From East to West, Startups Put to The Test : Exploring the implementation of brand identity by startups in an individualistic context vs. startups in a collectivistic context

Research in the field of communication science has clearly shown the influence of culture on, for instance, marketing or brand personality. However, when it comes to specifically looking at the interplay between brand identity and Hofstede’s (1984) cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism, one will find a research gap. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate startups with a cultural individualistic background and startups with a cultural collectivistic background regarding the extent to which the brand identity elements defined in the “brand identity planning model” (Aaker, 1996) are employed on the startup’s websites.