The role of culture in e-commerce use for the Egyptian consumers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to systematically research and characterise the cultural response of a particular culture in the use of e‐commerce systems. The research paper highlights the roles of trust, uncertainty avoidance (UA), internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e‐commerce.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian internet users during an internet shopping experience. The results are analysed using a number of statistical techniques including structural equation modelling.Findings – The research highlights the significant role of the internet store's perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the high UA of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store's reputation on trust, and a stronger effe...

[1]  Gert Jan Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations - Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival (3. ed.) , 2010 .

[2]  Kate Hone,et al.  National culture and on-line trust: a study of internet Egyptian users , 2005 .

[3]  Robert M. O'Keefe,et al.  The impact of religious affiliation on trust in the context of electronic commerce , 2004, Interact. Comput..

[4]  Matthew R. Jones,et al.  Focusing on the invisible: the representation of IS in Egypt , 2003, Inf. Technol. People.

[5]  David Gefen,et al.  Managing User Trust in B2C e-Services , 2003 .

[6]  Ewald A. Kaluscha,et al.  Empirical research in on-line trust: a review and critical assessment , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[7]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Diffusing the Internet in the Arab world: the role of social norms and technological culturation , 2003, IEEE Trans. Engineering Management.

[8]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Consumer Acceptance of Electronic Commerce: Integrating Trust and Risk with the Technology Acceptance Model , 2003, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[9]  Venkatesh Shankar,et al.  Online trust: a stakeholder perspective, concepts, implications, and future directions , 2002, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[10]  R. Bhagat.  Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations , 2002 .

[11]  Anol Bhattacherjee,et al.  Individual Trust in Online Firms: Scale Development and Initial Test , 2002, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[12]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  What Drives Electronic Commerce across Cultures? Across-Cultural Empirical Investigation of the Theory of Planned Behavior , 2002, J. Electron. Commer. Res..

[13]  Matthew K. O. Lee,et al.  A Trust Model for Consumer Internet Shopping , 2001, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[14]  Sabine Einwiller,et al.  The role of reputation to engender trust in electronic markets , 2001 .

[15]  Paul Pavlou,et al.  Consumer Intentions to Adopt Electronic Commerce - Incorporating Trust and Risk in the Technology Acceptance Model , 2001 .

[16]  Steven John Simon,et al.  The impact of culture and gender on web sites: an empirical study , 2000, DATB.

[17]  D. Gefen,et al.  E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust , 2000 .

[18]  Anne P. Massey,et al.  From the user interface to the consumer interface: results from a global experiment , 2000, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[19]  Bernard C. Y. Tan,et al.  A Cross-Cultural Study on Escalation of Commitment Behavior in Software Projects , 2000, MIS Q..

[20]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Consumer trust in an Internet store , 2000, Inf. Technol. Manag..

[21]  Andrew Howes,et al.  A framework for understanding human factors in web-based electronic commerce , 2000, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[22]  N. Luhmann.  Familiarity, Confidence, Trust: Problems and Alternatives , 2000 .

[23]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  Consumer Trust in an Internet Store: A Cross-Cultural Validation , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[24]  H. Hasan,et al.  The impact of culture on the adoption of IT: an interpretive study , 1999 .

[25]  V. D. Sanua.  Migrations and Cultures: A World View. , 1997 .

[26]  T. Sowell,et al.  Migrations and Cultures: A World View. , 1998 .

[27]  R. Gulati.  Does Familiarity Breed Trust? The Implications of Repeated Ties for Contractual Choice in Alliances , 1995 .

[28]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind , 1991 .

[29]  Icek Ajzen,et al.  From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior , 1985 .