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Title:
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USE OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITES AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN FINLAND AND FLANDERS, BELGIUM |
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Author(s):
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Päivö Laine , Jan Pieter Verckens |
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ISBN:
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978-972-8924-66-9 |
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Editors:
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Piet Kommers, Pedro Isaías and Nian-Shing Chen |
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Year:
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2008 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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electronic commerce, globalization, localization, web communication |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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17 |
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Last Page:
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27 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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The importance of electronic commerce has increased rapidly in retailing. The Internet is a global medium and consumer
markets are becoming more and more global. Internationalization and localization are complementary processes of
website globalization. The local requirements of the target audience can be met more easily if the international aspects of
trade have been considered from the start. Our aim was to study the E-commerce experiences of young Internet users in
Finland and Dutch-speaking Belgium and find out whether the differences have relevance for the store design especially
in communicative and cultural respects. A questionnaire study was conducted among a group of higher education
students in Finland and Flanders, Belgium. The respondents were asked about their interest in online shopping, types of
electronic stores they prefer to visit, ways of finding electronic stores and the role of languages in the shopping
procedure. No major statistically significant differences between the responses of the two groups could be detected
despite the differences in the national cultures of Finland and Belgium. The infrastructural differences between the two
countries, such as population density and geographical distances, also have an influence on the prerequisites of electronic
commerce. These factors may also explain the higher international orientation of the Belgian respondents in comparison
to their Finnish counterparts. |
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