Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a study on a corpus of corporate websites of British and Italian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises communicating in English, with reference to their degree of interactivity with their (prospective) customers. The comparison of the communicative and linguistic strategies enacted by the two sets of firms testifies to the fact that British SMEs appear to be more inclined than Italian ones to a dialogue with their customers. Specifically, their corporate communication focuses on the interests and opinions of their customers, so as to set up a relationship with them and increase their degree of satisfaction and loyalty. In contrast, the websites of Italian SMEs seem to be more self-centred and more focussed on the presentation of their products than on the interaction with their customers.