Website Design, Trust and Culture: An Eight Country Investigation

Website design elements (information design, information content, navigation design, visual design), disposition to trust, website trust, and transaction security are examined for differences in an eight country sample with a total of 1156 participants (including Canada, the United States, India, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Chile, and China). Within Canada, users from English Canada and French Canada were also compared. In a theoretical context that includes cultural differences for uncertainty avoidance (e.g. Hofstede’s classification) and the GLOBE study which identifies similar country clusters, overall and as predicted, low uncertainty avoidance countries of French Canada, English Canada, and the United States have the highest scores on the various constructs indicating more favorable reactions by users. Largest differences across most of the constructs occur between Germany, Japan, and China with other countries in the sample

Success factor validation for global ERP programmes

Previous research has determined that women and men process information differently and have unique values. These findings are further confirmed in the context of online shopping where women are known to have diverse preferences from men related to website design, and different sentiments regarding website trust and security. Yet despite these known differences, relatively there is little research has examined gender and website design. Further, although online shoppers hail from all corners of the globe, no research has examined gender differences concerning website design in a multicultural sample. To fill this gap, the current investigation examined differences between men and women with a focus on trust, satisfaction, loyalty, and website design in eight countries. Results demonstrate significant differences between men and women on all variables tested. Further analyses of four of the countries in the sample (China, Canada, the United States, and Germany) are compared related to socio-cultural values for masculinity-femininity. As expected, countries more alike on this dimension exhibited more similarities in terms of gender comparisons. All hypotheses in the study are supported. Suggestions are made regarding avenues for future research

Parental abductions in the context of legal, familial, social and cultural variables

It is only in the last two decades that parental abduction has become recognized as a social problem of significant magnitude. In the current study, data from the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (Finkelhor, et al. 1990) are used to explore the characteristics of victims, perpetrators and episodes of parental abduction. Next, a state-level analysis examines the relationship between various social, legal, familial and cultural variables and rates of parental abduction. Data from the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children provided the dependent variable for the state-level analyses. State rates of parental abduction appear to be related to divorce rates, the status of children in legal and social arenas, and the cultural approval of male aggression. The legal classification of parental abduction as a misdemeanor or felony did not have a strong relationship with incidence rates. Finally, a factor analysis was done involving state rates of parental abduction and crime rates using the F.B.I.\u27s index crimes (homicide, robbery, burglary, rape, motor vehicle theft, aggravated assault). This explored the appropriate classification of parental abduction as a crime. Parental abduction shared a factor with rape and larceny theft, suggesting similarities exist between these offenses. Findings are discussed and policy implications are offered

Hedonic and Utilitarian Outcomes of Website Social Presence: The Impacts of Framing and Time Constraints

It is now generally recognized that online shopping has both utilitarian as well as hedonic components. In this research we created and tested a model in which perceived social presence resulted in enjoyment (hedonic component) as mediated by involvement, and alternatively perceived social presence resulted in effectiveness (utilitarian component) as mediated by trust. All paths in the model were confirmed. Involvement was found to have a medium effect on enjoyment and trust had a medium effect on effectiveness. In addition, the impact of whether a task is framed to be utilitarian or hedonic in nature was tested. While questionnaire data revealed no significant differences, eye-tracking data indicated that users spent more time viewing hedonic versus utilitarian zones. Finally, time constraints in website viewing were examined and users in an unlimited time group (versus 5 seconds of viewing time) experienced higher levels of involvement, enjoyment, trust and effectiveness toward the website

The Localization Industry: A Profile of DNA Media

Since the mid-1990s the e-commerce industry experienced dramatic growth that was only the start of a business revolution. With the rapid expansion of Internet related infrastructure equipment and services that allowed low-cost global communications, the beginnings of a truly global economy began to take shape. Riding on the coat tails of this wave was software and content localization services that were a necessary component in selling products and services to different countries and across many cultures. The challenges of operating in a diverse, multicultural market are great, filled with cultural subtleties that can be a minefield for the uninformed. DNA Media, based in Vancouver, Canada, is a software localization company specializing in language, software application and content (Web-based technologies, application design, CD-ROM, DVD and multi-media versioning). The company enjoyed strong growth in its services in the last two years and, by the year 2000 it was in a position to expand rapidly. This case provides insight into how managers of a small but growing information technology company managed its growth, established its market in the software localization industry, and planned for the next phase of expansion

