University of Nottingham

Cultural effect on online shopping trust

By

Woon Chin Yeong

2005/06

A Dissertation presented in part consideration for the

degree of MA Marketing
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

After four months of work, the research study was finally completed. In the duration of
my work, I have been very lucky to receive assistance from a number of people which
without them, completion of this study would have been impossible.

First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Prithwiraj
Nath for his precious recommendations and suggestions to improve the study work. He
advised me along the progress of the study, pointed out only any mistakes I have made
and helped me to solve them at the same time. In due course of the whole study, I have
definitely gained a lot of knowledge under his guidance on how to conduct a good study
and learnt that previous semesters work do matters a lot.

Secondly, I would like to thank a few lecturers for their guidance as well, specifically
Mrs. Sally McKechnie, Dr. Andy Lockett, Dr. Heidi Winklhofer, Dr. Christine Ennew, Dr.
Sally Hibbert, Mrs. Susan Thomas, Mr. Vikineswaran, Mr. Alex Leong, Mr. Ronald Hor,
Madam Thye Wei Cheat and Ms. Liow Chiew Han. They are the individuals, who has also
at the same time given me extra advice for the whole study layout as well as improving on
my understanding of SPSS from my undergraduate studies back in Malaysia until here
while doing my postgraduate studies in Nottingham University Business School. As a
result of their guidance, the process of doing my study has never been delayed at all.

Thirdly, my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Yeong Sooi Hing who has always live their life with
tremendous determination and courage during good and bad times. I cannot thank them
enough for truly believing in me, in whatever I do even until this stage of my studying life.
My brother, Hoong Chieh, who have always been there for me while growing up and are
still there today even though he is a flight away from UK. Without their constant advice
and support, I would not be where I am today.

Lastly, also friend, course mate, flatmate and fellow supervisee Fay for the constant
advice and notes comparison during the whole of this four months. Not forgetting also
my flatmates Sarah, Rosie, Scarlett, Ioanna and Nanditha who are always there for me all
the way through until the end. I have to give credit as well to Cindy who is always on the
lookout for me on the latest news from NUBS office. Additionally, I have to thank Huei
Min and Kiran, who has always been there for me in times of needs even though they are
busy with their work placements with QMC. To end, I am eternally grateful to Sue Vern,
an amazing and fiercely loyal good friend who still helps me out and are always available
for constant advice and support even though she is busy with her scientific discovery
experiments. Last but not least, an extra special thanks to everyone whom I forget to
mention.

ii
 ABSTRACT

Online shopping has become the “in” thing to do in United Kingdom. At

the mention of it, one would think of online shopping as averting towards the
American culture, since nearly everything in the country is technologically
intertwined. Ever since the introduction of the Internet and computers nearly 20
years ago, the Internet marketing industry has been creeping into the fabrics of
any parts of the world community. The combination of modern life and modern
technology has also changed the way consumers consumed information. It has
also made information distribution become more transparent and easily
accessible. For that reason, the adoption level in technology may occur in a
different way for all kinds of culture in the society, but these changes that
occurred are in parallel with the new trends which is visible in the online
shopping industry. The aim of this study is to analyze cultural influence in online
shopping trust and trend in the area of Nottingham, United Kingdom on some
selected characteristics that determine the online shopping trend of different
culture and age groups. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect primary
data information for this study. The questionnaire gathered information on age,
income, gender and online shopping factors which might determine the shopping
trend of 100 judgmentally selected online shopping respondents. Chi square,
crosstabs, ANOVA tests were used to estimate the impact of the above
characteristics on the online shopping trend. Gender appears to be the most
important variable explaining the trend of online shopping among the target
population. Other sociodemographic characteristics such as age, income and other
online shopping determinant factors were also significant in explaining the online
shopping trend in Nottingham. Finally, due to financial limitation on the study, the
sample is limited to one state in United Kingdom. Perhaps, the research would have
been more thorough if all other areas useful in online shopping were taken into
consideration.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv-vi
LIST OF TABLES vii-viii
LIST OF FIGURES viii

Chapters

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The background of study 1-6
1.2 The objective of study 6-7
1.2.1 The significance of the study 6-7
1.3 The framework of study 7-9

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction 10
2.2 Overview of online shopping 11
2.2.1 Online shopping 11-12
2.2.2 The online shoppers 12-16
2.2.3 Some key definitions 17
2.2.3.1 The Internet defined 17
2.2.3.2 Internet marketing defined 17-18
2.2.3.3 Trust defined 18
2.2.3.4 Culture defined 19
2.3 Antecedents of online shopping 19-20
2.3.1 Prior experience in online shopping 20-23
2.3.2 Convenience 23-25
2.3.3 Availability of product information 25-27
2.4 Consequences of online shopping
2.4.1 Role of culture 27-31
2.5 Theoretical framework 31-32
2.6 Hypothesis development 32-33
2.7 Overall summary of theoretical framework 33-35

3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 36-39
3.2 Primary data 39
3.2.1 Focus group 39-43
3.2.2 Pilot test 43-44
3.2.3 Questionnaire 44
3.2.3.1 Method of collection 45
3.2.3.2 Questionnaire design 45-46
3.3 Secondary data 46-47
 3.4 Sampling
3.4.1 Target population 47
3.4.2 Sample and sample size 47
3.4.3 Sampling method 47-48
3.5 Data analysis 48

4 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction 49
4.2 Findings, analysis and discussion
4.2.1 Analysis on the demographic profile
of the respondents 49
4.2.1.1 Descriptive and inferential analysis
of online shoppers profile 49-50
4.2.1.2 Summary format on the online shopper’s
profile 50-54
4.2.1.3 Discussion on online shoppers’ profile 55
4.2.2 Analysis on the experience of whether the individual
shop online before and the most popular
choice of online shopping website 56-58
4.2.2.3 Discussion on whether demographic profile
of respondents is related to the most popular
choice of online shopping website 59
4.2.3 Factors which influence online shopping 60-78
4.2.3.1 Discussion on whether ethnicity and gender
impacts the reasons for consumers to shop
online 63
4.2.3.2 Discussion on whether gender and age have
impact on online trust 70
4.2.3.3 Discussion on whether age, gender, ethnicity
have impact on the Internet, computer and
online shopping experience of the online
shopper 78-79
4.2.4 Studies comparison 79-80

5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Introduction 81
5.2 Conclusion 81-84
5.3 Recommendations 84-88
5.4 Limitations 88-89

