Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

Advanced modeling of online consumer behavior: The moderating roles

of hedonism and culture
Marie-Odile Richard a,⁎, Mohammad Reza Habibi b
a
Department of Business Management, State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, 100 Seymour Rd, Utica, NY 13502, USA
b
Department of Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, California State University, Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd. Fullerton, CA 92831, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study develops and tests a comprehensive model of online consumer behavior. Using a sample of 1523 sub-
Received 1 April 2015 jects from different cultural backgrounds, there is strong support for the model across three different cultures.
Received in revised form 1 June 2015 Since hedonism is one of the important aspects of online shopping, the level of hedonism for 39 websites is mea-
Accepted 1 August 2015
sured to investigate how hedonism moderates online consumer behavior and how it interacts with culture. The
Available online 4 September 2015
findings support that consumers' emotions felt after visiting a website positively influence their perceptions of
Keywords:
the website atmospherics that in turn influence a set of behavioral variables ending up with intention to pur-
Culture chase. The findings also show that hedonism and culture do interactively moderate online consumers' behavior.
Online behavior Together, this article provides deep new insights in the relative importance of various variables in online consum-
Hedonism er behavioral models across cultures and levels of hedonism of websites. Discussions and managerial implications
Emotions are then presented.
Purchase intentions © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Online shopping is an important part of the world economy, and is
adopted by both consumers and retailers due to their convenience, effi-
ciency, value, and hedonic aspects (Eroglu, Machleit, & Davis, 2001).
Nevertheless, many websites fail to create a positive consumer experi-
ence or to lure customers into purchasing products (Hausman &
Siekpe, 2008). As such, retailers are not deciding whether or not to
have a website, but how to communicate effectively and strategically
to consumers (Richard, 2005).
Since web usage is global, cultural differences become an issue in ef-
fective website design. Culture might be an obstacle to website attrac-
tiveness (Jin, 2010), in practice, and an obstacle to the generalization
of research findings. Despite calls for more cross-cultural studies, few
investigate the role of culture in online retailing. Some researchers
found that culture influences perceptions of website atmospherics
(Davis, Wang, & Lindridge, 2008; Mazaheri, Richard, & Laroche, 2011),
and that consumers from different cultures have different preferences
for online tools (Seidenspinner & Theuner, 2007).
Drawing on the literature (Davis et al., 2008; Eroglu et al., 2001;
Hausman & Siekpe, 2008; Mazaheri et al., 2011; Richard, 2005;
Richard & Chandra, 2005; Richard & Chebat, in press; Steenkamp &
Geyskens, 2006), this study develops a nomological network of the in-
terrelationships among emotional and cognitive variables, which reflect
consumers' behavior after first exposure to a website. The pleasure,
arousal, dominance (PAD) framework (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) is
used to capture emotional responses to initial exposure to websites
and to show how they influence other cognitive and perceptual
variables.
Also, the moderating role of hedonism of websites across different
cultures is investigated, since hedonism could affect online consumer
behavior. Unlike much research in cultural contexts studying two differ-
ent cultural groups (Davis et al., 2008; Mazaheri et al., 2011), three
groups that together represent a wide spectrum of cultures from differ-
ent parts of the world are selected, i.e., North America, the Middle East,
and China.
This article is organized as follows. After developing the model, we
explain the moderating roles of hedonism and culture. Then, using a
large, multicultural sample we test our model and explore the non-
invariance paths among different cultures and different levels of hedo-
nism. Finally, discussions, implications, and limitations are presented.
2. Conceptual framework

⁎ Corresponding author.
The conceptual model is depicted in Fig. 1. Next we elaborate on all
E-mail addresses: richarm3@sunyit.edu (M.-O. Richard), its relationships. Given past support for these relationships, the devel-
mhabibi@exchange.fullerton.edu (M.R. Habibi). opment is brief.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.026
0148-2963/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1104 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119
Fig. 1. Conceptual model.
2.1. Website atmospherics, emotions and flow
Just as physical settings of retail stores can affect consumers' psycho-
logical and behavioral responses (Bitner, 1992), online environments,
or website atmospheric cues, may influence consumers' shopping in-
tentions. Atmospheric cues may be more influential on consumers in
online retailing than in traditional retailing, since online stores lack am-
bient and social factors (such as other people in the store; Baker, 1986).
Also, the sizes of online stores are those of a computer screen (Eroglu
et al., 2001), making environmental cues more important.
Website atmospherics are “the conscious design of web environ-
ments to create positive effects … in users … to increase favorable con-
sumer responses” (Dailey, 2004, p.796). We adopt the framework by
Mazaheri et al. (2011) with two types of website cues: pre-attentive
and cognitive. Pre-attentive cues—music, background and interface
colors, and font sizes—influence consumers' emotions upon first
website exposure (Davis et al., 2008). Cognitive cues are based on
evaluations of the websites and include factors such as informativeness,
effectiveness, and entertainment (Richard, 2005).
Eroglu et al. (2001) defined high task-relevant cues that directly re-
late to shopping goals, and low task-relevant cues that do not directly
facilitate shopping goals but enhance peripheral aspects of shopping.
We selected two high task relevant atmospherics—informativeness
and effectiveness of information content—and one low task relevant
one—entertainment—which are most influential variables in web de-
sign (Hausman & Siekpe, 2008; Richard, 2005).
Entertainment is the degree to which a site is cool, fun, and exciting
(Chen & Wells, 1999; Mazaheri et al., 2011), providing emotional
release and enjoyment (McQuail, 1983). Informativeness is the extent
of information access in a website (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). There
are inconsistencies about the role of informativeness; some found it
to enhance consumers' website attitudes and purchase intentions
(Mazaheri et al., 2011), while others found no effects or negative effects
on other variables (Dholakia & Rego, 1998; Richard, 2005). We address
this inconsistency as well. Effectiveness of information content (hereaf-
ter effectiveness) is the degree to which information is up-to-date, ac-
curate and relevant (Richard, 2005).
2.2. The effects of initial emotions
Consistent with Mazaheri et al. (2011) and the SOR framework by
Mehrabian and Russell (1974), consumers' initial exposure to pre-
attentive cues triggers initial emotions (Davis et al., 2008; Menon &
Kahn, 2002; Morin, Dube, & Chebat, 2007); emotions in turn influence
perceptions of cognitive cues such as informativeness, effectiveness,
and entertainment (Richard & Chebat, in press). This is consistent
with Zajonc (1980) for whom emotions are independent of cognitive
processes and can influence responses.
Pleasure, arousal and dominance (PAD) are emotional responses of
consumers exposed to shopping environments (Mehrabian & Russell,
1974). Since for Russell (1979) pleasure and arousal were enough to
capture emotional responses to environmental stimuli, most studies
did not include dominance (Reisenzein, 1994; Steenkamp & Geyskens,
2006). However, in line with Richard (2005) we believe that dominance
plays a key role in online environments. Arousal is the degree of feeling
motivated and active (Mazaheri et al., 2011). Mehrabian and Russell
(1974) state that emotions are correlated and others found that they in-
fluence each other (Mazaheri et al., 2011). There is evidence that arousal
positively influences other emotions (Davis et al., 2008; Kaltcheva &
Weitz, 2006). Thus, we hypothesize that arousal positively influences
pleasure (H1a) and dominance (H1b). We also argue that triggered
emotions influence perceptions of website atmospherics, such that
arousal positively influences perception of website informativeness
(H1c). In offline contexts arousal increases the time spent in store.
Also, findings show the positive influence of arousal on site involvement
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1105

