Cultural Differences in the Online Behavior of Consumers

• Relevance refers to the extent to which the Web site is relevant and meaningful to the individual.
• Confusion evaluates the extent to which the Web site confuses the individual.
• Entertainment measures the perceived entertainment value of the site.
• Information content assesses the extent to which the Web site provides consumers with factual, relevant product information in a clear and logical manner such that they have greater confidence in their ability to assess the merits of buying the product after having seen the site.
• Transformational content measures the extent to which the Web site associates the experience of using (consuming) the product with a unique set of psychological characteristics (for example, enjoyment, self-image).

Table 3 lists some sample items of these measures.

We expect the purpose of Internet use by the consumers will be related to what is important to consumers regarding their evaluation of a Web site. Tables 4 and 5 show those significant relationships found in the regression analyses. Two interesting findings are the impact of information search for the U.S. data and the impact of social communication for the Hong Kong data. Among U.S. subjects, those more inclined to use the Internet for information search purposes found the Web site more relevant and entertaining, it increased the product information known, and transformed their view of the product. Among Hong Kong subjects, those more inclined to use the Internet for social communication purposes found the Web site more relevant, it increased the product information known, and transformed their view of the product. Yet, they are also more likely to be confused by the product.

These findings suggest different behaviors within the two subject communities. Not only are the Hong Kong subjects reporting significantly more use of the Internet for social communication, this social purpose is related to increased informative and transformative reactions to the Web site. Conversely, U.S. subjects report significantly more use of the Internet for information search, and this affects informative and transformative reactions.

If we compare our result to the WVTM finding in which product information search is a key determinant of online buying, we then see our U.S. data, but not the Hong Kong data, supports the Wharton results. In other words, consumers’ online behaviors in different consumer groups may really be culturally different. Findings based solely or largely on U.S. data may not be valid globally.

An alternative explanation to our findings is that diffusion of the Internet is perhaps slower outside the U.S., and that use of it as a communication and social device in Hong Kong is due to the lack of local commercial activity at this point in time. We do not think this is the case: we measured the technological familiarity of subjects, and there were no differences between the U.S. and Hong Kong subjects. Moreover, available figures for commercial Internet activities in Hong Kong suggest that diffusion and usage is similar to the U.S.