Abstract

The study of the role of organizational websites in the communication of corporate identity is still in its infancy. Yet, for many of its potential stakeholders, the first encounter with an organization is through its webpages (Coupland and Brown 2004; Pablo and Hardy 2009). Websites provide stakeholders with information, are a means of transmitting (Segars and Kohut 2001), and sometimes responding to, high-level management messages (Coupland and Brown 2004), and project the wider ‘look and feel’ of an organization (Pablo and Hardy 2009). Given the strategic importance of websites as global communication tools, calls have been made to gain a deeper understanding of their role as a component part of corporate identity, especially in terms of communicating messages and shaping perceptions of organizations worldwide (Melewar and Karaosmanoglu 2006; Warren 2009).