REFERENCES 90-95
APPENDICES

Appendix A: Focus group interview questions 96

Appendix B: Final Questionnaire Copy 97-101
Appendix C: Descriptive statistics of the effect of age, gender
and ethnicity on satisfaction with internet skills 102
Appendix D: Descriptive statistics on whether age, gender
and ethnicity have an impact on computer
usage
comfort level 103

vi
LIST OF TABLES

Page
Table 2.1 Summary table of theoretical framework 33-35
Table 3.1 Summary table of focus group responses 41-43
Table 4.1 Summary profile of respondents 50-51
Table 4.2 Crosstabs analysis on whether gender is related to
period of internet usage 54
Table 4.3 Chi-Square tests on whether gender is related to period
of Internet usage 54
Table 4.4 Crosstabs analysis on whether gender is related to the
experience of having shop online before 56
Table 4.5 Chi – Square tests on whether age is related to the choice
of popular websites 56
Table 4.6 Crosstabs analysis on whether age is related to the choice
of popular websites 57
Table 4.7 Chi – Square tests on whether gender is related to the choice
of popular websites 57
Table 4.8 Crosstabs analysis on whether gender is related to the choice
of
popular websites 58
Table 4.9 Chi – Square tests on whether gender is related to the choice
of
popular websites 58
Table 4.10 Frequency analysis on the reason consumers shop online 60
Table 4.11 Descriptive table on reasons consumers shop online in terms
of ethnicity and gender 61
Table 4.12 Levene’s statistic test on reasons consumers shop online by
ethnicity and gender 62
Table 4.13 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects 62
Table 4.14 Crosstabs analysis on whether online trust is
affected by gender 64
Table 4.15 Chi – Square tests on whether online trust is
affected by gender 65
Table 4.16 Descriptive table on whether different age groups
differ in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust 65
Table 4.17 Homogeneity of variances test on whether different age groups
differ in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust 66
Table 4.18 ANOVA table on whether different age groups
differ in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust 66
Table 4.19 Post hoc table on whether different age groups
differ in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust 67
Table 4.20 Descriptive table on whether gender and ethnicity have
impact
on online shopping trust 68
Table 4.21 Levene’s statistic test on whether gender and ethnicity
have impact on online shopping trust 69
Table 4.22 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects 69
Table 4.23 Frequency table of online shopper’s choice of shopping style 71
vii
Table 4.24 Frequency table of the period of respondent’s period
of online shopping experience 71
Table 4.25 Frequency table of the service experience level
of online shoppers 72
Table 4.26 Descriptive statistics of the effect of age and ethnicity
on internet comfort level 73
Table 4.27 Levene’s statistic test of the effect of age and ethnicity
on internet comfort level 74
Table 4.28 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects 74
Table 4.29 Descriptive statistics of the effect of age, gender
and ethnicity on satisfaction with internet skills 75
Table 4.30 Levene’s statistics test of the effect of age, gender
and ethnicity on satisfaction with internet skills 75
Table 4.31 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects 76
Table 4.32 Descriptive statistics on whether age, gender and ethnicity
have an impact on computer usage comfort level 76
Table 4.33 Levene’s statistics test on whether age, gender and ethnicity
have an impact on computer usage comfort level 77
Table 4.34 Table of analysis test of between subjects’ effects 78
Table 4.35 Summary table of how this study is similar and
different compared to previous research works 80

LIST OF FIGURES Page

Figure 2.1 The framework of antecedents and consequences

of online shopping trust 32

viii
 “Cultural effect on online shopping trust”

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 The background of study

The Internet can be seen as a catalyst of communication between the producer and

consumer in today’s competitive B2C (Business to consumer) marketplace. 20 years ago,

the Internet was a fictional business idea for most marketers to use as a marketing

communication channel. Today, it has become a fundamental business standard

overnight. Technological advancement has enabled today’s consumer to do things online

24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The global availability of the Internet has caused

customers to become a fundamental part of the Internet marketing process, which blurs

the traditional barter like interaction between the marketer and consumer. At the same

time, the Internet can be said to have transformed into an international interactive

marketing means. Most major international profit making companies such as Marks and

Spencer, Virgin and many others will attempt to focus on the Internet as a modern form

of mass communication tool to bridge information distribution and relationship

development between the organization and the customer.

This new medium is important for a business to survive in the competitive ‘marketspace’

to connect with customers to grow, live and sustain a business operation. This

revolutionary way of doing business also involves a certain degree of synchronizing not

just the Internet medium but simultaneously consider all other marketing strategies that a

firm is using in accordance with the firm’s business objectives. Most traditional

1
businesses need to rethink their existing organizational strategies because they need to

develop their online businesses alongside their traditional existing business operations.

Likewise, proper utilization of an Internet firm’s internal strength will enable a firm to

respond to all possible environmental opportunities to neutralize threats and avoiding

potential weakness occurrence during the implementation of an Internet marketing

activity (Barney, 1991).

It is undeniable that online shopping can exert a disproportionate influence on traditional

retailing. Marketers are starting to be aware on the ability of online shopping to create an

upsetting trade figures on the traditional retail sectors because knowledgeable

postmodern consumers are starting to shift their shopping activities online. According to

the annual State Retailing Online Study conducted by Forrester Research and Shop.org,

online sales in UK are expected to rise 20% this year (2006) to £112 billion. It was

deferred that excluding travel, online sales are expected to reach £73.24 billion, which is

a rise of 22% from the 2005. Internet sales over the years are found to be rising

consistently and are considered to be the key driver of overall retail sales (IMRG, 2006).

The study further indicated that cosmetics and pet supplies are predicted to lead the

growth in online sales. Therefore, online retailers must take advantage of this new trend

to improve their online market presence to attract more businesses from a variety of

consumer demographic makeup. Another intriguing element of the Internet for marketers is

that it can become an information, entertainment and communication source for consumers

to exchange and extract information with each other because of its unlimited

communication boundaries (Nicovich and Cornwell, 1998).

As a borderless communication tool, the emergence of the Internet has increased the

information accessibility of the society as a whole. It is obvious how the collision of

modern technology and lifestyle has enabled the people to access for information from

anywhere at anytime. Individuals today will lead a hectic lifestyle, and also they need to

be constantly on the go. Therefore, if a person who is at a place where they are unfamiliar

with, or even do not have the accessibility of a simple mode of transportation, they can

just log on to the computer and the Internet to continue perform their errands on a daily

basis. This is apparent in the studies of consumer marketing as well. Customers can now

have an advantage over traditional shopping retailers as the Internet gives them the ability

to compare prices of goods and services and enable them to eliminate impending

shopping trips before they arrive into the shopping arena. Hence, with this information,

the only main concern for marketers is to find a sustainable competitive advantage

Internet business model to follow (Gounaris and Dimitriadis, 2003) in order to achieve

any business objective. Just as it has been discussed in the work of Theodore Levitt

(1960), “If the railroads understood that they were in the transportation businesses, they

will own all the airlines today”. This applies to understanding the business of Internet

Marketing as well. The method in developing Internet Marketing is not a competition

between old marketing media and new ones, but viewing the Internet as a new

opportunistic tool that can serve as an addendum for a company to distribute information

to the consumers more effectively and efficiently.

