WhatsApp! Does Culture Matter to Persuasive System Design and Brand Loyalty?

Serri Faisal,Nor Hazana Abdullah,Nor Aziati Abdul Hamid,Kamaal Allil

doi:10.3390/su13115800

Serri Faisal, Nor Hazana Abdullah + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115800

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Abstract

The traditional paradigm prioritizes local culture in application design; however, popular applications with persuasive systems design (PSD) like WhatsApp appeal to a global audience beyond local cultural attributes. The purpose of this study is to test the moderating role of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions on PSD and the relationship to loyalty in the context of WhatsApp. By employing an online survey, data were collected from the Netherlands, Germany, KSA, and Malaysia (N = 488). Using regression moderation analyses, the hypotheses were tested. Findings suggest that only two cultural dimensions, namely power distance and individualism, have a moderating role: power distance in Germany, and individualism in both KSA and Malaysia. This implies that managers must consider the possible influence of some cultural dimensions on loyalty. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on smartphone apps in countries with varying cross-cultural dimensions scores and utilizing the user’s perspective instead of the designer’s perspective.

Highlights

Matthews et al [27] found that all four categories of persuasive system design (PSD) principles decidedly present in persuasive apps with varying degrees of presence of the principles from each category. This implies that all the categories within the PSD model are relevant to persuasive design; this study considered the PSD as one independent variable to study the moderating effects of culture on its relationship with brand loyalty
Despite that the results showed no significant moderating role of three of the cultural dimensions (MAS, Uncertainty avoidance (UA), and long-term orientation (LTO)), this study makes an important contribution to the literature by indicating that some cultural dimensions continue to have an important role for loyalty in smartphone apps
This study was limited to the WhatsApp, which gives the opportunity for future research to examine other apps such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. As the smartphone app market is becoming more crowded, the study of consumer loyalty to apps is becoming more attractive to both business managers and academics. As of November 2020, there were 2.87 million apps available for Android users from

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