Enhancing Western E-commerce Expansion in China: Navigating Technical and Cultural Challenges through Effective Web Design

This master's dissertation explores the strategic use of website design to overcome challenges associated with Western e-commerce expansion into China. It investigates two primary dimensions: technical and cultural adaptation. Many Western e-commerce platforms have struggled in China due to inadequate adaptations to local market expectations. The research aims to provide valuable insights and practical guidance for Western e-commerce businesses aspiring to succeed in the Chinese market. It focuses on website design because of the crucial role it plays as a main tool for E-commerce companies to successfully reach its clients. At the same time, the research bridges a gap in the existing literature, which have predominantly focused on macro-level market strategies and regulatory considerations. The central research question driving this investigation is: to what extent does the alignment of website design with local cultural and technical contexts affect the success of Western e-commerce businesses in China? Employing a qualitative method of content analysis, the study evaluates 24 Western E-commerce companies based on a complementary cultural framework drawn from Hofstede’s (1980) and Schwartz’s (1992). To see the impact of the prominent depiction of local cultural and technical dimensions on the website performance metrics (traffic, pages viewed per visit, visit duration and bounce rate) a composite variable called ‘‘adaptation score’’ was calculated for each 24 Western E-commerce’s American websites and their overseas Chinese counterpart. Statistical analysis using IBM SPSS software reveals significant differences in the portrayal of Hierarchy and Harmony cultural dimensions through independent samples t-tests. Moreover, MANOVA confirms a significant association between adaptation levels and E-commerce website traffic and pages viewed per visit, offering empirical support for the significance of aligning the website design with the cultural and technical context of the target country

European Language Grid

This open access book provides an in-depth description of the EU project European Language Grid (ELG). Its motivation lies in the fact that Europe is a multilingual society with 24 official European Union Member State languages and dozens of additional languages including regional and minority languages. The only meaningful way to enable multilingualism and to benefit from this rich linguistic heritage is through Language Technologies (LT) including Natural Language Processing (NLP), Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Speech Technologies and language-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. The European Language Grid provides a single umbrella platform for the European LT community, including research and industry, effectively functioning as a virtual home, marketplace, showroom, and deployment centre for all services, tools, resources, products and organisations active in the field. Today the ELG cloud platform already offers access to more than 13,000 language processing tools and language resources. It enables all stakeholders to deposit, upload and deploy their technologies and datasets. The platform also supports the long-term objective of establishing digital language equality in Europe by 2030 – to create a situation in which all European languages enjoy equal technological support. This is the very first book dedicated to Language Technology and NLP platforms. Cloud technology has only recently matured enough to make the development of a platform like ELG feasible on a larger scale. The book comprehensively describes the results of the ELG project. Following an introduction, the content is divided into four main parts: (I) ELG Cloud Platform; (II) ELG Inventory of Technologies and Resources; (III) ELG Community and Initiative; and (IV) ELG Open Calls and Pilot Projects

The Mechanism of Market Driving with a Corporate Brand - The Case of a Global Retailer

The purpose of this thesis has been to analyse the mechanism of the market driving approach carried out by a global organisation with a corporate brand. Market driving is a new organisational approach to strategy that lacks a solid theoretical framework, but constitutes a reality of global firms such as IKEA, The Body Shop, Benetton, Dell, Hennes and Mauritz, Starbucks. In the literature, the market driving strategy is linked with the ability of a firm to produce a leap in customer value due to a unique business system and value proposition. Thus, the major focus is on the tangible organisational resources for value creation. In my study, I have analysed the ability of a firm to use the corporate brand as a major intangible resource for value generation. This thesis argues that a corporate brand provides a context and a mechanism for value creation in market driving. It has also broadened the concept of customer value to include all major organisational stakeholders. The study draws on the theories of market orientation, market driving, corporate branding and partly on the stakeholder theory. The basic premise is that the cross-fertilisation of these theories is beneficial for the development of a new theory in market driving, while corporate branding provides a relevant explanatory theory for a deeper understanding of the organisational driving forces of this phenomenon. The case study of IKEA in three markets - Russia, China and Poland - has been carried out using in-depth interviews with managers at corporate and local levels as well as local suppliers as major sources of evidence. The systematic combining of theory and empirical data has allowed the creation of a coherent conceptual framework for the study. It has been used to explain the dynamics of the market driving approach towards different stakeholders globally and locally. It has been shown that corporate branding provides a company with a powerful alignment mechanism for marketing processes and value amplification, allowing it to create a leap in stakeholder value. The broad stakeholder perspective taken by a firm allows it to develop an integrated market driving approach, in which the role of a corporate brand is to provide the basis for all strategies

World Press Trends Outlook 2021-2022

This edition of WAN-IFRA’s annual flagship research and report reveals an industry challenged but optimistic about its business. It examines the results of publishers’ business in 2021, their forecasts for 2022 and beyond, and the trends and issues shaping the industry. Our research shows news publishers feel confident about tackling the ongoing coronavirus crisis, and that some of their early pandemic-era pivots are beginning to pay dividends. However, publishers still need to navigate considerable transformation and turmoil, even if there are signs of a resurgence in global advertising markets and a maturing of many reader revenue strategies. The invasion of Ukraine has further undermined companies’ plans, as how that conflict will unfold can have long-lasting effects on industries across the board, in addition to the humanitarian crisis it is causing. As in the previous years, the World Press Trends Outlook analysis is based on an online survey distributed to industry leaders. 162 news executives from 58 countries took part in the survey in Fall 2021 – a big thank you to them for sharing their insights, results and strategies. In addition, WAN-IFRA works with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and ZenithOptimedia for key performance indicators (revenue, circulation and ad spend). For additional audience insights, we work with analytics specialist Chartbeat.World Press Trends is supported by Protecmedia, the content management provider

European Language Grid

This open access book provides an in-depth description of the EU project European Language Grid (ELG). Its motivation lies in the fact that Europe is a multilingual society with 24 official European Union Member State languages and dozens of additional languages including regional and minority languages. The only meaningful way to enable multilingualism and to benefit from this rich linguistic heritage is through Language Technologies (LT) including Natural Language Processing (NLP), Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Speech Technologies and language-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. The European Language Grid provides a single umbrella platform for the European LT community, including research and industry, effectively functioning as a virtual home, marketplace, showroom, and deployment centre for all services, tools, resources, products and organisations active in the field. Today the ELG cloud platform already offers access to more than 13,000 language processing tools and language resources. It enables all stakeholders to deposit, upload and deploy their technologies and datasets. The platform also supports the long-term objective of establishing digital language equality in Europe by 2030 – to create a situation in which all European languages enjoy equal technological support. This is the very first book dedicated to Language Technology and NLP platforms. Cloud technology has only recently matured enough to make the development of a platform like ELG feasible on a larger scale. The book comprehensively describes the results of the ELG project. Following an introduction, the content is divided into four main parts: (I) ELG Cloud Platform; (II) ELG Inventory of Technologies and Resources; (III) ELG Community and Initiative; and (IV) ELG Open Calls and Pilot Projects

Circular Economy in the Agrifood Sector

The volume presents some of the primary outcomes of the SinCE-AFC projects. Its main aim was to provide horizontal mechanisms to improve circular economy practices among SMEs of the agrifood sector. After a brief introduction to the concept of circular economy applied to the agrifood chain, the book illustrates the policy framework that the EU has established to improve circular practices in this sector, discussing drivers and barriers to their implementation