Modeling Website Design across Cultures: Relationships to Trust, Satisfaction and E-loyalty (Forthcoming Journal of Management Information Systems)

Despite rapidly increasing numbers of diverse online shoppers the relationship of website design to trust, satisfaction, and loyalty has not previously been modeled across cultures. In the current investigation three components of website design (Information Design, Navigation Design, and Visual Design) are considered for their impact on trust and satisfaction. In turn, relationships of trust and satisfaction to online loyalty are evaluated. Utilizing data collected from 571 participants in Canada, Germany, and China various relationships in the research model are tested using PLS analysis for each country separately. In addition the overall model is tested for all countries combined as a control and verification of earlier research findings, although this time with a mixed country sample. All paths in the overall model are confirmed. Differences are determined for separate country samples concerning whether Navigation Design, Visual Design, and Information Design result in trust, satisfaction, and ultimately loyalty suggesting design characteristics should be a central consideration in website design across cultures.