The introduction of the Internet does not mean that old marketing practices must be

eliminated. Some of the activities that can still be done to reduce gaps and increase added
value are analysis of market segments, market demographics and also the implementation

of better targeting strategies to market businesses to potential customers. The Internet, as

a new way of doing business, can provide marketers the benefits of being a step ahead of

other competitors through gaining market information. The application of Internet

Marketing will then encourage businesses to be focused towards their business portfolios

in order to develop efficient markets that concentrate more on creating demand rather

than supply (McCole, 2004).

On the other hand, Internet Marketing do can become the Achilles heel for online

retailers. Even though three quarters of the society in UK now shop online, a British e -

commerce study found that there is a new threat of “Web rage” that will just drive

consumers back into the bricks and mortar type of shopping (Friedlos, 2006). Therefore,

Internet marketers need to understand the online consumer purchasing behavior in order

to design and support effective Web presence that matches the preferences of the

consumer (Doolin et. al, 2005). Additionally, it is also important build a sense of trust with

the consumers to encourage them to do more online transactions with Internet merchants.

Trust is important on Internet consumer merchandizing because consumers are unlikely to

visit websites that failed to create a sense of trust to disclose private information such as

credit card numbers. What is more, it can be discussed that the combination of

sophisticated data mining software with Internet Marketing has created a new kind of

market where personal data of the consumers have incredible market value that can be sold

across industries (Roznowski, 2003). With the emergence of “irrational fear” (Greenway,

2004) among consumers, it is then important for marketers to

strengthen the security of credit card transactions to convince more consumers to do not

just online transaction, but establish a relationship between the buyer and the seller.

Although there are abundant literatures on online shopping trust, most prior studies have

attempted to identify various factors and resistance towards Internet shopping (Joines et. al,

2003). Another study experimented with comparison of online shopping patterns to

traditional media like the television (Eastlick and Liu, 1997). Moreover, there are also

empirical researches that discover trust may also vary across nationalities when online

consumers are generally from any parts of the world (Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999).

One study (Cheung and Lee, 2006) have attempted to identify trust in Internet shopping

from a multidisciplinary approach through the inclusion of legal and third party recognition

of a research model. On the other hand, Ess and Sudweeks (2005) attempted their research

from a different aspect by incorporating Hofstede’s (1980) work on developing a

qualitative understanding of influences of national culture on Internet adoption. The study

also highlighted on the limitations of Hofstede’s framework as a basis of generalizations

of national culture. However, it can be mentioned that majority of the studies on online

trust are associated towards developing consumer’s trust in specific industries, namely the

Internet banking industry (Black et. al, 2002; Mukherjee and Nath, 2003).

Going back to the point of discussion, increased prevalence in online shopping has also

led to studies to concentrate on how to develop trust online. Some studies have developed

work in understanding factors that affect attitudes towards a retail web site (Elliott and
Speck, 2005) while others have attempted to empirically examine various characteristics

of commercial Web page that lead to increased visits or hit rates (Dholakia and Rego,

1998).

1.2 The objectives of study

Given the rapid growth of the Internet as a new information channel of shopping apart

from the traditional stores, a number of unanswered questions remained. What is the

adoption level of online shopping? Which is the most popular choice of online shopping

site among consumers? Why do people shop online? Do consumer’s comfort level with

the Internet, computers and online shopping service experience still affect their decision

to shop online? Are the consumer’s motivation to shop online affected by culture and

demographic classification? Are consumer’s trusts in online shopping affected by

demographic classification? Knowing the answers to the questions is essential for online

marketers to observe and resolve consumers concern over online shopping issues such as

credit card fraud and misuse of personal information (Phelps et. al, 2001).

1.2.1 The significance of the study

It is best discussed beforehand that there is no one best framework that can determine the

precise factors influencing consumers online shopping. Nevertheless, with the knowledge

that culture may affect the antecedents of consumer trust, it is anticipated that this

research could discover what attracts consumers to online shopping and which are the
characteristics of online shopping that will allow online merchants to achieve more ‘hits’

on their websites. This study is expected to contribute towards a minimum degree of

theoretical, research and practical implications. On the theoretical side, it is likely that

research results can reveal some in depth interrelationships among the derived variables.

For research and practical implications, it is expected that empirical results from this

research can assist in addressing the extent to which can identify an even broader range

of factors that may influence online shopping.

Hence, the objectives of the study comprises of the following:

1. To develop a demographic profile of online shoppers in UK.

2. To determine the most popular online shopping website in UK.

3. To discover the trend of online shopping in UK.

4. To analyse cultural influence on online shopping in UK.

5. To establish on the factors influencing online shopping in UK.

1.3 The framework of study

This study report is going to discover the cultural effect on online trust among a few key

national cultures. It will be presented in an orderly way, which is divided into five

chapters which consists of the following:

Chapter one: Introduction

Information such as background of study, which is related to the contents of the research,

will be discussed in this chapter. The chapter will clearly show the objectives of study and

demonstrate the relative importance of the research idea to the significance of the study.

Additionally, a theoretical framework will be presented in this chapter as well.

Chapter two: Literature review

This chapter will illustrate the whole theoretical framework that relates to the study. In

fact, this chapter will become the main setting of the whole research idea for the analysis

of results and provide a guide for questionnaire design and hypothesis development.

Chapter three: Methodology

This chapter will propose the research design, research method and data analysis method

to show how the study has been conducted through reliable and verifiable information of

qualitative and quantitative data.

Chapter four: Findings and analysis

The data collection and information gained will be analyzed in this chapter. Information

from each question in questionnaire and the secondary sources will be analyzed

individually in order to ensure this study to be feasible and simple to comprehend.

Chapter five: Conclusions and recommendations

All the results that were analyzed based on Chapter four will be further discussed in this

chapter. Conclusions and recommendations of factors of online shopping will be

provided according to the objectives and research questions set in Chapter one.
Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1 Introduction

This section will begin by examining existing literature on the academic understanding of

the study on Internet Marketing. Since the area of study is associated with having

knowledge of online shopping, a general idea on online shopping will be substantiated to

address the increasing popularity of the growing trend and major strengths will be further

identified. This will be followed by an examination on online consumer profile to enable

academicians to have an insight on the researched target market. At the same time,

analysis of extant literature will allow further comprehension on the antecedents and

consequences of online shopping construct. Finally, the chapter will close with an

examination on the role of culture in influencing online shopping behaviour of this new

activity among consumers. Culture plays an important part in order to illustrate the

growing trend of consumer online shopping adoption because of its capability to shape

people’s individual behaviour towards online shopping. As a final conclusion, the

theoretical model (Figure 2.1) will be drawn out to function as a framework to

demonstrate the cultural effect in consumer online shopping trust.

2.2 Overview of online shopping

2.2.1 Online shopping

Although online shopping is not a new phenomenon, preceding studies discovered that

consumers are most likely to do research online (Bellman et. al, 1999) before they make

the actual purchase from stores. Primarily, it can be stated that consumers these days rely

on shopping through the Internet more than buying in person from shop assistants. It is

then noted that some customers may make the choice to shop or browse for information

(Brown et. al, 2003) on the Internet at the information acquisition stage (Dubois, 2000) of

the consumer decision making process. At that point, consumers might lack specific

brand preferences although they have a product category in mind. For the consumers,

search engines would become the most significant source of information after catalogues

and brochures when it comes to searching for additional information on specific products

type such as search and experience goods (Dholakia and Chiang, 2003).