(Mazaheri et al., 2011), which suggest that arousal positively influences
website involvement (H1d).
Pleasure is the degree of feeling joyful, happy and satisfied, associat-
ed with the degree to which people like something (Poels & Dewitte,
2008), so we hypothesize that pleasure increases website attitudes
(H2a). Having framed our model according to the SOR framework, we
deduce that emotions influence perceptions of site atmospherics.
Thus, we hypothesize that pleasure positively influences website effec-
tiveness (H2b). This is also the case for dominance, which is the feeling
of having control and freedom during a website visit. That is, dominance
positively influences website effectiveness (H3).
2.3. Flow
Flow is key in human–computer interactions (Hoffman & Novak,
1996; Webster, Trevino, & Regan, 1993). It is an experienced cognitive
state during web surfing linked to high levels of control, skills, challenge,
and interactivity (Novak, Hoffman, & Yung, 2000). Arousal positively in-
fluences flow (Novak et al., 2000). Also, one cannot experience flow in a
low state of arousal (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Wang, Baker, Wagner,
and Wakefield (2007) found a positive relationship between arousal
and flow for social websites. Thus, we hypothesize that arousal positive-
ly influences flow (H1e). Flow involves sequential interactions with a
machine. Response delays, unintuitive navigation, and difficult chal-
lenges are obstacles to the creation of flow (Richard & Chandra, 2005).
The more effective a website is, the higher the likelihood of achieving
flow by visitors. Thus, we surmise that site effectiveness positively
influences flow (H4a). Moreover, experiencing flow during a website
visit enhances interactions with the website, and provides joyous feel-
ings. Thus, we hypothesize that flow positively influences site entertain-
ment (H5).
Moreover, the more informative a website, the more consumers try to
retrieve information which increases their involvement (Mazaheri
et al., 2011). Thus, we hypothesize that informativeness positively influ-
ences website involvement (H6c).
There is evidence that website involvement influences site attitudes,
product attitudes and purchase intentions (Jiang et al., 2010; Richard,
2005). Consumers highly involved in a website likely interact more
with its different elements and try to find out related product informa-
tion. Thus, their familiarity with these products and websites increases.
Thus, we believe website involvement positively influences website at-
titudes (H8a) and product attitudes (H8b). This is also the case for pur-
chase intentions because by gaining information consumers can better
make shopping decisions. We hypothesize that website involvement
positively influences purchase intentions (H8c).
Finally, product attitudes are important antecedents to purchase in-
tentions (Puccinelli et al., 2009). As long as consumers do not have fa-
vorable attitudes toward a product they will not opt to buy the
product. Thus, we hypothesize that product attitudes positively influ-
ence purchase intentions (H10).
2.5. Hedonism and cultural effects
Research showed that hedonism/utilitarianism (Hoffman & Novak,
1996; Mazaheri et al., 2011; Overby & Lee, 2006; Wang et al., 2007)
and culture (Davis et al., 2008; Mazaheri et al., 2011; Steenkamp &
Geyskens, 2006) are important in online contexts. However, little re-
search simultaneously considered both factors' influences on online
shopping behavior. We categorize websites into high and low hedonic
and compare online behavior across three cultures. However, we do
not frame formal hypotheses due to the numerous paths being com-
pared. We do however discuss expectations.

2.4. Website atmospherics and other cognitive variables 2.5.1. Hedonism

Consumers attain benefits from shopping—hedonic, utilitarian, or
The rest of the model depicts the relationships among the percep- both (Bridges & Florsheim, 2008). Hedonic benefits relate to “experien-
tions of atmospheric cues and cognitive responses to websites. tial enjoyment” and utilitarian benefits to “practical functionality”
We surmise some interrelationships among website atmospherics. (Okada, 2005, p.44). Based on Overby and Lee (2006), both utilitarian
Effectiveness positively influences informativeness (H4b) and enter- and hedonic values are judgements—utilitarian values about functional
tainment (H4c) because the more effective a website is in delivering benefits and hedonic values about experiential benefits. Since utilitari-
up-to-date and relevant information, the more it is perceived as infor- anism and hedonism are two different dimensions and not two ends
mative and the more enjoyment users have during the interaction of one continuum (Okada, 2005; Voss, Spangenberg, & Grohmann,
(Mazaheri et al., 2011). 2003), we focus on hedonic aspects of websites since most commercial
Site attitudes are website evaluations based on three types of infor- websites have similar levels of utilitarianism, but not all websites have
mation: cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Wu, 1999). Based on find- similar levels of hedonism. Moreover, the hedonic dimension has been
ings that effectiveness and entertainment directly relate to website recognized as very important in online shopping (Hoffman & Novak,
attitudes (Hausman & Siekpe, 2008; Mazaheri et al., 2011; Richard, 1996; Overby & Lee, 2006).
2005), we hypothesize that effectiveness (H4d) and entertainment Websites vary based on hedonism regardless of the products they
(H7) positively influence site attitudes. The latter is also supported by offer. Thus, based on its attributes, each website can be high or low on
Dholakia and Rego (1998) who state that novelty and entertainment
are mentioned by consumers for their website likeability. Also, websites
Table 1
are similar to traditional advertisements in that they both reflect the
Breakdown of responses by goods, services, and number of brands.
same characteristics (Jee & Lee, 2002; Mazaheri et al., 2011). Since ad
attitudes positively influence product attitudes (Brown & Stayman, Category Good (G) or service (S) No. of brands Total
1992), we propose the same for website attitudes (H9). Dental services S 4 175
Website informativeness positively influences product attitudes Cosmetics G 4 178
(H6a) and purchase intentions (H6b) (Hausman & Siekpe, 2008; Clothing G 4 155
Books S 2 27
Mazaheri et al., 2011; Richard & Chandra, 2005) since information de- Fast foods S 4 93
creases the level of uncertainty toward the products and increases the Vitamins G 2 34
likelihood of shopping related decision-making. Financial investments S 2 79
Involvement was studied in contexts such as consumer behavior Hotel S 4 167
Furniture G 4 184
(Liu & Shrum, 2002; O'Cass, 2000), and online website and advertising
Plastic surgery S 4 198
(Cho, 1999; McMillan, Jang-Sun, & Guiohk, 2003). Website involvement Vacation destination S 3 131
is the relative relevance and importance of a website based on Bank S 2 102
consumers' needs and interests (Jiang, Chan, Tan, & Chua, 2010). Total 39 1523
Jiang et al. (2010) found that reciprocal communication and the amount Total services 972
Total goods 551
of information exchanged online influence cognitive involvement.
1106 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119

hedonism. There are controversies on how hedonism influences online Table 3

behavior. For some, hedonism is more important in hedonic shopping Sample breakdown by high and low hedonic and ethnic groups.

contexts and utilitarianism is more important in utilitarian shopping North Americans Chinese Middle Easterners
ones (Childers, Carr, Peck, & Carson, 2001). However, for Okada High hedonic
(2005) humans are naturally motivated to enjoy any given experience, Size 444 117 139
but hedonic consumption is associated with guilt feelings. So in high he- Mean 4.09 (1.01) 4.03 (.97) 3.97 (.97)
donic situations, consumers need to justify such consumption by em- Low hedonic
phasizing more the utilitarian aspects of their purchase. Thus we Size 534 134 155
expect that in high hedonic websites the importance of utilitarian vari- Mean 3.03 (1.09) 3.15 (1.20) 3.09 (1.03)
ables such as informativeness will be higher.

2.5.2. Culture
Culture is a significant differentiator (Hofstede, Sternkamp, & Wedel,
1999). An ideal website should attract consumers from different cul-
tures when it takes into account the cultural nuances of its audiences
(Davis et al., 2008). Culture is the “collective programming of the
mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of
people from those of another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.4). Thus, to attract
the widest groups, a website should be designed to take into account
different groups' programming of the minds. The often used framework
is based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Hofstede, Hofstede, &
Minkov, 2010) and Hall's contextual paradigm (1976). In this study
we compare our model across three different cultures: North America,
China, and the Middle East. They represent a spectrum based on Hall
(1976) with North America as a low context and China as an extremely
high context culture, and the Middle East in between. So this
comparison will be more complete than studies with only two cultures.

