Developing culturally relevant design guidelines for encouraging healthy eating behavior

Unhealthy eating behavior is a major contributing factor to the onset of several diseases and health conditions (e.g., obesity, type 2 diabetes). It is therefore not surprising that health interventions aimed at modifying dietary behavior have been identified as the cornerstone treatment for many health conditions. Interventions that use persuasive technology can be effective for motivating healthy eating behavior, and recent years have witnessed an increasing number of persuasive technologies with the purpose of promoting healthy eating behavior or attitude by manipulating various determinants of healthy behavior. However, these applications generally take a one-size-fits-all approach that is biased toward individualistic cultures. To resolve this problem, we propose culturally relevant design approaches for tailoring persuasive technology interventions to collectivists and individualistic cultures. Our guidelines are based on a large-scale survey of 554 participants' (collectivist=306 and individualist=247) eating behavior and associated determinants – identified by Health Belief Model – to understand how healthy eating behavior relates to various cultural groups and sub-groups. We developed two models of healthy eating behavior for the collectivist and individualistic cultural groups identified by Hofstede, and an additional eight models to investigate the moderating effect of gender and age on healthy eating behavior. We then explored the similarities and differences between the models and developed persuasive profiles of motivators of healthy eating behavior for each group. Additionally, we proposed two approaches for designing culturally relevant persuasive applications based on our results. The first is a one-size-fits-all approach that will motivate the majority of the population, while not demotivating any user. The second is a personalized approach that will best motivate a particular cultural group. Finally, to make our approaches actionable in persuasive intervention design, we map the theoretical determinants of healthy eating behavior as identified by Health Belief Model to common persuasive system design strategies.     

Measurement development for cultural characteristics of mobile Internet users at the individual level

Culture plays an important role in how an information technology is developed and used. However, few studies attempt to identify the cultural traits most relevant to the specific technology being examined. The main purpose of this study is to develop measures for cultural characteristics of individual users with a specific information technology, the mobile Internet. We propose measures for four cultural characteristics important in the context of the mobile Internet, which are expected to be widely used in the future. The proposed measures were verified empirically through online surveys conducted in seven countries. The results indicate that the measures have high validity and reliability, as well as comparability among the seven countries. The paper ends with a discussion of the study’s limitations and implications.     

Socio-cultural factors explaining technology-based entrepreneurial activity: Direct and indirect role of social security

Nurturing technology-based ventures requires consideration of societal factors besides economic factors. This study aims to analyze the direct effect as well as moderation effect of social security on technology-based entrepreneurial activity. Research hypotheses are tested through panel data analysis. National level data on 45 countries for 8 years (2006–2013) are obtained from multiple sources, including Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, World Competitiveness Yearbook, Hofstede's national culture dimensions, and so forth. The results imply that social security, as it is known, has a negative relationship with the overall rate of entrepreneurial activity. However, social security has a positive effect on the share of technology-based entrepreneurial activity. In addition, the positive impact of social security shows a gradual decline as individualism increases. Our findings provide solid empirical evidence on the relationship between social security and entrepreneurial activity, which was ambiguous in the previous studies. The research examines the interaction effects between social security and national culture for the first time. These are expected to provide a practical insight for policy makers seeking to promote entrepreneurial activity at the national level.     

Exploring the impact of individualism and uncertainty avoidance in Web-based electronic learning: An empirical analysis in European higher education

Our research specifically focuses on the effects of the national cultural background of educators on the acceptance and usage of ICT, particularly the Web as an extensive and expanding information base that provides the ultimate in resource-rich learning. Most research has been used North Americans as subjects. For this reason, we interviewed European educators from diverse cultures; in particularly, we analysed the cultural differences and their moderating effects on acceptance-based relationships between European universities: European Nordic culture in contrast to European-Mediterranean culture.     

Shirking behavior and socially desirable responding in online surveys: A cross-cultural study comparing Chinese and American samples

Respondents of online surveys may exhibit some answering behaviors, which lead to inconsistent survey results between online surveys and traditional paper surveys. Extant research has not yet devoted sufficient effort to the mechanisms of different answering behaviors on the inconsistent results, especially in cross-cultural survey contexts. For this reason, this study examines how shirking behavior (i.e., a form of disengaged behavior that the respondents expend insufficient mental effort on the questionnaire) and socially desirable responding result in incomparable responses between online surveys and paper surveys. We especially investigate how the cultural constructs of individualism and collectivism relate to shirking and social desirability. Our results reveal two different pathways leading to inconsistent results across different survey modes. Respondents from collectivistic cultures are more likely to shirking in online surveys. Consequently, they are more likely to provide varying responses than respondents from individualistic cultures. Collectivists are more likely to engage in impression management in paper surveys than in online surveys, while individualists have a greater tendency to provide inflated assessments of their skills and abilities in both survey modes.     

浅谈"Individualism"的翻译

实现文化等值应该是翻译的努力目标,要求译者了解原文含义形成的历史,准确全面地把握原文的文化含义。“Individualism”是承载西方文化价值观念的一个关键词条,译成“个人主义”,未能做到文化等值。     

Espoused cultural values as antecedents of individuals’ threat and coping appraisal toward protective information technologies: Study of U.S. and Ghana

Evidence of cyber activities in developing nations has renewed discourse on users’ intention to protect information in the global economy. We present a context theorization in which espoused individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance are posited as antecedents to an individual’s threat and coping appraisal toward protecting information. We tested our model with data from the United States and Ghana, countries that generally differ on cultural values. Individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance significantly affect threat and coping appraisals with uncertainty avoidance demonstrating slightly stronger effect. Path estimate comparisons between Ghana and the United States show significant differences for all of the structural paths.     

Does culture influence m-banking use and individual performance?

We show evidence on the influence of culture on m-banking use and individual performance, by using a combination of the task-technology fit (TTF) model and two of Hofstede’s cross-cultural dimension scales: uncertainty avoidance and individualism. On the basis of a sample of 204 m-banking users, we show that individualism moderates the relationship between TTF and use, and uncertainty avoidance moderates the relationship between TTF and individual performance. The remaining constructs, which represent the core of the TTF model, can still empirically explain TTF, use, and individual performance of m-banking. Strategies grounded in these factors are suggested for m-banking service providers to better attract and retain users.     

建筑的"个人主义"断想

建筑发展到今天,已经成为了一种面向个体的体验过程,个性化就成为建筑可以称之为体验的唯一存在。强烈“个人主义”意味的明星建筑师和明星建筑的产生,符合建筑的艺术秉性和社会的发展需求。     

Are there cultural differences in how we play? Examining cultural effects on playing social network games

Digital games embedded in social network sites are one of the driving forces behind the expansion of digital gamer populations. Previous studies have observed different usage patterns between users in different ethnic groups and countries, suggesting that culture orientations may affect how people play and interact through social network games. This study examined how people’s culture orientations affect usage patterns with measures of vertical and horizontal individualism–collectivism. The findings indicate that culture does not directly affect usage patterns. Instead, the effects on usage patterns are mediated by people’s expected outcomes of playing social network games. Vertical culture orientations predicted social expected outcomes. Individualism predicted status expected outcomes, but in different directions on the dimensions of vertical or horizontalness. Vertical collectivism was the only culture orientation that indirectly predicted buying in-game products with real money. Implications for game designers and markers are discussed.