Consumers would make use of the immediate interactive function the Internet has to

communicate with companies in advance to enquire on information doubts before making

any finalized purchase decision (Joergensen and Blythe, 2003). It was further

conceptualized that a search engine does not just provide the convenience in time but also

to space in addition to effort put in on information search (Gehrt et. al, 1996 as seen in

Brown, et. al, 2003). Simultaneously, it allows the consumers to perform a simple task

such as grocery shopping from the proximity of the desk rather than having to go through
the trouble of searching through numerous pamphlets that may eventually become

discarded papers or even driving to the nearby grocery store. Furthermore, another key

feature highlighted on online shopping benefits is on the importance of the role of Internet

in facilitating information search for consumers to avoid trolley rage in supermarkets and

crowds (Brown et. al, 2003).

However, to use the Internet is deemed to be a leap of faith for consumers as even

experienced online consumers also perceives online shopping as risky due to the

increasing rate of credit card fraud within the industry. The avoidance in making actual

purchases by the consumers has led to the point that there is a need for online merchants

to communicate better trustworthiness to their customers. Establishing consumer’s trust

in computer mediated environment is considered to still be an uphill task for most

marketing managers today to ensure that customer’s data will be carefully protected and

not wrongfully misused (Schlosser et. al, 2006). Having discussed the overview of online

shopping, the profile of online shoppers can now be addressed.

2.2.2 The online shoppers

In this Internet age, online shopping is fast becoming a 21 st century life skill. Even

though technological advancement enabled a consumer to shop at anytime and from

anywhere, the multiple selves of a postmodern consumer today are tech savvy and

knowledgeable. Moreover, it is also in the human nature to be risk adverse and cautious

before making purchase decisions, be it in person or through online. Therefore, it is

essential for marketers to have thorough market research in knowing the risk adverse

consumer profile. Additionally, understanding the consumer also allows a better

consideration into the consumer decision making process in an online shopping

environment.

Nearly all empirical studies continually focused in categorizing the type of consumers

who is likely to use the Internet for online shopping. Authors like Joines et. al (2003) and

Bhatnagar et. al (2003) maintained the usage of variables like income, age and

educational level to represent a typical online consumer. Yet, it was further argued that

the demographic variables have no immense effect as much as consumer’s attitudes on

any research subject (Sorce et. al, 2005). For example, the motives of shopping behavior

cannot be determined by the means of demographic classification scheme seeing that

hedonic and utilitarian shopping purposes are often distinctive among online shoppers. It

may aid in marketing strategy decisions, but it is not influentially applicable for academic

research. This is maintained through the work of Holbrook and Hirschman (1982), where

it was discussed that consumers are logical thinkers who solve problems to make

purchase decisions.

Other studies tried to discuss on the classification of the overall demographic profile in

terms of the behavioral attitude of risk adverse shoppers. The point was then further

developed through the motives of online consumer shopping since the motivation for

shopping has always been the focus point in consumer behavior research. Sheth (1983, as

seen in Bhatnagar et. al [2004]) discussed that there are two types of motives in shopping.
The author emphasized that consumer’s functional motives are determined by time, place

and needs. The non functional motives of shopping are associated with the cognitive and

social influences on the consumer. Motives for shopping is commonly associated with

variables like convenience (Dholakia and Chiang, 2003; Brown et. al, 2001), price of

product (Dholakia and Chiang, 2003), availability of product information (Elliot and

Speck, 2005; Quinn, 1999), entertainment (Elliot and Speck, 2005; Brown et. al, 2001)

and trust (Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999; Cyr et. al, 2005; Cheung and Lee, 2006).

It was further deliberated that shopping motivations can be debated along with three

distinct types of situations, namely certainty, risk or uncertainty (Earl and Kemp, 1999).

The critical discussion here is the degree of the decision maker’s knowledge on a

particular situation faced. For example, if the consumer knows that he or she will get a

value added purchase online, the decision achieved is to be in the area of certainty. Risky

decisions happen when the consumer perceives that online shopping does not give the

opportunity to examine the products prior to purchase and at the same time have difficulty

in gaining the desired services like return of faulty goods, and not getting the goods that

they wanted. Uncertainty area occurs when the probability of the outcome is not known.

For instance, even though the online shopper shopped at a reliable and popular website,

say Marksandspencer.com, there might be rare cases that there are certain areas of

transaction procedures that are not updated or maybe unclear in instructions which is not

known to the consumer. Hence, there could also be situations like when the product
become out of stock on the last minute. There might be occasion such as during the

purchase of electrical items where the product guarantee and quality is not updated to be

made known to the consumer. This form of uncertainty can be mentioned as

uncontrollable elements that might arise during an online purchase.

Returning to the point of argument, it can be mentioned that researchers also use the

concept of perceived risk in uncertainty decision making situations. Uncertainty decision

making situations will occur when the process of information search by the consumer in

the information processing model (Kotler, 2004) is incomplete. Gupta et. al, (2003)

discovered that risk perception can be extended beyond the products to the shopping

medium. There were not many specific demographic classifications in most literature and

the common denominator is on which country will practice online shopping to answer to

the question of who will buy products and services online. For example, being the country

with the most advanced telephone infrastructure, US are discovered to be the only country

in the world where almost everyone within the nation makes the most online purchases

(Bellman et. al, 1999).

Although there has been a divergence in assessing the usage of basic demographics to

classify online shoppers, academic literature discovered that there is a strong case of

discussion in the association of social circle lifestyle among both genders and online

shopping behavior. This is apparent in the work of Sheehan (1999) where it was observed

that the research direction concentrated in proportioning on how men and women use the

Internet. The author discovered that stereotypical communication patterns on the offline
basis are apparently similar towards online shopping behaviors of both genders. Double

standard appeared that women are deemed to be more cautious towards information

privacy as well as favors engaging in community building interaction compared to men.

Men, on the other hand, are perceived to be technical and less concerned about

socioeconomic issues.

Another study anticipated that shopping is often associated as the ‘female’s job’

(Dholakia and Chiang, 2003). Like in any other prior studies, the immediate

compartmentalization of consumer behavior is often politicized, but the study discovered

that most of its respondents often relate an online shopper as a female rather than a male.

