From General Technology Familiarity to Anti-Spyware Program Adoption: Comparison between the U.S. and South Korea

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Business at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Dong-Heon Kwak on April 7, 2009

Three Research Essays on the Effects of Charity Website Design on Online Donations

This dissertation, which comprises three essays, examines the effects of charity website characteristics on people\u27s attitudes and online donation behaviors based on the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (Essay 1), the halo effect (Essay 2), and self-schema, congruity, and visual rhetoric (Essay 3). Essay 1: The Elaborating Role of Personal Involvement with Charity Giving and Helper\u27s High on the Effects of Website Quality: Multiple Roles of Variables Although the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) has been utilized for decades, researchers have not leveraged its full capabilities and richness in understanding the multiple roles postulate and employing the central and peripheral routes to persuasion. The central theme of this study is that cues can assume multiple roles, serving as central or peripheral cues, depending on an elaboration state. Moreover, this study asserts that a variable cannot be determined as a central or peripheral cue without consisting the elaboration state and associated theoretical explanations. This study theorizes and empirically tests the multiples roles postulate in the context of charity website and online donations. Using websites as a persuasion channel, this study investigates the effects of charity website quality, consisting of information content quality and system quality, on attitude toward the charity website, which in turn influences willingness to donate to the charity website. In keeping with the multiple roles postulate, this research investigates two charity-specific motivational constructs, personal involvement with charity giving and helper\u27s high as elaboration states, proposing that people with high personal involvement are more likely to be persuaded by information content, including financial, performance, and donation information. Likewise, individuals who reflect greater helper\u27s high, will rely more on system quality characteristics (including navigability, download delay, visual aesthetics, and security) in evaluating and forming their attitudes toward the charity websites. The results of structural equation modeling supported all hypotheses. This study extends the ELM by supporting the multiple roles postulate that has not received adequate attention in prior research and introducing charity-specific elaboration motivations. Essay 2: Beautiful is Good and Good is Reputable: Multi-Attribute Charity Website Evaluation and Reputation Formation under the Halo Effect The halo effect has been extensively employed to understand how people make judgments of quality about an object. However, there is little research on how people evaluate multi-attribute objects and what types of salient halos exist in their evaluation. In addition, little research has investigated the initial reputation formation of an unknown object. Based on these two research lacuna, the purposes of this study is to identify if there are evidences of various salient halos in evaluating multi-attributes objects and to theorize initial reputation formation. To accomplish these research objectives, this study employs charity websites as a multi-attribute donation channel consisting of three dimensions of information contents (mission, financial, and donation assistance information) and four dimensions of system functionalities/features (i.e., navigability, download speed, visual aesthetics, and security). This study proposes collective halo, aesthetics halo, two-sided quality halo, quality halo, and reputation halo in the context of charity website evaluation. The results of structural equation modeling and other analyses show evidence of the proposed halos. Essay 3: The Effects of Schema Congruity and Visual Consistency on Social Judgment of Charity Websites Effectively designed websites can positively enhance the donors\u27 perceptions so as to facilitate online donations. Drawing on extensive research on self-schema, congruity, and visual rhetoric, this study examines the effects of schema congruity (SC) and visual consistency (VC) on the perceived warmth and competence of charity websites. This study theorizes schema-visual congruity, an interaction between SC and VC. Using a controlled lab experiment, this study finds significant main effects of schema congruity and visual consistency on perceived warmth and competence. Also, there is a positive interaction between SC and VC, supporting the need for schema-visual congruity as a determinant of perceived warmth and competence. Consistent with prior eCommerce and donation research, this study finds that positive perceptions of charity websites (i.e., warmth and competence) increase attitude toward donation to the website, which in turn influences donation intention

Measuring and Controlling Social Desirability Bias: Applications in Information Systems Research

Despite the potential risks that social desirability (SD) bias poses to the validity of information systems (IS) research, little is known about the extent of such bias. This study examines the extent of SD bias in the IS domain and compares alternative techniques for measuring it. Our findings suggest that despite the popularity of the Marlowe-Crowne scale in IS research, the impression management scale functions better in assessing the extent of SD bias. We also found that under certain circumstances, SD bias can threaten the validity of IS research. This study contributes to the IS literature by showing the difference in SD bias across IS contexts and suggesting an effective way to test for the presence of SD bias

How Team Cohesion Leads to Attitude Change in the Context of ERP Learning

Universities and corporate training programs have realized the importance of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the business world and have incorporated such systems into their curricula and training. Although there is a rich body of literature on ERP, extant research remains relatively scant in examining team-based ERP learning. Drawing upon attitude change literature and expectation-confirmation theory, this study presents an Attitude Change Model of Team-Based ERP Learning. In particular, this study focuses on how team cohesion influences satisfaction and attitude change in ERP learning. The results of structural equation modeling support all but one hypothesis. The study concludes with discussions and implications for researchers, educators, and practitioners

Effects of Gendered Anthropomorphism and Image Appeal on Moral Norms in the Context of Charity Website Design

As the internet has developed, the barriers to online donations have decreased – in order to effectively differentiate, charities have adopted various interface design innovations to encourage donors. This study examines the efficacy of anthropomorphism and visual/image appeals in increasing willingness to donate to a charity website. This paper reports findings from the first in a series of experiments. Specifically, we test the effect of image type (negative affect vs positive affect) on the variables of image appeal, moral norms, and intentions to donate. Our future experiments will build on the findings presented here, by testing the influence of anthropomorphized vs non- anthropomorphized websites on the same variables. Once finalized, the results of this research will contribute to IS research through suggesting appropriate interface design and to charity donation research through the evaluation of alternative channels for donations

The Role of Espoused National Cultural Values in Cross-National Cultural IS Studies

Hofstede’s work on national culture has been extensively used in cross-national studies in the information systems discipline. In particular, many cross-national cultural researchers have used Hofstede’s cultural index. This study argues that espoused national cultural values should be measured when the unit of analysis of the cross-national cultural study is the individual. This study reviews cross-national studies published in eight IS journals and examines both cross-national studies and cross-national cultural studies. After that, this work provides rationales of why espoused national cultural values should be measured. Finally, we conclude that espoused national culture is more appropriate for individual behavior research

Beautiful is Good and Good is Reputable: Multiple-Attribute Charity Website Evaluation and Initial Perceptions of Reputation Under the Halo Effect

The halo effect has been extensively used to understand how people make judgments about the quality of an object. Also, the halo effect has been known to occur when people evaluate multi-attribute objects. Although websites consist of multiple attributes and dimensions, prior research in information systems has paid little attention to how people evaluate multi-attribute websites and associated halos. Furthermore, research investigating how initial evaluations of reputation are formed toward unknown objects under the halo effect is scarce. Based on these two research gaps, the purposes of this study are to identify whether there is evidence of salient halos in the evaluation of multi-attribute websites and to theorize initial perceptions of reputation. To accomplish these objectives, we introduce a framework for classifying halos based on attributes and dimensions. Also, this study employs charity websites as a multi-attribute donation channel consisting of three attributes of information content quality (mission information, financial information, and donation information) and four attributes of system quality (navigability, download speed, visual aesthetics, and security). Based on the proposed framework, this study proposes four types of halos that are relevant to charity website evaluation—collective halo (attribute-to-attribute), aesthetics halo (attribute-to-dimension), reciprocal-quality halo (dimension-to-dimension), and quality halo (dimension-to-dimension). The results of structural equation modeling and other analyses provide evidence of the various proposed halos