Comparative Advertising in the Global Marketplace: The Effects of Cultural Orientation on Communication

This research examined the efficacy of one type of communication strategy, comparative advertising, in communicating product superiority to consumers across different cultures. In individualist cultures such as the United States, comparative advertising that highlights the superiority of the target brand is seen as more effective. However, in collectivist cultures such as Thailand, comparative advertising that highlights the similarity between brands is more likely to be effective. In addition, comparative advertising was more believable for unfamiliar brands in individualist cultures whereas comparison for familiar brands was more believable in collectivist cultures.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39712/3/wp328.pd

Comparative Advertising in the Global Marketplace: The Effects of Cultural Orientation on Communication

This research examined the efficacy of one type of communication strategy, comparative advertising, in communicating product superiority to consumers across different cultures. In individualist cultures such as the United States, comparative advertising that highlights the superiority of the target brand is seen as more effective. However, in collectivist cultures such as Thailand, comparative advertising that highlights the similarity between brands is more likely to be effective. In addition, comparative advertising was more believable for unfamiliar brands in individualist cultures whereas comparison for familiar brands was more believable in collectivist cultures.

Designing Culture-Tailored Persuasive Technology to Promote Physical Activity

Physical inactivity has been recognized as one of the leading risk factors that account for cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, etc., with the World Health Organization labeling it as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Research has shown that persuasive technology (PT) can be leveraged as a motivational/supportive tool in tackling the physical-inactivity problem. In particular, research shows that persuasive health applications (PHAs) are more likely to be effective if they are theory-driven and tailored to the target audience. Yet, most existing PHAs on the market are neither theory-driven nor tailored to the target audience. Rather, their designers often employ a one-size-fits-all approach. This makes it difficult to know what design decisions are effective or ineffective among a given target audience. To bridge this gap, I proposed a framework, called the “EMVE-DeCK Framework,” grounded in Bandura’s Triad of Reciprocal Determinism, for designing, implementing and evaluating tailored PT interventions. Basically, the EMVE-DeCK Framework employs “Theory” and “Technology” to explain and change “Behavior.” Moreover, research shows that culture can be leveraged as a personalization mechanism for tailoring PHAs to the target users to make them more effective. However, there is limited cross-cultural research—grounded in theory and empirical evidence—on the effectiveness of culture-based tailoring, especially comparative studies involving understudied populations in the PT research landscape. Hence, using the Hofstede’s cultural framework (individualism vs. collectivism), Social Cognitive Theory, Technology Acceptance Model and the EMVE-DeCK Framework, I conducted a number of comparative studies to understand the culture-specific determinants of physical-activity behavior and the acceptance of a proposed PHA. I used the findings to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of two versions of a fitness app called BEN’FIT—personal version (PV) and social version (SV)—aimed to motivate bodyweight exercise at home. In this dissertation, using the EMVE-DeCK Framework and Canada/United States (individualist culture) and Nigeria (collectivist culture) as a case study, I describe: (1) the cross-cultural user studies and empirical findings that informed the PT intervention; (2) the design and implementation of the culture-tailored PHA; and (3) the evaluation of the overall and culture-tailoring effectiveness of the PHA in a field setting. Finally, based on empirical evidence, I present a set of validated PT design guidelines in the field for designing and tailoring PHAs to users in the individualist and collectivist cultures. This dissertation makes three major contributions to PT research in the Human-Computer-Interaction domain. Firstly, it demonstrates how theory and culture can be employed in the design and development of PT interventions to motivate behavior change. Secondly, it reveals and validates in the field how the individualist and collectivist cultures fundamentally differ in their motivational mechanism of behavior change. Thirdly, it provides an in-the-field validated PT design guidelines for developing tailored PHAs for the two main types of culture. In the physical-activity domain, the dissertation is the first to conduct a theory-driven, in-the-field cross-cultural PT research that focuses on an understudied population from Africa (Nigeria) and compare its findings with those of a widely studied population from North America (Canada/United States)

