The diffusion of e-commerce has seen a significant surge in recent years. Economic, political, and technological factors are considered as the main determinants of technology diffusion.
However, these findings appear inconclusive as diffusion rates of e-commerce diverge
considerably across countries, even with similar economic and political situations. There is
evidence that socio-cultural factors can be relevant in explaining cross-country discrepancies in technology diffusion; nevertheless, ...
The diffusion of e-commerce has seen a significant surge in recent years. Economic, political, and technological factors are considered as the main determinants of technology diffusion.
However, these findings appear inconclusive as diffusion rates of e-commerce diverge
considerably across countries, even with similar economic and political situations. There is
evidence that socio-cultural factors can be relevant in explaining cross-country discrepancies in technology diffusion; nevertheless, its effect on internet retailing has rarely been explored.
Furthermore, the highest barrier to the success of e-commerce is the perceived risks in that mode
of retailing. This makes us wonder whether the risk perception across countries can help explain
disparities in e-commerce growth rates across nations. This study focuses on uncertainty
avoidance, a measure of the extent that people in a given culture feel threatened by the unknown
to explain cross-country e-commerce diffusion. This study further explores the role of technology
infrastructure in e-commerce diffusion, intending to explain the moderating effect of technology
infrastructure on the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and e-commerce diffusion. The
results reveal that uncertainty avoidance has a significant negative impact on the diffusion of
internet retailing. However, with a reliable technological infrastructure, this negative effect is
weakened.
+
