| This study examined the relationship between two of Hofstede's cultural dimensions and the strategies for reputation and brand management in cyberspace. Employing manual quantitative content analysis, computer-assisted text analysis, and traditional qualitative text analysis, this study compared the web presence of the top 100 companies in the U.S. and China. Power distance was identified as a prominent dimension that distinguished the strategies for Chinese corporate web sites from those for American corporate web sites. The hypothesis about the effects of collectivism versus individualism on reputation and brand strategies online, however, was rejected. In addition, this study supported the thesis of glocalization, as the homogenization process and heterogenization process were both identified through the web presence of leading American and Chinese companies. |