Table 2
Measurement model—total sample (N = 1523).

Std. coeff. Average α

Latent factors (t value) variance

F11 Pleasure (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) .72 .88

After viewing this web site, I felt: Annoyed/Pleased .867 (⁎)
After viewing this web site, I felt: Dissatisfied/Satisfied .887 (39.72)
After viewing this web site, I felt: Despairing/Hopeful .792 (33.50)
F12 Arousal (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) .50 .66
After viewing this web site, I felt: Unaroused/Aroused .717 (⁎)
After viewing this web site, I felt: Sleepy/Wide-awake .692 (21.87)
F13 Dominancea (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) .61 .86
I felt I had a lot of control over my visiting experiences at this site .765 (28.94)
While I was on this site, I could choose freely what I wanted to see .843 (⁎)
While surfing the web, I had absolutely control over what I could do on this site .772 (29.24)
While I was on this site, I controlled what happened in my online information searches .733 (27.45)
F14 Effectiveness of information contenta (Bell & Tang, 1998) .65 .85
The information on this site is up-to-date .767 (⁎)
The information on this site is complete .803 (27.77)
The information on this site is relevant .842 (28.97)
F15 Informativenessa (Chen & Wells, 1999) .76 .90
This site is informative to me .893 (⁎)
This site is resourceful to me .900 (44.12)
This site is knowledgeable for me .820 (37.55)
F17 Website attitudes (Eighmey, 1997) .84 .94
I dislike/like this site .908 (⁎)
I react unfavorably/favorably toward this site .944 (55.75)
I have negative/positive feelings toward this site .893 (48.70)
F18 Entertainmenta (Chen & Wells, 1999) .79 .91
This site is fun to browse .935 (⁎)
This site is exciting .937 (58.76)
This site is imaginative .785 (38.22)
F19 Flowa (Hoffman & Novak, 1996) .60 .82
I felt like I was totally absorbed by this site .841 (⁎)
While visiting this site, time seemed to go very quickly .799 (31.48)
While visiting this site, I forgot about my immediate surroundings .681 (25.49)
F20 Website involvement (Muehling, Stoltman, & Grossbart, 1990) .88 .96
The website is: unimportant to me/important to me .903 (⁎)
The website: does not matter to me/matters to me .959 (60.02)
The website is: insignificant to me/significant to me .954 (59.21)
F22 Product attitudes (Eighmey, 1997) .88 .96
I dislike/like this product .937 (⁎)
I react unfavorably/favorably toward this product .948 (65.22)
I have negative/positive feelings toward this product .928 (60.66)
F23 Purchase intentionsa .78 .93
The likelihood of purchasing this product is high .870 (⁎)
The probability that I would consider buying the product is high .914 (45.67)
My willingness to buy the product is high .890 (43.31)
I intend to purchase this product .857 (40.27)
Fit indices
Chi square (df) 1034.01 (472)
CFI .995
RMSEA .028
⁎ Fixed item.
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1107

Table 4
Structural model for total sample, North Americans, Chinese and Middle Easteners.

Total sample North Americans Chinese Middle Easterners

(N = 1523) (N = 978) (N = 251) (N = 294)

Paths Std. coeff. (t value) Std. coeff. (t value) Std. coeff. (t value) Std. coeff. (t value)

Arousal → Pleasure .832 (22.84) .820 (18.19) .899 (11.43) .813 (9.35)
Arousal → Dominance .376 (10.90) .392 (9.25) .410 (4.79) .340 (4.43)
Pleasure → Effective .333 (11.19) .354 (9.59) .250 (3.39) .364 (5.55)
Dominance → Effectiveness .487 (15.13) .452 (11.67) .627 (6.57) .467 (6.83)
Effective → Informativeness .454 (14.45) .452 (11.47) .624 (7.82) .508 (7.44)
Arousal → Informativeness .418 (13.03) .401 (9.95) .312 (4.64) .402 (5.74)
Pleasure → Website attitudes .261 (8.45) .273 (7.33) .320 (4.35) .181 (2.53)
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .280 (10.38) .329 (9.86) .147 (2.47) .187 (2.93)
Entertaining → Website attitudes .301 (10.17) .282 (7.93) .446 (6.46) .280 (4.00)
Website involvement → Website attitudes .151 (6.16) .117 (4.03) .087 (1.49)⁎ .307 (5.20)
Dominance → Entertainment .135 (5.47) .102 (3.48) .250 (3.66) .188 (3.46)
Flow → Entertainment .801 (27.70) .832 (23.77) .665 (9.00) .773 (11.96)
Effectiveness → Flow .092 (3.20) .101 (2.85) .086 (1.27)⁎ .070 (1.05)⁎
Arousal → Flow .827 (20.53) .824 (16.57) .860 (9.40) .811 (8.40)
Informativeness → Website involvement .347 (10.29) .417 (10.02) .155 (2.12) .273 (3.58)
Arousal → Website involvement .398 (10.86) .322 (7.36) .623 (7.23) .453 (5.15)
Informativeness → Product attitudes .107 (3.11) .121 (2.71) .133 (2.04) .026 (.35)⁎
Website attitude → Product attitudes .451 (13.75) .424 (10.52) .566 (7.97) .501 (6.24)
Website involvement → Product attitudes .165 (5.14) .157 (3.88) .193 (3.05) .109 (1.43)⁎
Informativeness → Purchase intentions .120 (3.99) .106 (2.77) .108 (1.49)⁎ .106 (1.80)
Website involvement → Purchase intentions .468 (15.28) .493 (12.72) .292 (3.97) .486 (7.64)
Product attitudes → Purchase intentions .268 (10.08) .246 (7.53) .411 (5.24) .312 (5.74)
Fit indices
Chi square (df = 505) 1183.1 1066.7 621.8 770.0
CFI .994 .993 .995 .989
RMSEA .030 .034 .030 .042
⁎ not significant paths.

Also these cultures have different scores on cultural dimensions such
as individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity,
long-term orientation and indulgence (Hofstede et al., 2010). Although
the Middle East includes many countries with small cultural variations,
research showed that these countries form a unique culture that
distinguishes them from other cultures (Gupta, Levinburg, Moore,
Motwani, & Schwarz, 2010; Hofstede et al., 2010; Raven & Welsh, 2004).
In low context or individualistic cultures, less emphasis is put on
context but responses to content are more important. In high context
or collectivistic cultures, context, welfare of the group, and causal
reasoning are more important in decision making (Davis et al., 2008;
Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002; Triandis, 1998). In high
context cultures trust building must happen before any interaction
takes place; the goal is to build and keep relationships; the meaning is
implicit and extracted from the context; the success and welfare of
the group are more important than personal achievements. In low
context cultures, meaning is explicit; personal success is of the highest
importance, and information exchange is the goal of communication
(Hall, 1976).
Thus, we expect more differences in the online behavior of North
Americans versus Chinese than in North Americans versus Middle East-
erners. Since in high context cultures consumers pay more attention to
the context of online shopping (Davis et al., 2008), we expect low task
relevant cues to be more important for high context cultures. In the
individualism value system exploration and expression of emotions
are admired, but in the collectivism system of thoughts emotional ex-
pression is suppressed for the welfare of the group (Oyserman et al.,
2002); so we expect the effects of emotions to be higher in individualis-
tic countries than in low emotionality collectivist cultures (Hsu, 1983;
Schimack, Radharkishnan, Oishi, Dzokoto, & Ahadi, 2002; Steenkamp
& Geyskens, 2006). Furthermore, utilitarian values are related to the
perception of task-specific and functional aspects of websites (Overby
& Lee, 2006). However, hedonic values are related to one's evaluation
of the experiential aspects of websites such as pleasure, or entertain-
ment (Overby & Lee, 2006). Obviously these values have different de-
grees of importance in different cultures. In high context cultures,
people are more task-oriented and affect plays a less important role in
decision making (Hall, 1976).
3. Method
3.1. Data collection and sample
Data were collected from a Northeastern university subjects ran-
domly assigned to one of 39 websites and asked to answer the question-
naire online. The survey had questions pertaining to a good or a service.
There were 25 websites for 8 types of services and 14 websites for 4
types of goods preselected to cover a variety a goods and services with

Table 5
Factor loading invariance test: North Americans vs. Chinese vs. Middle Easterners.

