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
