Culture, Trust and Methods Dianne Cyr, Simon Fraser University CSCW Workshop, Banff November 4 th, 2006

Key Topics  Does trust differ across cultures?  Does localization of websites matter?  What are methods for unraveling trust?

Culture and Website Trust  Cheskin (2000) examined online consumer behavior for U.S., Brazilian, and Latin American consumers; Latin Americans and Brazilians (high uncertainty avoidance cultures) indicated presence of credit card symbols on websites more important than for Americans  Simon (2001) found differences in trust for websites between Asians, Europeans, and North Americans  Cyr et al. (2004, 2005, 2006) examined trust and website design across cultures using different methodologies

Attitudes related to Trust

Between Country Differences Mean Values

Comparisons for Trust T-tests (between countries)

Participant Survey Note: Items answered by each participant for both the local and foreign Samsung site. Loy2: I would consider purchasing from this website in the future. Loy1: I would visit this website again. LOYALTY Sat3: Using this site/service is satisfactory overall. Sat2: This website satisfies my particular needs well. Sat1: The website completely fulfills my needs and expectations. SATISFACTION Trust3: I can trust the information presented on the website. Trust2: The website is credible to me. Trust1: I can trust the online vendor. TRUST Design9: Site product availability and product variety are well explained. Design8: All product options, product attributes and product information are well designed and presented. Design7: The organization, sequencing and overall arrangements of the site are understandable and easy to use. Design6: The website can be easily navigated. Design5: The screen design on the website (i.e. colors, boxes, menus, navigation tools etc.) is harmonious and well presented. Design4: The product information provided on the website is presented consistently and logically. Design3: The website looks professionally designed and well presented. Design2: I can easily recognize and find where product information is located. Design1: The user menus are clearly categorized and are well laid out on the screen. WEBSITE DESIGN

PLS Graph – Local Website

Mean values for website satisfaction, trust, and e-loyalty (India) **E-loyalty **Trust **Satisfaction LOCAL MEANFOREIGN MEANCONSTRUCT * p<.05 ** p<.001

Results: Mean Values of Affective Website Characteristics (India) ***Comfortable-Uncomfortable ***Boring-Stimulating # ***Unreliable-Reliable # ***Interesting-Boring *Accurate-Inaccurate **Warm-Cold ***Meaningless-Meaningful # ***Sensitive-Insensitive ***Friendly-Unfriendly ***Logical-Illogical ***Emotional-Unemotional Ugly-Pretty # Fast-Slow **Professional-Amateur ***Successful-Unsuccessful FOREIGN MEAN LOCAL MEANWEBSITE CHARACTERISTICS * p<.10 ** p<.05 *** p<.001 # indicates items that are reversed

Human Images and Trust

Survey Results  Conditions: human images with facial features, human images but no facial features, no human images  No significant differences for trust between 3 image conditions, but differences for image appeal and social presence (condition with faces perceived most positively)

Eye-tracking System

Sample Eye-tracking Data

Average # Fixations on Images

Viewing Time Across Cultures

Interview Analysis (Atlas.ti)  Interview data coded using 2 methods:  in vivo (using the participants exact words as the basis for a code)  open coding (using arbitrary labels to code the data)  Categories then developed to identify relationships between codes, followed by the creation of more theoretical entities or concepts  Concepts emerged: Aesthetics, Symbolism, Affective Property, Functional Property with between country differences (Table 3)  Human image condition - Canadians focused on aesthetics; Germans on functional properties and symbolism (community aspects); and Japanese on affective and symbolism