Model χ2 Df χ2/df Δχ2 from Model 1 Δdf from Model 1 P value CFI RMSEA

1 Unconstrained 2459 1515 1.62 .992 .035

2 Constrained 2525 1561 1.62 66 46 .0281 .992 .035
3 Partially metric 2487 1556 1.60 28 41 .9392 .992 .035
invarianta
a
After releasing three constraints in groups 1 and 2 (North Americans & Chinese), and two in groups 1 and 3 (North Americans & Middle Easterners).
1108 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119

Table 5a
Invariance test: North Americans vs. Chinese.

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

(probability)
North Americans Chinese North Americans Chinese

(N = 978) (N = 251) (N = 978) (N = 251)

Structural model
Effectiveness → Informativeness .688 1.027 .452 .624 8.13
(11.47) (7.82) (p = .004)
Website attitudes → Product attitudes .464 .572 .424 .566 6.19
(10.52) (7.97) (p = .013)
Entertainment → Website attitudes .245 .392 .282 .446 5.22
(7.93) (6.46) (p = .022)
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .451 .227 .329 .147 4.66
(9.86) (2.47) (p = .031)
Arousal → Website involvement .414 .902 .322 .623 4.29
(7.36) (7.23) (p = .038)
Website involvement → Purchase intentions .483 .286 .493 .292 3.39
(12.72) (3.97) (p = .065)
Product attitudes → Purchase intentions .225 .407 .246 .411 4.30
(7.53) (5.24) (p = .038)
Informativeness → Website involvement .382 .148 .417 .155 10.44
(10.02) (2.12) (p = .001)
Fit indices:
Chi-square 1066.67 621.78
df 505 505
CFI .993 .995
RMSEA .034 .030
Nonsignificant paths (p b .10): F20 → F17
F14 → F19
F15 → F23
a
The subsamples were tested based on the original model (Fig. 1); t-values are in parentheses; one-tailed tests: t N 1.65, p b .05; t N 2.33, p b .01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the sub-samples with structural paths constrained to invariance.

varied levels of hedonism. To ensure that subjects spent enough time to
visit the assigned website and answer the questionnaire we eliminated
those who completed the task in less than 15 min. Also, we eliminated
subjects who had previous exposure to the assigned website to avoid
any pre-existing attitudes.
The total sample consisted of 3437 respondents from various ethnic
origins. We selected a sub-sample of 1523 respondents who considered
their ethnic background to be North American (N = 978), Chinese (N =
251), or Middle Eastern (N = 294). It was divided equally between
males (50.2%) and females (49.8%). Their ages ranged between 18 and
34 (97.4%). A breakdown of the sample by goods, services, and number
of brands is provided in Table 1.
3.2. Measures
We borrowed the measures from previous literature and used five
point Likert scales (Table 2 lists the items and their sources).
3.3. Measurement model
To test the hypotheses we used structural equation modeling. We
followed the two-step procedure by Anderson and Gerbing (1988),
and estimated and respecified the measurement model prior to testing
the structural model. We used EQS software with ERLS estimation
method. Initially, the model had 11 factors with 51 items. Exploratory

Table 5b
Invariance test: North Americans vs. Middle Easterners.

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

(probability)
North Americans Middle East North Americans Middle East

(N = 978) (N = 294) (N = 978) (N = 294)

Structural model
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .451 .227 .329 .187 10.21
(9.86) (2.93) (p = .001)
Website involvement → Website attitudes .115 .283 .117 307 4.78
(4.03) (5.20) (p = .029)
Pleasure → Website attitudes .304 .185 .273 .181 3.57
(7.33) (2.53) (p = .059)
Fit indices
Chi-square 1066.67 770.01
df 505 505
CFI .993 .989
RMSEA .034 .042
Non-significant paths (p b .10): F14 → F19
F15 → F22
F20 → F22
a
The sub-samples were tested based on the original model (Fig. 1); t-values are in parenthesis; one-tailed tests: t N 1.65, p b .05; t N 2.33, p b .01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the sub-samples with structural paths constrained to invariance.
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1109

and confirmatory factor analyses tested the unidimensionality of the only one factor was extracted with an eigenvalue of 1. The CFA then
measurement scales. One scale was included at a time to examine yielded adequate fit indices: CFI = .985, RMSEA = .048, χ2 = 5186
whether the items share a single underlying factor. Based on the EFA, (df = 1169). An examination of the results revealed 17 items with

Fig. 2. a: Structural model: North Americans vs. Chinese Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted lines, non-invariant paths shown in bold lines. b:
Structural model: North Americans vs. Middle Easterners Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted lines, non-invariant paths shown in bold lines.
1110 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119