Modeling Hedonic Consumption Behaviors in Online Shopping

Increasingly, researchers have acknowledged that consumption activities involve hedonic components. Hedonic consumption relates to affective consumer behaviors in that it deals with the emotive and multi-sensory aspects of the consumption experience. Because the online shopping environment is characterized by the existence of an IT-enabled web interface that acts as the focal point of contact between customers and vendors, its design should also embed hedonic elements to create a holistic consumption experience. Drawing on the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT), this study advances a model that not only delineates hedonic consumer expectations into its constituent dimensions for online shopping but also highlights how these expectations can be best served through properties of aesthetic performance. The model is then empirically verified via an online questionnaire administered to a sample of 84 student participants. Theoretical contributions and pragmatic implications to be gleaned from our proposed model and its subsequent empirical validation are discussed

Website Design and Mobility: Culture, Gender, and Age Comparisons

Anytime/anywhere services offered through mobile commerce hold great potential to serve customers in wireless environments. However, there is limited understanding of how to best tailor mobile interaction and design for individual differences. This paper seeks to explore the influence of individual differences (namely culture, gender and age) on the design (namely information design, navigation design and visual design) and satisfaction of mobile devices. Sixty subjects who differ on cultural, gender and age dimensions were tested in a controlled laboratory experiment on a mobile product, an Internet enabled phone. The results of this exploratory analysis were inconclusive in terms of cultural and gender differences, but significant differences were found between older and younger subject groups. Consistent with findings in the stationary Internet domain, design elements were found to impact satisfaction with mobile services. Implications and limitations of this research are presented, emphasizing the importance of additional investigations

Perceived Interactivity Leading to E-Loyalty: An Empirical Investigation of Web-Poll Design

With the growth of e-commerce, novel applications of website interactivity are important to attract and retain online users. In this empirical study five levels of interactivity are examined using different web-poll applications. A model is created to validate the relationship of perceived interactivity to efficiency, effectiveness, enjoyment, and trust of the website. Further, specific elements of interactivity including control and user connectedness are examined for their relationship to trust. In turn, efficiency, effectiveness, enjoyment and trust are tested for their impact on e-loyalty. All relationships in the model are supported. In addition, qualitative comments from users regarding the various web-poll treatments were analyzed with subtle differences detected between treatments. The research advances knowledge on the consequences of perceived interactivity. It has additional merit in that the treatments employed and their outcomes will be of interest to web designers and online marketers for how to enhance interactive online web applications

Modeling Utilitarian Consumption Behaviors in Online Shopping: An Expectation Disconfirmation Perspective

Utilitarian consumption appeals to the cognitive rationality of consumers by accentuating the attainment of desirable transactional outcomes. While substantial knowledge has been accumulated on understanding the determinants of consumers’ acceptance of e-commerce websites, there is a paucity of studies that explore customers’ pre-consumption service expectations in order to determine how these expectations may be leveraged by e-merchants in creating matching e-services. Drawing on the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT), this study advances a model that not only delineates utilitarian expectations into its constituent dimensions, but also highlights how these expectations can be best served through transactional functionalities devised for improving the functional performance of e-commerce websites. The model is then empirically verified via an online survey questionnaire administered on a sample of 183 student participants. Theoretical contributions and pragmatic implications to be gleaned from our proposed model and its subsequent empirical validation are discussed

The Art of Online Persuasion through Design: The Role of Issue Involvement as it Influences Users based on Prior Knowledge

With a goal to investigate the dynamics of online persuasion, this research extends the Elaboration Likelihood Model to determine the relative effects of argument quality as a central route to influence attitude change versus design elements (specifically image appeal, navigation design, and connectedness) as peripheral route cues to attitude change. Results emanating from this research are based on a broad sample of 390 participants who viewed a website about the merits of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The findings indicate that in addition to argument quality, the design of the website can influence attitude change. Further, there are differences in how those with high or low prior knowledge of a persuasion topic are influenced. Of interest, change in issue involvement is less important for the high knowledge group, but for the low prior knowledge group it mediates the peripheral route impacts on attitude change