The impact of culture and gender on Web sites: An empirical study

The growth of electronic commerce, in particular business-to-consumer, has been explosive during the last few years. Until recently, the Web community has been a male dominated western-oriented society, with the design of Web sites reflecting that homogenous audience. Using an adapted version of Hofstede's dimensions as a means of differentiation, this study explores the perception and satisfaction levels of 160 subjects on 4 Web sites. Analysis indicates that perception and satisfaction differences exist between the cultural clusters and gender groups within those cultures - Asia, Europe, Latin & South America, and North America. In particular, the perceptions of the Asian and Latin/South American were found to be similar, as were the perceptions of the Europeans and North Americans. Qualitative analysis indicates that females within certain cultures have widely different preferences from their male counterparts regarding Web site attributes.