Table 6 6-point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree). The

Structural model for high and low hedonic. scale had a good Cronbach alpha (.93). For each website, the mean he-
High Low donism was calculated. The overall mean for all websites was 3.51.
hedonic hedonic We classified websites with a mean hedonic value lower than 3.51 as
(N = 700) (N = 823) low hedonic (MLow hedonic = 3.10) and those above 3.51 as high hedonic
Paths Std. coeff. Std. coeff. (MHigh hedonic = 3.98). Applying this to the total sample, 18 websites
(t value) (t value) were high hedonic (700 respondents) and 21 websites were low he-
Arousal → Pleasure .798 (13.9) .846 (16.2)
donic (823 respondents). Then, subjects were grouped based on types
Arousal → Dominance .379 (7.29) .343 (7.32)
Pleasure → Effectiveness .271 (6.28) .353 (8.63) of website and cultural backgrounds. Table 3 provides the sample
Dominance → Effectiveness .546 (11.1) .447 (10.4) sizes, mean values and standard deviations of the three groups for
Effectiveness → Informativeness .417 (8.98) .483 (11.32) high and low hedonic sites.
Arousal → Informativeness .461 (9.20) .373 (8.63)
Pleasure → Website attitudes .301 (6.57) .224 (5.32)
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .226 (5.32) .331 (9.17) 4. Findings
Entertainment → Website attitudes .237 (5.05) .319 (8.37)
Website involvement → Website attitudes .185 (4.87) .138 (4.16)
Effectiveness → Entertainment .168 (4.58) .110 (3.20)
4.1. Structural model
Flow → Entertainment .782 (18.7) .791 (18.7)
Effectiveness → Flow .144 (3.41) .041 (1.01) Using structural equation modeling, we test all hypotheses for the
Arousal → Flow .782 (12.9) .844 (14.2) whole sample (N = 1523). Table 4 (Column 2) presents the findings.
Informativeness → Website involvement .322 (6.20) .354 (8.16)
All paths are significant at p b .01. All hypotheses are supported. All
Arousal → Website involvement .406 (7.03) .400 (8.32)
Informativeness → Product attitudes .141 (2.68) .060 (1.30) paths are significant for North Americans, but three paths are not for
Website Attitude → Product attitudes .339 (6.83) .448 (10.1) Chinese and Middle Easterners.
Website involvement → Product attitudes .160 (3.19) .211 (4.87)
Informativeness → Purchase intentions .097 (2.10) .126 (3.22)
Website involvement → Purchase intentions .469 (10.1) .501 (12.0) 4.2. Multi-group analyses
Product attitudes → Purchase intentions .239 (5.98) .230 (6.50)
Fit indices
Next we explore the effects of hedonism and culture on the baseline
Chi square (df = 505) 962.7 919.8
CFI .990 .993 model (Fig. 1) by running multi-sample analyses. First, the invariance of
RMSEA .036 .032 factor loadings was tested by constraining them to be invariant across
pairs of samples (Byrne, 1994). For Bentler (1988) one cannot assume
that factors are identical across groups without factor loading invari-
high cross-loadings on unrelated factors or items with high standard ance. For Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998) metric invariance should
residuals, which were removed. The respecified measurement model be established across groups before comparing the strengths of the path
(34 items and 11 factors) was estimated and yielded better fit indices: coefficients. A test of metric invariance was run for the three groups
χ2 = 1034 (df = 472), CFI = .995, and RMSEA = .028 (Table 2). prior to testing the structural paths invariance. Table 5 shows that al-
All coefficient alphas (from .66 to .96) indicated acceptable reliabili- though the CFI and RMSEA values of the restrictive model were quite
ty. All items loading on their constructs were significant with minimum satisfactory compared to the unconstrained model, there was a signifi-
t-value of 21.9 and AVEs greater than .50 (except for Arousal at .50). This cant increase in χ2 for the constrained model. The LMχ2 statistic and
evidences convergent validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). related probability value highlighted five non-invariant loadings. Re-
For discriminant validity two tests by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) leasing the non-invariant cross-group constraints provided a partially
were used. First, the correlation between each pair of factors was metric invariant model (Byrne, 1994).
constrained to 1.0 and the χ2 for the constrained model was compared Next, the structural path coefficients were tested by simultaneously
with the χ2 for the unconstrained one. Gaining a significantly lower χ2 constraining the paths for the three samples to equality. Results of these
for the unconstrained model means that the factors are not perfectly comparisons appear in Tables 5a and 5b, and in Fig. 2a and b where the
correlated, supporting discriminant validity. For all pairs of factors, the significant different paths from the multi-sample results are highlighted,
χ2 of the unconstrained model was significantly (p b .001) lower than as well as the asymmetrical paths and non-significant paths for each
the χ2 for the constrained one. The second test is to calculate the confi- pair of samples at p b .10 (top line always indicates North Americans).
dence interval with two standard errors around the correlation esti- Eight of the twenty-two paths were found to be non-invariant between
mate. If the interval does not include 1.0, it provides support for North Americans and Chinese, while only three paths were non-
discriminant validity. None of the calculated intervals included 1.0. invariant between North Americans and Middle Easterners.
These procedures were used in all multi-sample invariance tests. A
3.4. Forming groups based on culture and hedonism test of metric invariance was run for the high hedonic and low hedonic
groups (structural model shown in Table 6). Table 7 shows that al-
We classified the websites into high/low hedonic sites based on though the CFI and RMSEA values of the restrictive model were quite
levels of hedonism. We used a sub-sample of 1312 respondents to satisfactory compared to the unconstrained model, a significant in-
apply the scale developed by Voss et al. (2003) comprising five items crease in χ2 was noted. Based on the LMχ2 statistic and related probabil-
(I found the site to be fun/exciting/delightful/thrilling/enjoyable) with ity value, three non-invariant factor loading constraints were released.

Table 7
Factor loading invariance test: high vs. low hedonic.

Model χ2 Df χ2/df Δχ2 from Model 1 Δdf from Model 1 p value CFI RMSEA

1 Unconstrained 1882 1010 1.86 .992 .034

2 Constrained 1939 1033 1.88 57 23 .0001 .992 .034
3 Partially metric 1912 1030 1.86 30 20 .0699 .992 .034
invarianta
a
After releasing three constraints.
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1111

Table 8
Invariance test: high vs. low hedonic.

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

(probability)
High Low High Low
hedonic Hedonic hedonic Hedonic

(N = 700) (N = 823) (N = 700) (N 823)

Structural model
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .289 .439 .226 .331 6.86
(5.32) (9.17) (p = .009)
Effectiveness → Flow .195 .045 .144 .041 6.18
(3.41) (1.01) (p = .013)
Website Attitudes → Product attitudes .355 .466 .339 .448 5.25
(6.83) (10.1) (p = .022)
Pleasure → Effectiveness .199 .320 .271 .353 3.55
(6.28) (8.63) (p = .059)
Fit indices
Chi-square 962.7 919.8
df 505 505
CFI .990 .993
RMSEA .036 .032
Nonsignificant paths: F14 → F19
F15 → F22
a
The two sub-samples for high and low hedonic sites were tested, based on the original model (cf. Fig. 1); t-values are in parenthesis; based on one-tailed tests: t N1.65, p b.05; t N2.33, p b.01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the two sub-samples in which the structural paths were constrained to invariance.

For the multiple-test of path invariance for the high hedonic and low
hedonic groups (Table 8), four paths were found to be non-invariant
(highlighted in Fig. 3).
Next, invariance tests were conducted for the three groups by
high hedonic and low hedonic websites. Table 9 shows the structur-
al model for the high hedonic sample by ethnic group. The test
of metric invariance for these groups highlighted six non-invariant
factor loadings that needed to be released (Table 10). Releasing
these constraints produced a better model that was partially metric
invariant.
The results of the subsequent path invariance multi-sample test in-
dicated that F15 → F22 and F17 → F22 were both non-invariant between
the high hedonic North American and Chinese samples and the high he-
donic North American and Middle Eastern samples. Five other paths
were non-invariant between the high hedonic North American and
Chinese samples (Tables 10a and 10b; Fig. 4a and b).

Fig. 3. Structural model: High hedonic vs. Low hedonic Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted lines, non-invariant paths shown in bold lines.
1112 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119

Table 9
Structural model for high hedonic by ethnic groups.

High hedonic North Americans Chinese Middle Easterners

(N = 444) (N = 117) (N = 139)

Paths Std. coeff. (t value) Std. coeff. Std. coeff.

(t value) (t value)
Arousal → Pleasure .795 (11.69) .823 (6.58) .739 (5.49)
Arousal → Dominance .381 (5.98) .430 (3.44) .353 (3.12)
Pleasure → Effectiveness .336 (6.03) .158 (1.53) .199 (2.36)
Dominance → Effectiveness .483 (7.84) .650 (5.06) .603 (6.41)
Effectiveness → Informativeness .387 (6.36) .550 (5.39) .468 (5.42)
Arousal → Informativeness .466 (7.29) .376 (3.78) .486 (4.62)
Pleasure → Website attitudes .318 (5.56) .386 (3.84) .186 (1.94)
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .256 (4.71) .132 (1.65) .175 (1.78)
Entertainment → Website attitudes .201 (3.55) .405 (4.39) .249 (2.19)
Website involvement → Website attitudes .168 (3.64) .098 (1.12) .301 (3.51)
Effectiveness → Entertainment .119 (2.68) .251 (2.93) .255 (3.13)
Flow → Entertainment .823 (16.24) .708 (7.41) .723 (7.39)
Effectiveness → Flow .138 (2.62) .031 (.31) .217 (2.38)
Arousal → Flow .789 (10.79) .834 (5.96) .748 (5.30)
Informativeness → Website involvement .395 (6.11) .131 (1.28) .231 (1.93)
Arousal → Website involvement .337 (4.94) .685 (5.09) .427 (3.02)
Informativeness → Product attitudes .226 (3.26) .006 (.06) −.061 (−.61)
Website attitudes → Product attitudes .212 (3.50) .761 (7.10) .582 (5.34)
Website involvement → Product attitudes .170 (2.65) .026 (.27) .071 (.71)
Informativeness → Purchase intentions .111 (1.90) .166 (1.53) −.013 (−.14)
Website involvement → Purchase intentions .497 (8.69) .186 (1.67) .517 (5.15)
Product attitudes → Purchase intentions .211 (4.41) .388 (3.55) .259 (3.08)
Fit indices
Chi square (df = 505) 938.9 622.9 742.7
CFI .986 .987 .974
RMSEA .044 .045 .058

