These results indicate that online retailers need to be user-friendly and useful wherever they sell. But they need to be on the lookout for other factors, such as habits or risks, unique to each country.
Although the Internet was born in the U.S., it has gone steadily global. Asia now has four times as many users as America. E-commerce research, however, has focused largely on the American market.
For example, U.S. researchers have studied how user-friendliness and usefulness impact online shopping. Both features encourage American consumers to feel good about e-commerce and buy online. But do those relationships hold outside U.S.? Or are they culturally dependent?
To find out, associate professor Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl and his co-authors surveyed consumers in Canada, where cultural norms and Internet usage are similar to the U.S., and Pakistan, where both factors are much different. The survey also asked whether consumers trust online retailers and feel confident using the Internet.
Thongpapanl found the American relationships for user-friendliness and usefulness applied in Canada. Unexpectedly, they also applied in Pakistan, but with slight differences.
Trust and confidence played similar roles in both countries. Consumers who were confident using the Internet felt more positive toward e-commerce. Those who trusted e-commerce tended to find it user-friendly and useful, and to buy online.
Interestingly, the countries differed in some respects. In Canada, usefulness made consumers more likely to buy. In Pakistan, confidence and user-friendliness had that effect instead.
These results indicate that online retailers need to be user-friendly and useful wherever they sell. But they need to be on the lookout for other factors, such as habits or risks, unique to each country.
Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl is a professor of marketing and product innovation. He is also Research Fellow at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) and Research Fellow at Chiang Mai University’s Research Administration Center (RAC), Thailand. His teaching interests and research investigations primarily center around new product development, technology and innovation management, electronic commerce and strategic marketing management in dynamic environments.
Abdul R. Ashraf, Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl, and Seigyoung Auh, 2014. “The application of the technology acceptance model under different cultural contexts: the case of online shopping adoption,” Journal of International Marketing 22 (3), 68-93.
