Searching the Fit Pattern between Cultural Dimensions and Consumption Values of Mobile Commerce in Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of cultural dimension on the adoption and perceived consumption value of mobile commerce from a perspective not associated with technological factors. This study applies a consumption value model as the basic framework, which includes the functional value, the social value, the emotional value, the epistemic value and the conditional value. We also include cultural dimensions as influencers, such as power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation. The combination of these two theories results in an original method to discover whether the consumption value of innovative mobile commerce is influenced by cultural factors. After surveying young mobile users and implementing a canonical analysis, we find two types of correlation between cultural influencers and mobile consumption values. One type is defined as the achievement-facilitated relationship, which means that the mobile users are associated with high levels of power distance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation in terms of positive correlation to more mobile demands of higher functional, epistemic, and conditional values. The second type is referred to as the relationship-maintained relationship, which means that mobile users who are more averse to uncertainty also highly demand social and emotional mobile applications. The research results offer insights to mobile operators and mobile equipment vendors in terms of the culture-fitted mobile strategy related to designing content and interface, so as to properly guide the mobile momentum.