Personalization to New Website Users: The Role of Trust and Culture

In ecommerce, many market followers would like to have personalization systems in place to more effectively compete with market leaders. However, retailers face a significant challenge in forming initial trust with new customers, especially when the new customers are culturally diverse. Acknowledging this dilemma, this study examines the moderating cultural effects of espoused individualism/collectivism and uncertainty avoidance on the relationships between four different types of trust, namely, propensity to trust, institutional based trust, cognitive trust, and emotional trust, relative to the intention to use personalization system. Drawing on the theory of reasoned action, we first present different types of trust. We then develop a process model to explain how cultural differences affect types of trust. This study contributes to current literature by theoretically accounting for the impact of espoused cultural dimensions on online trust, and practically suggesting ways to increase the utilization of personalization system.