Antecedents of attitudes toward the website: The moderating role of long-term orientation and individualism
Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal
ISSN: 1352-7606
Article publication date: 3 August 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the moderating role of the cultural dimensions of long-term orientation (LTO) and individualism (IND) on the relationships between satisfaction online, message involvement (MI) and perceived usefulness (PU) of the web site on attitude toward the web site.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors chose a between-subjects experimental design, using culture (Spanish vs British) as the independent variable. Two versions of a web site for a fictitious tourist destination were created – one written in Spanish and the other in English. The sample comprised 491 users.
Findings
The findings indicate that the LTO dimension moderates the relationship between satisfaction online and PU on attitude toward the web site. The relationships between MI and attitude toward the web site could not be confirmed.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study is the comparison of only two cultures, Spain vs the UK.
Practical implications
The key implication is that if marketers and web site designers can better understand how national cultural differences moderate the attitude formation and change process among tourists, this will enable them to market their destinations and services more effectively. National cultural differences explain the differences found in the effect of satisfaction and PU on attitude toward the web site.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few analyzing the moderating effect of LTO and IND on three antecedents of attitude toward the web site. The original cultural values established by Hofstede (2001) were tested among the present sample to establish the extent to which they remain true today. To create an authentic browsing scenario for the experiment, a web site was specially designed for a fictitious tourist destination, with its own domain name (buyada.org). Subjects were invited to browse the site freely while carrying out the task assigned to them. This approach contributed added value to the research by simulating the real behavior of tourists who are faced with a range of choices when putting together a tourism package for a given destination.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the financial help provided via a research project of group ADEMAR (University of Granada) under the auspices of the Andalusian Program for R & D, number P12-SEJ-2592, and Research Program from the Faculty of Education and Humanities of Ceuta.
Citation
Alcántara-Pilar, J.M. and Del Barrio-García, S. (2015), "Antecedents of attitudes toward the website: The moderating role of long-term orientation and individualism", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 379-404. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCM-04-2014-0044
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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