For instance, studies discovered that online shopping is more popular among women than

men for pre – comparison purchase on latest fashion trends with or without making an

actual purchase (Cogswell, 2005). An additional justification is through the association of

income and quality of product choice for online shopping. Doolin (2005) revealed in a

further study that consumers with higher household income are less concerned with the

inspection of product condition when doing Internet shopping. With the above

demographic descriptions, it can then be noted that gender and income are also one of the

most significant determiners in demonstrating online shopping motivations among

consumers.
 2.2.3 Some key definitions

2.2.3.1 The Internet defined

The Internet is one of the most successful communication models through the benefits of

sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information

infrastructure. The invention of the telephone, telegraph and radio set the stage for this

incomparable integration of capabilities. It can be mentioned that one of the significant

things about Internet is that nobody owns it. It maybe monitored by a body or an

organization, but no one can officially claim ownership on it due to its borderless

competency. The connection will come together as a unit which is known as the Internet.

Hence, the Internet can be defined as “a network of computer networks, which is capable

in providing instant access to a vast storehouse of information globally” (Forsythe and

Shi, 2003).

2.2.3.2 Internet Marketing defined

On the whole, every marketer will know Internet Marketing as the application of the

Internet and related digital technologies in conjunction with traditional communication to

achieve marketing objectives (Chaffey et. al, 2003). The utilization of the Internet by

organizations today can be considered as the most important method to conduct business

operations. This is because of its capability of being a global information superhighway to

not just the consumers but a source of competitive advantage to most firms to function
as a strategic marketing management tool. The media portrayal of the marketing strategy

often describes Internet Marketing as a form of promotional tool (Samiee, 1998).

However, if utilized properly, Internet Marketing can serve as a form of marketing

communication tool itself given its vast opportunity for businesses to expand to newer

markets faster and compete for better position in the consumer and business buyer

market. Additionally, no further marketing value would need to be defined for marketing

efforts to occur online because there were no preceding models to decide on how should

online marketing procedures perform in the marketplace (Duffy, 2005).

2.2.3.3 Trust defined

There has been a considerable amount of research done on trust and Internet Marketing

(Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999; Cyr et. al, 2005 and Metzger, 2004). Studies found that

the key to successful business relationships has always been associated with trust

between the buyer and the seller. It is difficult to properly define trust because of the

emergence of this concept from the many different disciplines such as accounting,

sociology and psychology. For example, accounting literature characterized trust based on

the classical view of a contract (Jevons and Gabbott, 2000). Sociology research view trust

as expectations that people have for others and themselves (Weber and Carter, 1998).

Then again, even though this concept is wide ranging, it proves to be useful in synthesizing

the studies of trust from different disciplines into this area of study. It is due to the

potential of this theory to provide useful insights into the application of trust in business

operations, specifically on the topic of research, online shopping.

 2.2.3.4 Culture defined

Nearly all studies (Littrel and Valetin, 2005; Schimmack et. al, 2005), be it of any

discipline, often evaluate and rely on the definition given by Hofstede (1980)’s to define

culture. This is applicable to the discipline of online shopping as well. According to Cyr

et. al (2005), the definition of culture is complex because it is not possible to define

culture with one sole definition. Nevertheless, over the years, most authors would still

acknowledge culture according to the work of Geert Hofstede (1980) with IBM.

Tentatively speaking, culture can then be defined as the collective programming of the

mind that distinguishes the member of one category of people from another (Hofstede,

1994). Understanding online consumer behaviour means that marketers have to

understand their cultural background in order to predict present and future purchasing

behaviour. The knowledge of consumer’s background is useful to provide marketers the

awareness of the current trend in the market to produce the potential goods and services

that satisfy consumer’s needs. This type of knowledge can then be identified as a form of

culture.

2.3 Antecedents of online shopping

Even though the consumers today are buying things from the Internet, they are still

conscious about using the Internet to do shopping. The sophistication of modern

technology does not mean that marketers can take the Internet for granted to ensure a

smooth online business operation. In this section, the literature shall discuss on the
variables which influence consumer’s purchase intention to shop online. Just as

mentioned in earlier discussion, prior research suggested that the motivation to shop

online is influenced by trust (Cheung and Lee, 2006; Cyr et. al, 2005; Jarvenpaa and

Tractinsky, 1999). Other studies outlined that convenience (Dholakia and Chiang, 2003;

Brown et. al, 2001) is the most important factor that influence a purchase intention. Some

authors concentrated on availability of product information (Elliot and Speck, 2005;

Quinn, 1999) to determine consumer’s purchasing behaviour. Therefore, on the basis of

careful reviewing of literature together with the information feedback gained from focus

group, three key variables will set precedence as the antecedent of online shopping:

a) Prior experience in shopping with an online shopping company,

b) Convenience characteristics of the shopping function, and

c) Availability of the product information.

Even though they are borrowed variables from literature review, they have been adapted

to the general framework of the area of study. The framework of variables will be

summarized in Figure 2.1 at the end of this chapter.

2.3.1 Prior experience in shopping online

The emergence of e - marketing in recent years has changed consumer shopping habits.

For example, the Internet medium encouraged the increase in usage of mass marketing

from major companies like Amazon, Ebay and many others to the consumers. The

Internet also allows greater efficiency in communication for organizations because it

allows personalized marketing more than any other existing advertising medium.

Additionally, it is also unquestionable that the Internet will aggravate a different level of

security and privacy issues compared to traditional shopping because of the capability of

the Internet to establish a veneer of invisible commercial participation such as disclosing

confidential consumer personal information through online. However, the resistance that

still occurs from consumers is the reason which prevents a successful implementation of

Internet Marketing medium because of the non human form of interaction between the

consumer and the Web merchant. A study revealed that the lack of trust occur due to the

feeling of ‘easy access’ by a third party on cyber consumer’s personal information during

online navigation process (Hoffman et. al, 1999; Roznowski, 2003). As the authors added

further, “Consumers simply do not trust Web providers to engage in relationship

exchanges especially when it involves money transaction”.

For instance, a person can just download a song or order a CD which will be delivered

within a few working days without having the need to go to a physical store. In spite of

the convenience, there is still a certain degree of mistrust that may occur due to the

attention on online anonymity. Online anonymity is deemed to be an important factor to

be considered solely not on just the individual buyer, but at the same time, involves the

state of the internal and external environment of the industry. Therefore, it can be inferred

that with this example, acknowledging the role of trust in online merchant buyer

relationship is important goes beyond just the micro understanding or the overall

environment in order to secure a satisfying and successful business transaction. Since

there has been a scarcity of research on trust in online consumer marketing (Jarvenpaa
and Tractinsky, 1999), this variable can then be justified as carries great importance in

the research to enable a better understanding on the role of trust in online shopping and

simultaneously assist in developing ways to encourage better consumer confidence to shop

online (Cyr et. al, 2005).

