E-Commerce in Different Cultures : How e-commerce purchasing behavior in Western and Asian cultures is influenced by their cultural backgrounds?

Abstract: Abstract Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to extend the current knowledge of cultural influence on e-commerce usage. It attempts to answer the question: How different cultural backgrounds influence e-commerce usage? Approach — A specific model referred to as the e-commerce technology acceptance model is developed for this case plus hypotheses are tested. Data are collected from 157 respondents covering the four countries of Sweden, the Netherlands, Pakistan and China. Findings — Trust in e-commerce is of more importance to the Asian sample, whereas usefulness shows a higher influence on the European sample. Both continents show a high value towards an easy to use environment in e-commerce. Implications — The study shows that cultural background influences e-commerce usage. Therefore international marketers are in need of understanding these different needs in an online habitat. Conclusions — The model shows to be robust and coherent on all four countries, explaining the differences of consumers cross-culturally. Keywords: E-Commerce, Cultural comparison, Technology acceptance, Purchasing behavior, E-loyalty, Internationalization