Likewise, the three groups in the low hedonic sample (Table 11) were
tested for metric invariance. After relaxing six factor loading constraints,
a better partially metric invariant model was obtained (Table 12).
The multi-sample test of path invariance presented in Tables 12a
and 12b highlighted four paths that were found to be non-invariant be-
tween the low hedonic North American and Chinese samples and four
non-invariant paths between the low hedonic North American and Mid-
dle East samples (Fig. 5a and b).
5. Discussion
In this article, we tested an extensive model of online consumer be-
havior across three cultures and levels of website hedonism. The find-
ings presented in Figs. 2 to 5b are numerous, so we highlight the
major findings. As predicted, all the hypotheses were supported using
the whole sample. Only three of the hypotheses were not supported
in the Middle Eastern and Chinese samples. This might be due to the
smaller sizes of Chinese and Middle Eastern samples so some relation-
ships might not become significant. This might be a valid explanation
considering that path coefficients of the non-significant paths are very
close to path coefficients for North Americans (Table 4). However, an in-
teresting observation is the consistent insignificant impact of effective-
ness on flow for both Chinese and Middle Easterners. That is, it is only
significant for North Americans. Maybe, in high context cultures effec-
tiveness is taken for granted and does not necessarily lead to flow.
Fig. 2a and b compare North Americans' online behavior versus the
Chinese and Middle Easterners. The bold arrows show non-invariant
paths. Eight paths in Fig. 2a and three paths in Fig. 2b are non-
invariant. The difference between North Americans and Chinese is
much larger than between North Americans and Middle Easterners.
This is consistent with expectations since there is a larger cultural dis-
tance between North America and China than between North America
and the Middle East; China is at the extreme end of collectivism and
North America at the extreme end of individualism.
The findings suggest that the effect of arousal is more important in
high context cultures, i.e., China and the Middle East. This is consistent
with the literature since arousal can diminish the power of subduing
emotions in high context cultures (Davis et al., 2008). Effectiveness
has a stronger impact on informativeness for Chinese than for North
Americans (Fig. 2a). This is consistent with findings in other studies
(Mazaheri et al., 2011). Perhaps, website effectiveness allows Chinese
respondents to better access the information in context.
For North Americans, the impacts of effectiveness on site attitudes
and of informativeness on site involvement are stronger than those for
the Chinese. The reason might be that North Americans have a higher
tendency to avoid uncertainty (Hofstede, 1991); so elements that result
in uncertainty reduction are more important in North America. This is
also the case for the impact of effectiveness on site attitudes when we
compare North America and the Middle East (Fig. 2b). Maybe, people
in low context cultures are more straightforward and high task relevant
cues are more important to them (Davis et al., 2008).
The effect of entertainment on site attitudes is stronger for the
Chinese. This meets expectations since the Chinese culture is more con-
text sensitive and low task cues are valued. Previous studies support this

Table 10
Factor loading invariance test: high hedonic and North Americans vs. Chinese vs. Middle Easterners.

Model χ2 df χ2/df Δχ2 from Model 1 Δdf from Model 1 P value CFI RMSEA

1 Unconstrained 2305 1515 1.52 .984 .047

2 Constrained 2394 1561 1.53 89 46 .0001 .983 .048
3 Partially metric 2338 1555 1.50 33 40 .7757 .984 .047
invarianta
a
After releasing three constraints in groups 1 and 2 and three in groups 1 and 3.
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1113

Table 10a
Invariance test: high hedonic (North Americans vs. Chinese).

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

High hedonic (probability)
North Americans Chinese North Americans Chinese

(N = 444) (N = 117) (N = 444) (N = 117)

Structural model
Website attitudes → Product attitudes .230 .722 .212 .761 8.25
(3.50) (7.10) (p = .004)
Website involvement → Purchase intentions .523 .176 .497 .186 5.80
(8.69) (1.67) (p = .016)
Arousal → Website involvement .484 1.059 .337 .685 4.37
(4.94) (5.09) (p = .037)
Entertainment → Website attitudes .164 .324 .201 .405 4.13
(3.55) (4.39) (p = .042)
Informativeness → Website involvements .396 .125 .395 .131 3.58
(6.11) (1.28) (p = .058)
Product attitude → Purchase intentions .246 .425 .211 .388 2.89
(4.41) (3.55) (p = .089)
Informativeness → Product attitudes .205 .005 .226 .006 2.76
(3.26) (0.06) (p = .097)
Fit indices
Chi-square 938.9 622.9
df 505 505
CFI .986 .987
RMSEA .044 .045
Nonsignificant paths (p b .10) F11 → F14
F20 → F17
F14 → F19
F15 → F20
F15 → F22
F20 → F22
F15 → F23
a
The sub-samples were tested based on the original model (Fig. 1); t-values are in parenthesis; on one-tailed tests: t N 1.65, p b .05; t N 2.33, p b .01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the sub-samples with structural paths constrained to invariance.

finding (Mazaheri et al., 2011). As shown in Fig. 2a, the effect of
site involvement on purchase intentions is larger for North Americans
than for the Chinese. In individualistic cultures decisions are based
more on individual preferences (Triandis, 1998), so if an individual is in-
volved with the website, the odds of this involvement being translated
into purchase intentions are higher in cultures such as North America.
Also, the findings suggest that the impacts of site attitudes on product
attitudes and of product attitudes on purchase intentions are stronger
for the Chinese than for North Americans. An explanation might be
that attitudes and status play a more important role in decision making
in high context cultures.
The effect of pleasure on site attitudes for Middle Easterners is
stronger than for North Americans (Fig. 2b). Also, the impact of site
involvement on site attitudes is stronger for Middle Easterners
than for North Americans. As Fig. 2b shows there are fewer non-
invariant paths between North Americans' and Middle Easterners'
online behavior, indicating that in terms of online behavior these
groups are closer.
Fig. 3 shows the comparison of the baseline model between high he-
donic and low hedonic websites. There are four non-invariant paths and
one asymmetric path. As discussed there are two competing arguments
about the relative importance of hedonic and utilitarian elements in
high/low hedonic websites. From our findings both arguments have
merits. For example, the impact of effectiveness on site attitudes is
stronger in low hedonic websites. However, the effect of effectiveness
on flow is stronger in high hedonic websites. The fact that effectiveness
does not show the same pattern of impact on site attitudes and flow
may be due to the difference in the nature of these two variables. Flow

Table 10b
Invariance test: high hedonic (North Americans vs. Middle Easterners).

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

High hedonic (probability)
North Americans Middle East North Americans Middle East

(N = 444) (N = 139) (N = 444) (N = 139)

Structural model
Informativeness → Product attitudes .205 −.045 .226 −.061 3.84
(3.26) (−0.61) (p = .050)
Website attitudes → Product attitudes .230 .602 .212 .582 5.56
(3.50) (5.34) (p = .018)
Fit indices
Chi-square 938.87 742.73
Degrees of freedom 505 505
CFI .986 .974
RMSEA .044 .058
Nonsignificant paths (p b .10) F15 → F22
F20 → F22
F15 → F23
a
The sub-samples were tested, based on the original model (Fig. 1); t-values are in parenthesis; one-tailed tests: t N 1.65, p b .05; t N 2.33, p b .01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the sub-samples with structural paths constrained to invariance.
1114 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1115

Table 11
Structural model for low hedonic by ethnic groups.

Low hedonic North Americans Chinese Mid. East.