Analysing trust through the academic discourse of online shopping is important because

it will reflect the consumer’s confidence on the firm has to facilitate the activity of

satisfying customers’ needs and wants. All research authors in the field will have different

viewpoint on this area of study because of its many discipline origins in acknowledging

consumer trusting behaviour. This is supported through previous research works where it

has shown that there is a relationship between trust and online shopping (Metzger, 2004;

Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999). On the other hand, it can be mentioned that most

researchers will apply and define trust from a multidisciplinary approach because of its

social psychological point of view origins. One example is that some authors would

associate trust with perception of risk (Bhatnagar et. al, 2000; Doolin et. al, 2005; Gupta

et. al, 2003). However, Cheung and Lee (2006) discussed that trust can be developed

without the existence of perceived risk. According to them further, risk is only a condition

for trust to arise which will serve as a parameter to explore the factors driving trust

formation in Internet shopping. It was also added that knowledge in the perceived risk is

deemed to be important because consumers will normally be concerned when they do not

know the possible outcome like the condition of their product purchase together with the

quality of before and after sales service gained through their overall purchase process.
The Internet can be anticipated as becoming accessible to many, revealing new

experiences as well as creating a better understanding in the study of advertising and

marketing communications. Being on the Internet has allowed online merchants to cut

costs on transactions and at the same time improve on the organization’s overall image.

Just as discussed earlier, for the consumer, it assists to provide convenience when the

individual is comfortable with the functional capability of computers and for other uses

(Kerem, 2005). Similarly, it was further discussed that in spite of the increase

convenience and accessibility of online shopping, both the works of Mukherjee and Nath

(2003)’s and Kau et. al (2003) discovered that customer’s prior experience, attitude and

adoption level towards the technology of the computer, Internet and also the brand

associated with the merchant can be the proxy of trust in online shopping. To quote the

works of Lee and Turban (2001), understanding trust does not mean only buyer seller

relationship, but also the people to computing system type of trust.

2.3.2 Convenience

It is undeniable that in times to come; people’s life will continue to get busier and busier.

Modern technology and the Internet can be reckoned as the solution to the consumer’s

worries of in store peak hour crowds. The Internet will enable consumers and businesses

to shop at anytime from anywhere they wanted. Additionally, shopping online is very

convenient as long as the consumer does not mind waiting for the extra shipping time and

delivery costs. In the business context, the presence of the Internet does not just provide a

new paradigm for organizations to conduct business but also allow a better way to
develop better marketing communications strategies (Joines et. al, 2003). In support of this,

the work of Firat (1991) will be cited in this study due to online shopping’s close

similarities to the definition of postmodernist life. At the same time, acknowledging the

comparison towards postmodernist is important because this era, does not just enables

consumers to interpret products differently but at the same time, allow the attachment of

meaning and divert them from its original denotation.

Nevertheless, to fix a definite meaning on convenience is difficult because different

academics and practitioners will view the concept differently. No doubt, it is

unquestionable that the Internet has generated a great amount of convenience to the

society in general and introduces an economically friendly way of life. The Internet has

served to link consumers and businesses arbitrarily from its original role because it

allows consumers to create unexplained experiences that cannot be controlled by the sole

manufacturer. The Internet has been found to accommodate inexpensive customization

which encourages the investment of major firms and enterprises to explore this

interactive marketing communication channel (Dholakia and Rego, 1998). For that

reason, it can then be deliberated that the emergence of the Internet gave consumers and

businesses a newfound freedom towards the interpretation of the meaning of marketing and

liberation from traditional practices.

On the whole, retailers will offer product shopping varieties to not just optimize

consumer’s efficiency in shopping but at the same time present an assortment in their

shopping tastes. Academic research may focus on trust relationships with online retailers,
or even level of expectations on an online retail website. Yet, all of the research focus will

divert to examine factors that improve on online trust, such as experimenting on

improvement of other online interface to increase shopping convenience (Gefen et. al,

2003). This is further supported in a study by Bart et. al (2005) where it was discovered

that consumers would like to navigate in a website that promotes not just the ease of

usage but at the same time allows them to reach their desired information destination.

Thus, this theory in discussion brings us to the knowledge of understanding that

consumers do hope for a smooth flow of construct while browsing a website. This form of

elaboration is a welcome challenge in the study of online shopping even though prior

academic research may become a rapprochement between theory and practice. A study

on convenience in online shopping may make practitioners question everything they look

at, specifically on other marketing related factors like the brand and image of the

company. What is more, cultures and communities are fragmenting to where

consumption and marketing is a priority for the success of any business operation. Even

so, an understanding through convenience study still carries a great importance to

acknowledge the difference in online consumer behaviour.

2.3.3 Availability of Product Information

Still within the context of trust, the availability of product information can be argued as

the security to assist the consumer in making better purchase decision (Elliot and Speck,

2005). A study of the consumer purchasing behaviour is not a simple task as their actions

are fraud with abnormalities, unknown and ambiguities (Hibbert and Smith, 2002).
Therefore, the review of this variable is deemed to be important because the introspection

into the knowledge of this point of discussion will enable practitioners and academicians

alike to have a better understanding on the similarity of theoretical knowledge towards

everyday life consumption. Another point to be drawn the attention to is that

understanding consumer behaviour does not just involves purchasing. Nevertheless, it

can also be extended to the awareness on consumer’s overall perception towards the

general acceptability of the whole online shopping concept.

In the study on determining the drivers of online trust, Bart et. al (2005) argued that Web

site characteristics do play a role in facilitating consumer trust towards the availability of

product information. It was further outlined that a few key characteristics strengths such

as information risk, depth of information available and also the degree of information

available are expected to create the influence on developing positive relationships which

simultaneously may encourage more Web site ‘hits’. Marketers would definitely always

have difficulty in establishing consumer’s trust in the computer mediated environment

(Scholosser et. al, 2006). Therefore, this form of information is important to be noted

because since consumers cannot physically examine the product condition, it is important

to provide as much information as possible online to motivate purchase actions.

Moreover, it also helps to build the confidence in the consumer to know that they make

the right decision in their choice of purchase if there are constant updates in information

to prevent the increase of self doubt as well as perceived risks (Quinn, 1999; Brown et.

al, 2001).
It is important for online merchants to be proactive when it comes to reaching out to the

consumer market. Globalization has make the world become smaller, which together with

the emergence of the Internet, has enabled the consumer to make better informed decision

conveniently at a cheaper cost (Spann and Tellis, 2006). Therefore, online marketers

should be proactive to work towards improving the availability of suitable

communication channels because as Haeckel (1998) puts it, the essence of interactivity is

still exchange. Additionally, it also serves to encourage consumers to tell what they are

seeking for. This form of rapport will then enable the generation of trust towards online

marketing similar to offline marketing function. At the same time, it was further added

that the Internet can be adopted to increase efficiency plus increase effectiveness in

online shopping operation.

2.4 Consequence of online shopping

2.4.1 Role of culture

It is important to acknowledge culture in this study because having knowledge of the

consumer behaviour also involves understanding on the overall interpretation of all the

external influences which shape consumer’s decision making. Even though this point is

discussed within the micro context, it is essential to comprehend core values, norms and

discover what creates cultural symbolism. Moreover, in the theory of culture, normal

consumers are not independent in spirits or even articulating their own opinion to make

individual buying decisions. Therefore, cross cultural perception is useful in considering

the knowledge to enable awareness towards understanding marketing implications of

societal influences on consumers.

