more specifically, for tourism websites.
- Facilitate research in cross-cultural areas by providing researchers with an empirical model to support their studies.