(N = 534) (N = 134) (N = 155)

Paths Std. coeff. (t value) Std. coeff. Std. coeff.

(t value) (t value)
Arousal → Pleasure .840 (12.0) .934 (9.32) .824 (7.52)
Arousal → Dominance .393 (6.71) .332 (2.86) .320 (3.12)
Pleasure → Effectiveness .340 (6.81) .257 (2.58) .519 (5.40)
Dominance → Effectiveness .435 (8.55) .605 (4.29) .321 (3.52)
Effectiveness → Informativeness .489 (9.37) .648 (5.53) .548 (5.30)
Arousal → Informativeness .334 (6.14) .291 (3.31) .348 (3.65)
Pleasure → Website attitudes .240 (4.93) .245 (2.39) .149 (1.41)
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .391 (8.97) .150 (1.87) .231 (2.53)
Entertainment → Website attitudes .298 (6.71) .490 (5.16) .274 (3.09)
Website involvement → Website attitudes .095 (2.51) .097 (1.19) .322 (4.04)
Effectiveness → Entertainment .085 (2.02) .229 (2.39) .152 (2.13)
Flow → Entertainment .815 (15.3) .638 (6.17) .794 (9.51)
Effectiveness → Flow .082 (1.60) .089 (1.06) −.147 (−1.48)
Arousal → Flow .793 (10.5) .890 (7.36) .972 (6.76)
Informativeness → Website involvement .432 (8.13) .172 (1.81) .266 (2.69)
Arousal → Website involvement .301 (5.23) .597 (5.50) .491 (4.36)
Informativeness → Product attitude .022 (.37) .151 (1.74) .132 (1.27)
Website attitudes → Product attitudes .483 (8.98) .407 (4.52) .328 (2.83)
Website involvement → Product attitudes .185 (3.46) .359 (4.22) .173 (1.58)
Informativeness → Purchase intentions .091 (1.78) .069 (.76) .257 (3.46)
Website involvement → Purchase intentions .512 (9.51) .404 (3.98) .475 (6.17)
Product attitudes → Purchase intentions .214 (4.86) .344 (3.25) .245 (3.69)
Fit indices
Chi square (df = 505) 920.2 621.1 701.2
CFI .989 .991 .986
RMSEA .039 .042 .050

is a state of awareness that results from humans' fully involved actions
(Koufaris, 2002). The findings in Fig. 3 show that in low hedonic
websites only arousal positively influences flow. Feelings of joy is a
key component of flow (Koufaris, 2002); therefore in low hedonic
websites—lacking joyful cues—effectiveness cannot positively influence
flow. In such cases other variables such as control and arousal (Fig. 3)
are more influential in enhancing flow (Koufaris, 2002).
However, the impact of effectiveness on site attitudes is significant in
both high hedonic and low hedonic websites. Effectiveness is a stronger
driver of site attitudes in low hedonic websites—consumers appreciate
effectiveness more when the website has low hedonism. Site attitudes
have three component—cognitive, affective and behavioral—so in low
hedonic websites—lack affective components—it is expected that the rel-
ative importance of effectiveness, as a cognitive component, will be
higher (Wu, 1999). Also pleasure has a stronger effect on effectiveness
in low hedonic websites (non-invariant path from F11 to F14 in Fig. 3).
As discussed, this is consistent with Okada's (2005) argument that in
low hedonism conditions consumers tend to put relatively more empha-
sis on hedonic aspects such as pleasure. Another interesting observation
is the stronger effect of website attitudes on product attitudes in low he-
donic websites (Fig. 3). Our analyses highlight that in low hedonic
websites, pleasure, effectiveness and website attitudes are more impor-
tant in online consumer behavior because they make a larger impact.
To further analyze the role of hedonism and culture, we next consid-
ered both simultaneously. Research did not consider hedonism and cul-
ture simultaneously, although it is practically and theoretically
important for marketers. The results are depicted in Figs. 4a to 5b. An
examination of Fig. 4a reveals interesting and consistent results. For
the Chinese in high hedonic websites, the utilitarian variables are less
important than hedonic ones. For instance, the effects of informative-
ness on site involvement and product attitudes are smaller and not sig-
nificant for the Chinese. Likewise, site entertainment has a stronger
impact on site attitudes for Chinese (path from F18 to F17 in Fig. 4a).
This is consistent with Childer's (2001) argument that hedonic ele-
ments are more important in hedonic shopping contexts and we extend
it to cultural contexts. Although hedonic elements in hedonic shopping
contexts are important for both Chinese and North Americans, they are
more important for the Chinese. Perhaps in high hedonic websites Chi-
nese cultural references let consumers enjoy more hedonic aspects of
the website such as entertainment and emotions (arousal and plea-
sure). Likewise, arousal has a larger effect on site involvement for the
Chinese in high hedonic websites.
Fig. 4a shows that in high hedonic websites, Chinese consumers'
website and product attitudes yield stronger impacts (F17 ➔ F22 ➔
F23, Fig. 4a). This pattern does not hold for low hedonic websites
(Fig. 5a). Note that the differences are very subtle. As argued, attitudes
tend to be stronger influencers for the Chinese perhaps because they
are more long-term oriented. But this is not the case for low hedonic
websites. Although in low hedonic websites Chinese consumers' atti-
tudes are still significant influencers, they are not stronger influencers
than North Americans' attitudes. This demonstrates the interaction of
the hedonism of websites and the cultural background of visitors.
These patterns are observable in the North American versus Middle
Easterners comparison in high hedonic websites (Fig. 4b). However, the
number of non-invariant paths is lower demonstrating that the online
behavior is more similar between North Americans and Middle East-
erners than between North Americans and Chinese. Another observa-
tion from Fig. 4a and b is that in high hedonic websites the effects of
informativeness and website involvement are not significant for both
Chinese and Middle Easterners. One explanation is that since these cul-
tures are high context, consumers pay more attention to hedonic as-
pects of the website in high hedonic context so the impacts of
utilitarian elements are small. As depicted, the impact of informative-
ness on product attitudes and website involvement of North

Fig. 4. a: Structural model: High hedonic and North Americans vs. Chinese Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted lines, non-invariant paths
shown in bold lines. b: Structural model: High hedonic and North Americans vs. Middle Easterners Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted
lines, non-invariant paths shown in bold lines.
1116 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119

Table 12
Factor loading invariance test: low hedonic (North Americans vs. Chinese vs. Middle Easterners).

Model χ2 df χ2/df Δχ2 from Model 1 Δdf from Model 1 P value CFI RMSEA

1 Unconstrained 2245 1515 1.48 .989 .042

2 Constrained 2308 1561 1.48 63 46 .0485 .989 .042
3 Partially metric 2271 1555 1.46 26 40 .9573 .989 .041
invarianta
a
After releasing four constraints in groups 1 and 2 and two in groups 1 and 3.

Americans is stronger than that for both the Chinese and Middle
Easterners. This is consistent with North Americans being more
straightforward (low context culture) in high hedonic situations and
appreciate informativeness more.
Fig. 5a depicts the comparison between North Americans and
Chinese in low hedonic websites. There are only 4 non-invariant paths
whereas in high hedonic there were 7 and in the general sample there
were 8 non-invariant paths between North Americans and the Chinese.
This reveals that in low hedonic websites the subjects manifest similar
behavioral patterns. Also comparing Fig. 5a with Fig. 4a brings interest-
ing observations. In low hedonic websites the impact of utilitarian
elements is stronger for the Chinese than for North Americans. For ex-
ample, the impacts of effectiveness on informativeness, informativeness
on product attitudes, and website involvement on product attitudes are

Table 12a
Invariance test: low hedonic (North Americans vs. Chinese).

