earticle

영어

The Internet, various mobile technologies, and the proliferation of smartphones make it easy for consumers to access various information. And the number of technology-based services and products and the role of technology in consumers-company interactions have been growing rapidly. Although these technologies have benefited consumers, there is also evidence of increasing consumer frustration in dealing with technologies. Consumers are also interested in the positive as well as the negative aspects of technology when they encounter new technologies. Prior researches have shown that technology readiness has a favorable influence on the consumers’ technology adoption. However, they have not considered the antecedents of technology readiness. Therefore, this study examined how cultural influence on technology readiness varies with risk level and brand trust. This research investigated the moderating roles of two critical factors on the impact of culture on positive and negative technology readiness: risk level and brand trust. Using a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subject factorial design on positive technology readiness, we have found the effect of culture on positive technology readiness. American consumers had a significantly higher level of positive technology readiness towards using mobile app than Korean consumers. In addition, the interaction of culture and risk level was marginally significant. When risk level was high, culture had no impact on positive technology readiness. However, when risk level was low, American consumers had a higher level of positive technology readiness towards using mobile app than Korean consumers. More importantly, the interaction of culture, risk level, and brand trust was significant. When brand trust was high, culture and risk level have had no impact on positive technology readiness. On the other hand, when brand trust was low, culture and risk have had interaction effect on positive technology readiness. The contrast analysis showed that culture have had no impact on positive technology readiness in the high-risk condition, whereas American consumers had a higher level of positive technology readiness than Korean consumers in the low-risk condition. The results of a 2 (culture) x 2 (risk level) x 2 (brand trust) ANOVA on negative technology readiness yielded a significant main effect for culture. Negative technology readiness was higher in Korean consumers than in American consumers. In addition, the interaction of culture and risk level was significant. When risk level was high, culture have had no impact on negative technology readiness. However, when risk level was low, Korean consumers had a higher level of negative technology readiness than American consumers. More importantly, a three-way interaction was significant. When brand trust was high, culture and risk level have had no impact on negative technology readiness. On the other hand, as our predictions, when brand trust was low, culture and risk had interaction effect on negative technology readiness. The contrast analysis showed that culture have had no impact on negative technology readiness in the high-risk condition, whereas Korean consumers had a higher level of negative technology readiness than American consumers in the low-risk condition. In addition, we investigated the impact of three factors on use intentions using 2 (culture) x 2 (risk level) x 2 (brand trust) ANOVA. The results of a ANOVA and contrast analyses revealed similar pattern with positive technology readiness. Finally, we conducted mediation analyses (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) to verify mediating roles of positive and negative technology readiness. We test the mediation using the bootstrapping technique (PROCESS model 12) with 10,000 resamples. The results showed that positive technology readiness and negative technology readiness mediated the three-way interaction of culture, risk level, and brand trust effect on use intentions.

한국어

소비자들은 새로운 기술을 접했을 때 기술의 긍정적 측면 뿐 아니라 부정적 측면에도 관심을 가진다. 이에 선행연구들은 소비자들의 기술 수용에 대한 기술준비도의 역할을 조사하였다. 하지만 이들은 기술준비도의 결과에 주로 관심을 가지고 있으며 기술준비도에 영향을 줄 수 있는 요인들에 대해선 관심이 부족하다. 이에 본 연구는 기술준비도에 대한 문화의 영향력이 위험 수준과 브랜드 신뢰에 따라 어떻게 달라지는지 살펴보았다. 실험 결과, 한국보다 미국 소비자들이 긍정적 기술준비도를 더 높게 지각하고 있으며, 미국보다 한국소비자들이 부정적 기술준비도를 더 높게 지각하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 이러한 관계는 위험 수준과 브랜드 신뢰에 따라 차이를 보였다. 브랜드 신뢰가 높을 경우 문화와 위험 수준과 관계없이 긍정적 기술준비도는 더 높았으며 부정적 기술준비도는 더 낮아졌다. 하지만 브랜드 신뢰가 낮을 경우 소비자들의 기술준비도는 문화와 위험 수준에 따라 달라지는 것으로 나타났다. 위험 수준이 높을 때에는 문화에 따른 차이가 없었지만 위험 수준이 낮을 때에는 한국보다 미국 소비자들이 긍정적 기술준비도를 더 높게 지각하고 있으며, 미국보다 한국소비자들이 부정적 기술준비도를 더 높게 지각하는 것으로 나타났다.