Factors influencing multi-national firms to provide culturally sensitive websites for foreign markets.

Academic research has emphasised the value of multinational enterprises (MNEs) providing culturally sensitive marketing material, yet little research reveals the factors that encourage this. The research at hand addresses this gap. It measures the cultural sensitivity of MNEs’ promotional websites targeting Thailand using content analysis. Correlations were then found between external factors and cultural sensitivity. A positive correlation with the MNE’s home country multiculturalism, was evident, but not with a MNE's home region multiculturalism. A MNE’s home country cultural distance index (CDI), predicted to diminish cultural sensitivity, paradoxically, demonstrated a moderate improvement, while a high trade/GDP ratio, also predicted to enhance cultural sensitivity, was supported.