Check out managing e-loyalty through experience design, a three-year project to test theory, review current literature and conduct research in three areas:

»trust development in e-business
»culturally sensitive interface design
»adaptive designs for mobility

Their latest work is on the localization of interface design, drawing upon limited experiments and surveys in Boston, Munich, Tokyo and Vancouver. ( Here's their latest academic paper, .pdf)

More practical details can be found in their corporate report. (you'll have to provide your name and email)

Data collection involved a survey, online task, and interviews in order to elaborate differences across cultures related to trusting online payment security preferences, degree to which a company is considered legitimate and has a solid reputation, the type of assurance in after sales attention desired, and preferences for design elements.

For the online task participants responded to a local version of the Samsung website, and a foreign version (which was the Hong Kong site in each case). When the site was activated, participants were asked to explore the site, observe its attributes, and test for navigation.

[Thanks to Colin McKay for this]