International Journal of Cultural and Digital Tourism Volume 1, Number 1 Copyright © IACUDIT ISSN (Online): 2241-9705 ISSN (Print): 2241-973X *Corresponding author’s name: Stuart R. M. Reid (strei13@student.sdu.dk, +45 5261 8767) 53 Lost in translation: ethnocentric tendency in website communication Stuart R.M. Reid1 * 1 Centre for Tourism, Innovation and Culture, University of Southern Denmark, Buen, Kolding, 6000, Denmark 2 Abstract This paper reports on an exploratory case study investigating the proposition that a locally-embedded organization may exhibit a natural tendency towards ethnocentric perspectives in website communication. Particularly, in multicultural audience environments, such as exist in international tourism, ethnocentric website communication may impede the consistent formation of desired organizational image and undermine the effective transmission of product information among those stakeholders holding different cultural frames. The research builds upon the results of another study using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in website analysis, by introducing the idea of ethnocentric tendency, and linking to the relevant theoretical arenas of organizational identity, organizational image and strategic communication. Empirical material was collected via observation, key informant interviews, workshop/focus group, website content analysis, customer surveys, and email questioning. Ethnocentric tendency was found to be a possible source of website miscommunication for the case organization. The results indicate scope for further investigation of ethnocentric tendency as a source of miscommunication in multicultural stakeholder environments. Keywords: ethnocentric tendency; tourism; strategic communication; websites. JEL Classification: M31 Marketing 1. Introduction Ever since Freeman’s classic stakeholder view of the firm emphasized those “that can affect, or are affected by, the accomplishment of organizational purpose” (Freeman, 2010, p. 25), increasing attention has been paid to the ways that communication with internal and external stakeholders may influence organizational success. More recently, strategic communication has emerged as a “unifying paradigm … [about] purposeful communications by organizations” (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, van Ruler, Verčič, & Sriramesh, 2007, p. 16), broadly concerning “what organizations actually do to create and exchange meaning with others” (Hallahan et al., 2007, p. 27). As “members of (stakeholder) groups can have versatile expectations and may interact” (Oestreicher, 2009, p. 4), strategic alignment of organizational communication is essential to the attainment of consistent organizational perception among the organization’s various stakeholders (Bernstein, 1984; Blauw, 1994; Hofbauer & Hohenleitner, 2005, p. 119; Horton, 1995; Oestreicher, 2009). All organizations possess an identity (Bernstein, 1984; Markwick & Fill, 1995), which may be viewed as “the manifestation of its spirit in comprehensible form” (Wally Olins, 1979, p. 218), arising from “the impressions, image and personality projected by an organization” (Schmitt & Yigang, 1994, p. 34). As Melewar and Jenkins (2002) describe, identity comprises “the sum of all the factors that define and project