Culture Priming of Multicultural Individuals on Localized Websites: A Cultural Frame Switching Perspective

As businesses expand globally, effective website localization becomes crucial, especially in countries where consumers have diverse cultural backgrounds. Traditional website localization strategies focus on tailoring its content and design to the dominant culture of a country. Our research investigates the complexities of localizing websites for countries with multicultural consumers who identify with more than one culture. We found that successful website localization involves priming multicultural consumers with cultural cues (in the forms of language and image) to activate specific cultural identities, for example, individualism or collectivism. The activated culture of multicultural consumers can interact with various website design and content elements to affect multicultural consumers’ trust in the website and crowdfunding support. Our findings offer actionable insights for global businesses. By strategically implementing these insights in website localization, global companies can better navigate diverse consumer landscapes and foster stronger connections with multicultural consumers.