Online shopping can be inferred as a planned cultural change to the consumers.

Marketers can have the option of waiting for change or be the one who cause the change.

However, with innovation and modern technology mushrooming each day, it is unlikely

that the marketer who is seeking product diffusion will do the former. Marketers will

have to work on bringing about the change within the fabric of the whole society. The

same applies towards online shopping. To instigate acceptance towards the setting of non

confrontational shopping in a global aspect would require the focused on understanding

the core cultural background. Issues of interest would go beyond just the consideration

towards the Web interface, which at the same time, include elements such as quality,

customer support, convenience, and most importantly, the development of trust to shop

online (Cyr et. al, 2005; Lee and Turban, 2001).

Additionally, it is important to understand the role of culture in online shopping because

the Internet has the capability to reach people on every national culture and in many

different national languages (Shiu and Dawson, 2004). The authors supported the

statement with the analysis of online purchase (by Ernst and Young, 2001) empirical

studies where it was discovered that nearly all online merchants studied will have sales

generated from most of their online stores instead of the in store ones. No wonder Lim et.

al (2002) declared that global expansion on the Internet could promise better customer

contact and also help to increase overall performance profits.

Being a new kind of communication medium to most people in the East (Samiee, 1998),

Internet shopping will inherently involves a higher level of perceived uncertainty than

physical store shopping. It can be inferred that the Internet will appear as a form of

vehicle of communication to most users in certain community due to its ability to

manifest almost lifelike quality (Nicovich and Cornwell, 1998). Simultaneously, it is

important to know that any exchange behaviour occur across the Internet is often

monitored and operated by rules. Some culture may be tolerant and some may not

towards unsolicited and unauthorized direct marketing methods. This is important to be

noted because as societies evolved, the beliefs, attitude and norms that shape their core

values may not (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). Moreover, communities today are no longer

restricted by geography. Therefore, being insensitive towards certain social cultural

boundaries may result in the community’s hostile response towards the acceptance of this

emerging new form of communication exchange.

Just as it was discussed earlier, trust is an important catalyst to many forms of business

exchange. As a new form of business activity, potential shoppers are often cautious and

aware of the lack of physical involvement when it comes to shopping online (Lim et. al,

2002). For the shoppers, a hands on approach shopping is important in all business

transactions, regardless of whether it is business to business or business to consumer

exchange because it enable to mitigate the exchange of trust between not just the buyer

and the seller, but the overall outcome of a business transaction. Samiee (1998) discussed

that this is apparent in highly contextual culture and also Confucian based culture.
In the next point of discussion, it is important to study the role of culture based on the

framework of Hofstede’s (1994) work. The author’s study framework consists of four

dimensions: individualism – collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and

masculine – feminity. Prior studies suggested that of the four dimensions examined, two

of them, namely individualism – collectivism play an important role in facilitating online

trust (Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999; Lim et. al, 2002). This is supported by an

empirical study conducted on understanding web site preferences across culture (Cyr et.

al, 2005) where it was discovered that members of the individualist culture such as Canada

and US are not very trustworthy towards foreign web sites. The consumers have a

tendency to be more comfortable with local websites which enhance reputation of being

more trustworthy.

Contrary to that information, Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky (1999) claimed that individualism

promotes a trusting stance where individualists are more likely to trust others when they

are given some reasons to do so. Conversely, collectivists communities such as the

overall society in Japan favours foreign websites more compared to those locally

promoted within the country. Another variable dimension that carries importance is

uncertainty avoidance. Lim et. al (2002) discovered that people in high uncertainty

avoidance culture have high resistance towards change. The community in lower

uncertainty avoidance countries, on the other hand has lower resistance towards change. It

was discovered in the work of Samiee (1998) that high context consumers like the

Japanese and the Middle Eastern community favour dealing with individuals whom they

have personal knowledge of or are within the community of their network.

2.5 Theoretical framework

With existing literature reviewed, the framework below (Figure 2.1) illustrates the overall

theoretical framework proposed in the course of the study. The factors or antecedents of

online shopping trust are – Prior experience in shopping online, Convenience and

availability of product information. Trust, being the core of the research focus will serve

as a form of security control for the consumer to make online purchase decision.

Convenience provides the ease of use to the consumer in terms of time, place and space.

Availability of product information involves the quality of information, depending on

how frequent it is updated and at the same time; assist in analyzing which aspect of Web

site contents that are visited in order to help in predicting consumer’s post purchase

decision. Culture, being the sole consequences in the perspective of the research serves to

provide in depth inference towards the applicability of online shopping on a global scale.
 Antecedents
- Prior experience in shopping online (Brown et.
al, 2001; Cyr et. al, 2005; Jarvenpaa and
Tractinsky, 1999)
- Convenience (Dholakia and Chiang, 2003;
Brown et. al, 2001)
- Availability of Product information (Brown et.
al, 2001; Elliot and Speck, 2005)

Online shopping trust

Consequences through Hofstede’s (1994)

work
- Culture
a) Collectivism vs Individualism
b) Uncertainty avoidance

Figure 2.1: The framework of antecedents and consequences of online shopping trust

2.6 Hypothesis development

In this study, a number of hypotheses have been formulated from literature review to

fulfill the objectives set for the study. They are as follows:

H1: There is positive relationship between demographic profile of consumer and

online trust.

H2: Consumer’s prior experience, attitude and adoption level towards the technology
of the computer will have a positive relationship with online trust.

H3: Consumers from individualistic culture has higher trust in shopping online.
H4: The convenience in online shopping will have a positive relationship with online
trust.
H5: A better availability of product information will encourage a positive relationship
with online trust.
2.7 Overall summary of theoretical framework
Author (Year of
publication)
Brown et. al, 2001
“Buying or browsing? An
exploration of shopping
orientations and online
purchase intention”
Cyr et. al, 2005
“Beyond Trust: Web Site
Design Preferences Across
Cultures”
Research Questions Findings
1. Who are the internet Despite widespread belief
purchasers? that consumer shopped
online for convenience, it
2. What are the was empirically discovered
common shopping that consumer’s shopping
orientations? orientation have no impact
on their intentions to shop
3. What is the effect of online.
the shopping
orientations on Some of the common
consumer purchase shopping orientations are
intentions? personalising, recreational,
economic, involved,
4. What is the role of convenience – oriented and
the Internet on recreational, community –
consumer purchase oriented, apathetic and
intention? convenience oriented
shoppers.
It was discovered that the
factors that will influence
consumers to shop online
are product type, prior
purchase and gender.
1. What are the within Culture does have a
culture preferences potential influence on
for design elements consumption behaviour.
of a local and
foreign website? This is apparent through the
similarities of preference
 2. What are the between Americans,
cultural implications Canadians, Germans and
of design, trust, the Japanese being an
satisfactions and e exceptional case result.
loyalty on the study?
Within cultural groups,
satisfaction and e loyalty is
found to be not greater for
local rather than foreign
website.
Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1. What is the role of Trust is an important order
1999 trust in mediating qualifier for most purchase
online purchase? decisions.
“Consumer Trust in an
Internet store: A cross – 2. What are the It was discovered that
cultural validation” antecedents of members of individualist
online trust? cultures are less likely to
trust a local website
3. What are the compared to foreign
outcomes of online websites.
trust?
In spite of strong literature
4. What is the recommendations, the study
influence of cross did not find strong cultural
cultural validation in differences in the
enhancing online antecedents of trust.
trust?
Dholakia and Chiang, 2003 1. What is the Three essential variables
consumer perception were used in discovering
“Factors driving consumer of the difference in consumer perception in
intention to shop online: shopping online and online shopping –
An empirical offline? convenience, price of
investigation” product and product type.
2. What is the role of
price in online Of the three, only
purchase intention? convenience and product
type seemed to be having a
3. Which shopping better influence in
medium would encouraging consumers to
consumer prefer? shop online.

