A Comparative Study On Profile Columns In American And Chinese University Websites From The Perspective Of Greet Hofstede's Theory

Culture is the internal driving force of a nation and a country.Economic globalization has promoted the cultural exchanges,and the exchange between America and China has been expanded from the economic sphere to the cultural field.The development of the Internet has unprecedentedly promoted cross-cultural information exchange between America and China.As one of major carriers of information communication on the Internet,websites have become the main channel for obtaining information,and have even become an important cultural carrier.Meanwhile,American and Chinese cultures are different in many aspects.Websites with different cultural backgrounds often reflect the cultural characteristics of different countries.This phenomenon has also attracted the attention of many cross-cultural scholars.Some scholars have begun to use cross-cultural theory to study the impact of cultural factors on website design.Based on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions(power distance,individualism/collectivism,avoidance uncertainty,masculinity/femininity,long/short-term orientation),this study aims to compare cultural differences manifested in American and Chinese university websites from the cross-cultural perspective.The author selects 20 American and 20 Chinese university websites(randomly from top 100 universities of each country according to the list of university rank of 2018's),and chooses the profiles column that can provide comprehensive information of the school as the research object.Then the author uses methods of comparative analysis,empirical analysis and qualitative analysis to compare cultural elements of American and Chinese university websites with SPSS software.The research results show that the cultural characteristics embodied in profile columns of American and Chinese university website are significantly different.American profile columns reflect low power distance(such as “emphasis on students' need”),individualism(such as “more individual photos”)and higher uncertainty avoidance(such as “limited choices”).The website design of Chinese university websites reflects different cultural characteristics: high power distance(such as “emphasis on authority and school status”),collectivism(such as “more group photos”)and low uncertainty avoidance(such as “abundant choices”).However,profile columns of American and Chinese universities are similar in terms of masculinity/femininity and long/short-term orientation.Besides,this study explains the reasons for cultural similarities and differences in these websites and is expected to provide some suggestions for the cross-cultural usability of Chinese university websites.