Cultural differences between Korean and American apparel web sites

Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to examine whether cultural differences could explain differences between Korean and American apparel web sites. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The contents of American and Korean apparel web sites are compared. The chi-square test of independence is used to determine significant differences between the contents of the two countries apparel web sites. Findings ‐ The paper finds that American web sites provide specific information related to products and online purchase of products, while Korean web sites provide information related to consumers' relationships to the larger community. This difference could be due to cultural differences: the Korean culture tends to reflect collectivism while the American culture tends to reflect individualism. Research limitations/implications ‐ The fundamental limitation of this research is that it is descriptive. Practical implications ‐ This research suggests that transcultural web sites may not be appropriate and that e-tailers need to be sensitive to cultural differences. Originality/value ‐ The primary contribution of this paper is the identification of clear differences between Korean and American apparel web sites and that Hofstede's collectivism/individualism cultural value is a possible explanation of the difference between the two countries.