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

Low hedonic (probability)
North Americans Chinese North Americans Chinese

(N = 534) (N = 134) (N = 534) (N = 134)

Structural model
Website involvement → Product attitudes .200 .346 .185 .359 6.27
(3.46) (4.22) (p = .012)
Effectiveness → Informativeness .690 1.228 .489 .648 4.80
(9.37) (5.53) (p = .029)
Pleasure → Effectiveness .337 .166 .340 .257 4.68
(6.81) (2.58) (p = .031)
Entertainment → Website attitudes .273 .448 .298 .490 3.60
(6.71) (5.16) (p = .058)
Fit indices
Chi-square 920.18 621.07
df 505 505
CFI .989 .991
RMSEA .039 .042
Nonsignificant paths (p b .10): F14 → F19 F14 → F19
F15 → F22 F20 → F17
F15 → F23
a
The sub-samples were tested based on the original model (Fig. 1); t-values are in parentheses; one-tailed tests: t N 1.65, p b .05; t N 2.33, p b .01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the sub-samples with structural paths constrained to invariance.

Table 12b
Invariance test: low hedonic (North Americans vs. Middle Easterners).

Unstandardizeda Standardizeda Chi squareb

Low hedonic (probability)
North Americans Middle East North Americans Middle East

(N = 534) (N = 155) (N = 534) (N = 155)

Structural model
Informativeness → Purchase intention .071 .232 .091 .257 5.95
(1.78) (3.46) (p = .015)
Effectiveness → Website attitudes .491 .320 .391 .231 4.87
(8.97) (2.53) (p = .027)
Website involvement → Website attitudes .097 .305 .095 .322 3.24
(2.51) (4.04) (p = .072)
Pleasure → Website attitudes .299 .170 .240 .149 3.04
(4.93) (1.41) (p = .081)
Fit indices
Chi-square 920.2 701.2
df 505 505
CFI .989 .986
RMSEA .039 .050
Nonsignificant paths (p b .10) F14 → F19 F14 → F19
F15 → F22 F15 → F22
F11 → F17
F20 → F22
a
The sub-samples were tested based on the original model (Fig. 1); t-values are in parenthesis; one-tailed tests: t N 1.65, p b .05; t N 2.33, p b .01.
b
The chi-square test was conducted for the sub-samples with structural paths constrained to invariance.
 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119 1117

Fig. 5. a: Structural model: Low hedonic and North Americans vs. Chinese Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted lines, non-invariant paths
shown in bold lines. b: Structural model: Low hedonic and North Americans vs. Middle Easterners Asymmetric paths shown in dashed lines, non-significant paths for both in dotted
lines, non-invariant paths shown in bold lines.
1118 M.-O. Richard, M.R. Habibi / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 1103–1119
stronger for the Chinese than for North Americans. This is in contrast
with observations from Fig. 4a discussed earlier. Likewise, the impact
of pleasure on effectiveness is now significant for the Chinese, which
was not the case in high hedonic websites. However, this impact is sig-
nificantly higher for North Americans, which is consistent with their in-
dividualism. Again entertainment has a larger effect on website
attitudes for the Chinese in low hedonic websites. Considering this, it
seems that regardless of the level of hedonism, entertainment always
has a larger impact on Chinese's website attitudes.
There are also 4 non-invariant paths in Fig. 5b and two paths are not
significant for both North Americans and Middle Easterners. The pattern
of non-invariant paths is almost similar to that observed in Fig. 2b. The
impact of effectiveness and pleasure on website attitudes is larger for
North Americans. However, the effect of informativeness on purchase
intentions and the effect of site involvement on site attitudes are larger
for Middle Easterners. The path from effectiveness to flow is not signif-
icant for all cultures in low context websites, which shows the impor-
tance of arousal in enhancing flow among online users of low hedonic
websites. This is an important insight for international retailers with
low hedonic websites.
All in all, we built a model on previous online consumer behavior lit-
erature and further tested it across three different cultures and levels of
hedonism of websites separately and simultaneously. Therefore our
findings provide researchers and practitioners with extensive insights.
Together they show that hedonism and culture do interactively influ-
ence online consumer behavior and provide the relative importance of
different elements across cultures and levels of hedonism. This study
contributes to the literature by extending, complementing, and triangu-
lating findings of other related studies. Steenkamp and Geyskens (2006)
use consumption experiences, including utilitarian and emotional expe-
riences, as one of the independent variables. In this study we investigate
the interrelationships among these variables by showing the relation-
ships between emotional variables such as pleasure/arousal/dominance
and utilitarian variables such as effectiveness and informativeness. Ad-
ditionally we identified the influences of site involvement on site atti-
tudes and product attitudes, which are consistent with Richard and
Chandra (2005). However, they didn't investigate such relationships
in cross cultural settings. In this regard we contributed to the cross cul-
tural online consumer behavior literature.
Also, there are mixed results about the effect of site attitudes on pur-
chase intentions. Bruner and Kumar (2000) and Hausman and Siekpe
(2008) found a positive impact of site attitudes on purchase intentions
while Richard (2005) and Kwak, Fox, and Zinkhan (2002) did not find
such relationship. We show that site attitudes do influence purchase in-
tentions by influencing product attitudes. We also show that these rela-
tionships are significant across different cultures, but the level of
importance differs accordingly.
Richard (2005) found a direct positive relationship between site in-
volvement and purchase intentions and an indirect negative relationship
between them through involvement in purchase decisions. Our results
support the direct relationship. Consistent with Richard (2005), we
also found entertainment to positively impact site attitudes, and showed
that this relationship is always more important for the Chinese whether
the site is high or low hedonic. The positive relationship between effec-
tiveness and site attitudes is consistent with De Pelsmacker, Dedock, and
Geuens (1998) in advertising contexts. What our research adds to the lit-
erature is that the impact of effectiveness is consistently larger for North
Americans than for Middle Easterners and the Chinese, regardless of the
level of websites' hedonism. This can have practical implications for
website designers and online marketers to customize their website de-
sign elements based on their target population of visitors.
6. Limitations and future research
This study has limitations which could be avenues for future re-
search. One limitation arises from the complexity of the phenomena.
Online consumer behavior, culture, and hedonism are very complex
concepts per se and when they are combined the complexity increases.
Also our understanding about such phenomena is not complete. For ex-
ample, Hofstede added a sixth dimension—indulgence vs. restraint—to
his framework. These developments give researchers more explanatory
power. Thus, future research can focus on this dimension to explain in-
consistencies in cross cultural online consumer research.
Considering these complexities we do not claim our model is
complete or can explain all aspects of cross cultural online behavior.
Therefore one must be cautious in interpreting the findings. Due to
these complexities, we did not control for factors that might have influ-
enced our findings. For example, Internet skills (Eroglu et al., 2001) and
browsing behavior (Overby & Lee, 2006) may influence consumers'
reactions toward websites. Therefore, future research could consider
such factors.
Steenkamp and Geyskens (2006) found that older people have dif-
ferent preferences in their online visits; for instance they put less impor-
tance on pleasure. However, our age range did not allow to analyze the
interaction of age with other variables. So, we suggest including age as a
control variable. Also, we only measured website hedonic aspects. As
mentioned, hedonism and utilitarianism are different dimensions. In
the future researchers could include utilitarianism and investigate its in-
teractions with hedonism and culture. Also, it might be interesting to
test the hedonism of the product featured in the website (Chiou &
Ting, 2011).
In this article we tested our model with various retail websites and
in an internet context. However, with the emergence and prevalence
of new applications it would be an interesting area to test this model
in such contexts as mobile, social media, and brand communities
(Laroche, Habibi, Richard, & Sankaranarayanan, 2012; Laroche, Habibi,
& Richard, 2013). For example, it might be interesting to examine how
consumers visit a brand's page in social media, and how their feelings
influence their perceptions of atmospheric cues, attitudes and other re-
lated variables.
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