An espoused cultural perspective to understand continued intention to use mobile applications: a four-country study of mobile social media application usability

Abstract

As most mobile applications are tailored for worldwide consumption, it is a significant challenge to develop applications that satisfy individuals with various cultural backgrounds. To address this issue, we drew on a recently developed conceptualization and associated instrument of mobile application usability to develop a model examining the impact of mobile social media application usability on continued intention to use. Drawing on Hofstede’s five cultural values, we incorporated espoused cultural values of masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation into our model as moderators. To test the model, we collected data from 1,844 consumers in four countries – the U.S., Germany, China, and India – who use mobile social media applications on their smartphones. The results provided support for the role of espoused national cultural values in moderating the impact of mobile social media application usability on continued intention to use and the model, with espoused cultural values explaining significantly more variance in continued intention to use (i.e., 38%) than the main effects-only model (i.e., 19%). Interestingly, our results demonstrated that culture at the national level did not play a significant role in affecting the relationship between usability constructs and continued intention to use, thus underscoring the importance of espoused culture.