The effect of the use of English on corporate webpages in Spain and The Netherlands and the role of Susceptibility to Global Consumer Culture (SGCC) on the perceived globalness and attractiveness of international product- and service companies.
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2018-07-09
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en
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Languages are seen as a tool to create an identity for a product, brand or company. The English language, for instance, is believed to have a global image. This paper investigates if this global image of English can be transferred to the identity of both a product and service company by using the English language on corporate webpages. In addition, it examines if this expected global association (vs. expected national association with the native language) can enhance the attitude towards the webpages, the attractiveness of both company types and the purchase intention of Dutch and Spanish participants. Furthermore, the influence of the character trait Susceptibility towards Global Consumer Culture has been taken into account. The results showed that the use of the English language on webpages, compared to the use of the native language, did not create a higher perceived global identity, neither a more positive attitude towards the webpages, nor a higher attractiveness of both company types nor a higher purchase intention. There was thus no effect of English versus native language use. Nevertheless, a higher perceived global identity was shown to predict a higher attitude, attractiveness and purchase intention and the explanatory power was higher for the English versions of the webpages than for the native versions. Furthermore, it was shown that the character trait (SGCC) had a significant influence on the results, whereas the nationality of the participants and the company type did not. In conclusion, this paper has identified a trend that the explanatory power of the predictability of the company’s global identity for the participants’ response turned out to be higher when the English language (vs. the native language) was used, in which the character (SGCC) of the participants played a role.
Keywords: English vs native language use, company type, SGCC, internet, cross-national, cross-linguistic
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