A summarizing discussion of the outcomes presented can only reflect a simplified overview of the results obtained. Especially in study 5 and 6, the large number of measures, items, and partly consisting outcomes would require a detailed result presentation. Nevertheless, commonalities across the studies can be found, but they need to be interpreted with caution.
Study 5, 6a and 6b investigated aspects of the impact of culture on information need and
1985) concluded that models of risk reduction strategies appear to be particularly valid for high-involvement goods. In contrast, d as a
ceived risk and expected benefits of search.
u high Masculinity societies perceived a lower risk than members from more feminine cultures.
nt users mentioned information need as a reason for visiting the website more often than low uncertainty avoidant cultures.
In study 5 we found only weak support for the risk reduction model. Only perceived information quality, search efforts and perceived search efficiency show results that correspond to the model, all other paths turned out to be not significant. An explanation of these results is provided by a more thorough look at the central construct of perceived risk. Gemünden (
lower levels of product risk do not seem to trigger information search as a risk reduction strategy. It can be concluded that the health information service – as analysed in our case – is perceive low risk product.
Impact of Stable Aspects of Culture (Basic Concept). Study 5 only found a small impact of culture in terms of cultural dimensions as defined by Hofstede. The impact that was found contradicted our hypotheses: after gathering information on the website, high uncertainty avoidant cultures showed a higher satisfaction from which a lower need for information can be cautiously inferred. The variable Masculinity had an impact on per
Individ als from
We consider this rather homogeneous risk perception and risk reduction behaviour across the cultural groups as a further indicator of a low-involvement. Low levels of product risk can trigger only little differences between individuals. Perceived risk and risk reduction strategy are consequently rather similar.
Results from study 6a and 6b confirm the suggested impact of Uncertainty Avoidance on information need: users from low uncertainty avoidant cultures exhibit a higher need for additional information than users from low uncertainty avoidant cultures. Alone, measure 3 in study 6b revealed an opposite impact: high uncertainty avoida
Uncertainty Avoidance: Uncertainty Avoidance was identified as the cultural dimension that determines the users’ need for information in chapter 2. Results strongly suggest that this role is confirmed with regard to attitudinal variables.
Nevertheless, most findings contradicted our predictions: lower uncertainty avoidant cultures appeared to exhibit a higher need for information that does not seem to correspond with the meaning of the dimension. In fact, in line with other studies’ outcomes, Uncertainty Avoidance appears to be a complex cultural construct whose impact is difficult to predict (e.g., Kralisch and
desired or whether access to existing information is desired. According to our results, additional information is wanted by low
Individualism:
Berendt, 2004). On the one hand, high uncertainty avoidant individuals tend to collect more information than low uncertainty avoidant individuals (Kralisch, et al., 2005). On the other hand, high uncertainty avoidant website users prefer a website design with limited choices (Marcus and West Gould, 2000). Our outcomes raise the question of whether information need is evaluated differently depending on whether additional information is
uncertainty avoidant users, whereas access to existing information is preferred by high uncertainty avoidant users. Such a distinction of information need would be in line with the simultaneous preference for limited choices and extensive information collection of high uncertainty avoidant users.
Isolated evidence for a significantly higher information need from users from collectivistic societies was found. In particular, the higher preference for “hyperlinks” is in line with our argumentation of higher website connectivity of low individualistic cultures, as suggested in (Kralisch and Mandl, 2005).
Masculinity: In a similar manner, results from study 5, regarding the higher need for information for users from feminine cultures were sporadically confirmed. The lower risk of high Masculinity cultures contradicts the predicted negative attitude towards the new medium of the Internet. Yet, taking into account the low-involvement assumption, it can be inferred that members of highly masculine societies use the Internet as an information source only in low-involvement situations where the risk is rather negligible. Two significant correlations also exhibited the higher preference of feminine cultures for features that facilitate the access and understanding of information.
No impact was found with respect to the impact of long-term orientation.
The Impact of Dynamic Aspects of Culture (Health Care System and Domain Knowledge).
According to the outcomes from study 5, socio-economic and individual aspects of the broadened concept of culture have a stronger impact on users’ need for information than the classic cultural values. The higher perceived quality of the health care system led to a lower information need;
higher web experience and domain knowledge correlated with a lower rating of the perceived quality of the information.
The impact of domain knowledge was also investigated in study 6a, where evidence was found for a higher need among patients for features that facilitate the understanding of information.
Furthermore, the significant impact of the health care system on the need for additional s for features for fast and easy access to information was confirmed by all mea
that f the Health Care System leads to lower ratings.
Besides, study 7 found a strong impact of the control variable - the users’ general attitudes towards remunerated online services which emphasizes the role of individuals’ knowledge and habits.
ent in the second study but not in the first.
ore negative attitude towards data disclosure than users with opposite cultural characteristics. This outcome confirmed hypothesis 28. In turn, a more negative attitude led to a
n only with caution. Further research is hereby
han expected. These findings are in line with information as well a
sures in study 6b. Similar to the impact of domain knowledge from study 5, outcomes suggest a higher quality o
The role of the users’ attitudes towards remunerated online services also point out the problem of causality in cross-cultural research. The difference between control variables and variables that are incorporated into the broadened concept of culture lie in the research design and researcher’s development of the conceptual framework. Problematic bias in the sample set was indicated by correlation between the perceived quality of the health care system and cultural dimensions that were pres
3.4.2 Cost-Side
Study 7 differed from the first two studies since it examined the negative aspects of visiting a website, with regard to the disclosure of personal data. We also focussed only on the impact of the stable aspects of culture. The study provided evidence for the interrelationship between low Individualism and high Power Distance and vice versa, and their significant impact on the users’
attitudes towards data disclosure. Users from highly individualistic and low Power Distance cultures exhibit a m
lower willingness to disclose personal data, which was in line with hypothesis 29. Yet this correlation only applie to what we called “non privacy sensitive data”, and not to “privacy sensitive data”
(email-address, medical history/current health status).
To sum up, general conclusions should be draw
clearly encouraged. Results suggested that searching for health information was – in contrast to most cases of online shopping – a low risk situation. As such, classic models of risk reduction strategies can hardly be applied.
Stable cultural variables seem to have less impact t
other studies (e.g., Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999; Ko, et al., 2004) where small impact of culture on risk perception and hence on information was found. They also suggest that motives and outcomes of information search on the Internet seem to be rather independent of cultural values,
This, in line with our outcomes from study 6, was identified as the dimension that determines the amount of information
s results from chapter 2. However, the selection of variables that are considered part of the broadened concept of culture is strongly which may be due to cosmopolitan users that are less determined by culture-bound mental systems.
The most important cultural dimension appears to be Uncertainty Avoidance.
needed. The limited general explanatory value of culture is not specific to our study but rather common in cross-cultural research (Karahanna, et al., 2002).
On the other hand, results suggest a consistent impact of broadened aspects of culture such as the impact of the health care system (as example of socio-economic variable) and the medical knowledge. The impact of domain knowledge confirm
influenced by the research design.
4. CHAPTER:
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WORLD