Designing Culture-Tailored Persuasive Technology to Promote Physical Activity

Physical inactivity has been recognized as one of the leading risk factors that account for cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, etc., with the World Health Organization labeling it as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Research has shown that persuasive technology (PT) can be leveraged as a motivational/supportive tool in tackling the physical-inactivity problem. In particular, research shows that persuasive health applications (PHAs) are more likely to be effective if they are theorydriven and tailored to the target audience. Yet, most existing PHAs on the market are neither theory-driven nor tailored to the target audience. Rather, their designers often employ a one-size- fits-all approach. This makes it difficult to know what design decisions are effective or ineffective among a given target audience. To bridge this gap, I proposed a framework, called the "EMVE-DeCK Framework," grounded in Bandura's Triad of Reciprocal Determinism, for designing, implementing and evaluating tailored PT interventions. Basically, the EMVE-DeCK Framework employs "Theory" and "Technology" to explain and change "Behavior." Moreover, research shows that culture can be leveraged as a personalization mechanism for tailoring PHAs to the target users to make them more effective. However, there is limited cross-cultural research|grounded in theory and empirical evidence|on the effectiveness of culture-based tailoring, especially comparative studies involving understudied populations in the PT research landscape. Hence, using the Hofstede's cultural framework (individualism vs. collectivism), Social Cognitive Theory, Technology Acceptance Model and the EMVE-DeCK Framework, I conducted a number of comparative studies to understand the culture-speci c determinants of physical-activity behavior and the acceptance of a proposed PHA. I used the ndings to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of two versions of a tness app called BEN'FIT - personal version (PV) and social version (SV) - aimed to motivate bodyweight exercise at home. In this dissertation, using the EMVE-DeCK Framework and Canada/United States (individualist culture) and Nigeria (collectivist culture) as a case study, I describe: (1) the cross-cultural user studies and empirical f indings that informed the PT intervention; (2) the design and implementation of the culture-tailored PHA; (3) the evaluation of the overall and culture-tailoring e ectiveness of the PHA in a eld setting. Finally, based on empirical evidence, I present a set of validated PT design guidelines in the eld for designing and tailoring PHAs to users in the individualist and collectivist cultures. This dissertation makes three major contributions to PT research in the Human-Computer-Interaction domain. Firstly, it demonstrates how theory and culture can be employed in the design and development of PT interventions to motivate behavior change. Secondly, it reveals and validates in the eld how the individualist and collectivist cultures fundamentally differ in their motivational mechanism of behavior change. Thirdly, it provides an in-the- field validates PT design guidelines for developing tailored PHAs for the two main types of culture. In the physical-activity domain, the dissertation is the rst to conduct a theory-driven, in-the-fi eld cross-cultural PT research that focuses on an understudied population from Africa (Nigeria) and compare its ndings with those of a widely studied population from North America (Canada/United States)

Who said what: The effects of cultural mindsets on perceptions of endorser-message relatedness

© 2015. The cultural lens through which an ad is viewed can affect the extent to which an endorser of the product in an ad and the message s(he) communicates are thought about in relation to one another. Consumers with a collectivist mindset tend to think about information relationally. Consequently, they consider the endorsement in relation to the endorser and this affects their memory for both. It also affects recipients' concern with the fit between the endorser's message and the endorser and consequently influences their judgments of both the ad and the product being advertised. When people have an individualist mindset, on the other hand, they appear to treat the endorser and the endorsement as independent pieces of information and are less sensitive to their fit. Four studies support these conclusions and provide insights into how endorser-message relatedness impacts persuasion under different cultural mindset conditions

Group Norms and Consumer Behaviour

The impact of group norms on forming consumer behaviour is an important attribute of man’s social life. The market segmentation principles acknowledge the presence of this phenomenon. People belong to different age group, professional status, income levels, educational status etc. are seemed to display some specific consumer behaviour that can be attributed to a particular group. The present study attempts to find the influence of certain selected group norms on consumption pattern.Group norms, peer influence, consumer behaviour, culture and consumption, social norms

Primed to Adjust: An Investigation of Chronic Collectivist Social Tuning

The present study investigates a possible factor leading to chronic social tuning in collectivist cultures. Participants were primed to either adjust to others or influence others, and were then asked to evaluate images that either represented no views, the perceived egalitarian views of the experimenter, or the views of other participants. Results suggest that participants tuned towards the egalitarian views of the experimenter and expressed significantly lower levels of implicit and explicit prejudice when primed to adjust to others

The lived experience of an American expatriate in Ghana: A rhetorical analysis of facebook postings to understand a cross-cultural behavior

Using rhetorical analyses of the Facebook updates and postings, the lived experience of an American Expatriate in Ghana is told through the lenses of a Ghanaian living in the United States. The study reviews the contemporary understanding and importance of expatriation to organizations and provides detailed description and analysis of different models with theoretical base from cognitive and social psychology and sociology including models developed by Fons Trompenaars, Geert Hofstede, Harry Triandis, and E.T. Hall to understand the thinking and behavior of this expatriate as revealed through postings on his Facebook page. The paper concludes by re-affirming the importance of pre-departure cultural sensitivity training and the significant role of HRD professionals even in non-typical HRD –related organizations.Cross-Cultural; facebook; expatriation; social psychology

Does Culture Matter for the Design of Chatbots Promoting Blood Donation Behaviour? - The Difference in Perception of Culture-Tailored Conversation Styles

While blood products are a critical resource in healthcare systems, providing sufficient blood products is a worldwide challenge, especially so since the COVID-19 pandemic. As easy and timely access to information is crucial to convince (potential) donors to change their behaviour and become regular donors, chatbots can offer fast and easy access to information whenever (potential) donors need it. Due to their human-like design, chatbots can help motivating and convincing users to donate blood regularly to work against the ongoing, post-pandemic challenges in providing sufficient blood supply. Based on previous findings, we assume that users’ perception of a blood donation chatbot can vary worldwide, in relation to the incorporated design features. As part of a design science study, we conducted an online between-subject experiment with participants from USA, Germany, South Africa and India. We could show a significant negative moderating effect of horizontal individualism in terms of the chatbot’s individualistic conversation style and the perceived similarity in social group membership, implicating the so-called “contribution conflict” with regard to IS and culture