Title:	CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND E-COMMERCE BEHAVIOR: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
Author(s):	Ahu Genis-gruber , Bedri Kamil Onur Tas
ISBN:	978-972-8924-49-2
Editors:	Sandeep Krishnamurthy and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2007
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	E-commerce, Cultural Differences, Trust, Internet Purchase
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	3
Last Page:	10
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	E-commerce has been a widely used mean to purchase goods and services all over the world. This study investigates the role of cultural differences on usage of e-commerce. Using Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) and Individualism Index (IND) to classify the countries and make the cultural comparisons among eight EU member countries, we empirically show that cultural differences play a significant role on e-commerce behavior. The regression results show that countries with high Uncertainty Avoidance Index lead fewer online purchases and Individualistic countries purchase more online. We also find that, information infrastructure of a country is a significant factor of ecommerce behavior. Countries with better information infrastructure have higher online purchases. Education level, in terms of mathematics, science and technology enrollments at the universities and graduates in respect, of a country does not significantly affect e-commerce behavior. We control for several other factors like information infrastructure and education level, and use different econometric techniques to achieve our results.
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