4. What is the Online shopping is deemed

influence of product to be higher when
type in online consumers perceive that the
shopping? product to be of search
goods.
Elliot and Speck, 2005
“Factors that affect attitude
toward a retail web site”
Hofstede, 1994
“The Business of
International business is
culture”
Table 2.1 Summary table of theoretical framework
1. What are the factors Five web site factors – ease
that affect consumer of use, product information,
attitude towards entertainment, trust and
online shopping currency plays an important
website? role in affecting consumer
attitude towards an online
2. What is the shopping website.
moderator for the
relationship between Customization of web site
specific web site factors is deemed to be
factors and attitude important to encourage
towards a web site? more online shopping.
1. What are the The basis of difference
cultural orientations among the employees was
that influence the the distinction in national
distinction in culture and individual
national culture? mentalities even though
IBM has a strong corporate
2. What is the role of culture instilled among its
culture in business? employees.
The difference was divided
into four types of cultural
orientations discovered –
power distance, masculinity
and feminity, uncertainty
avoidance and individuality
versus collectivism.
A familiar predicament
mentioned in Hofstede’s
work, that is to define the
borders between individuals
and groups they belong to,
to ensure smooth
functioning of the society.
Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

Having a research design is essential in any survey study because it will help to explore

the marketing research problem constructed. An appropriate research design will serve to

let the reader know about the chronology of the whole research duration course. Even

though the definitions provided in academic literature will provide a different meaning to

the whole perspective, but collectively, they function to act in support of one aim – that is

to be the blueprint structure all through the whole research process (Cooper and

Schindler, 2003). In any kind of research, it is important to acknowledge the degree to

which the research question should be viewed. Hence, it can be explained that this

research employs a more exploratory dichotomy approach because the researcher wanted

to present a comprehensible idea on concept development and simultaneously to save

research costs. Moreover, to discover consumer perception in the course of cultural

context on online shopping trust cannot be done with solely one single positivist method;

which requires the development of scientific definitions to explain a presumed to be true

behaviour in the real world (Gephart, 2004).

On the practical context, proper market research is essential to assist in optimizing the

use of business-related issue to meet the company’s marketing objectives. What is more,

it will also further help the organization to understand their overall consumer market better.

Generally, even though there are two basic commercial marketing research methods -

qualitative and quantitative data analysis, the adoption of a mixed

methodology approaches based on the two concepts will be able to complement prior

literature to examine factors of online shopping from a consumer and cultural

perspective. Besides, having a collective view of information drawn from different

context of research methods will enable the researcher to examine where the different

variables explored intersect. This is also in line with the triangulation method

recommended by Silverman (2000) and also Cassell and Symon (2005).

Furthermore, the research conducted is also consistent with the realist view

recommendation by Gephart (2004) in carrying out exploratory empirical studies which

serves to discover the truth of a reality which is understood and definitive in reality. In

this study, the researcher aimed to conduct a field study setting in hope to generate

descriptive results from the participants of the research. Moreover, the researcher also

aimed to discover the participant’s perceptions of research activity with the assumption

that online shopping is an existing actual routine for most of the respondents without any

monitoring or any role playing exercises done. Besides, the approach used will assist in

uncovering additional facts, opinions and also serve to compare variables to assist in

hypothesis development for the objective of the whole research. At the same time, it will

further allow online retailers to adopt a better practice and understanding of the

marketing concept and prevent Internet marketing myopia practices (Houston, 1986;

Levitt, 1960).

Therefore, since the main focus of this study is to examine consumer’s perception

towards online shopping under a cross cultural context (Earl and Kemp, 2002), it was
then decided that the respondents would be individuals who at least have a basic

knowledge of the computer and know how to surf the Internet. Additionally, the study’s

main purpose was to discover the trend of online shopping in Britain. Even though the

choice of methodology contradicts the argument in Shiu and Dawson (2004)’s work on

national cultural comparisons, the choice of several different racial cultures that exists

within the country’s community is selected because the study was not aim to generalize

findings across national identities (Keillor et. al, 1999), but to understand the distinct

difference in cultural comparisons.

United Kingdom is chosen as the country that will represent the different racial culture

researched (domestic British, Chinese, Indian, Caucasian and other minorities) because the

e - tail sector will be seen as the substitute to retail shopping in the next five years

(Reynolds, 1999). To name a few, industries like banks, travel agencies and music will

see some ‘retail convergence’ in their industry structure as well. Furthermore, another

rationale for this choice of sample selection is to compile a broad demographic profile of

online shoppers since it is not officially categorized in nearly all studies analyzed on

online trust as they are more specified with either general industry or company selection

(Mukherjee and Nath, 2002; Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999). Moreover, the study also

hopes to identify the interrelationship between the major factors which influence online

shopping.

Therefore, Nottingham University is chosen because there is a high concentration of

online shoppers in the area of study. Moreover, the University serves an international
community of students which is the best choice in favor of sample selection for

volunteers intended for comparison study. For the purpose of this research paper, the

information is gathered from primary and secondary data. The following sections shall

explain the method concerned in collecting primary and secondary data, as well as the

methods used in analyzing them.

3.2 Primary data

It is necessary to conduct a primary research in order to get further in depth information

other than the secondary data at hand. Primary data is more accurate than secondary data

because the information gathered are from first hand account information, which are the

participants for the research design. Primary data are collected on specific issues such as

the researched factors, which will influence online shopping from targeted respondent’s

viewpoints.

3.2.1 Focus Group

Focus group is often perceived as a form of qualitative research (Calder, 1977). Normally

in marketing context, to conduct a focus group requires a group of individuals to gather

together to provide ideas or even feedback where respondents are asked on their opinion on

a product, service, advertisement or even a packaging design. In practical context, focus

group allows organizations to explore, develop, name, discuss and also to test new

products before it is made available to the general target market.

In the position of this research, focus group allows the researcher to study the participants

in a more natural setting where the respondents are comfortable to converse with.

Therefore, a focus group was conducted in the period of 7 th August and 9th August 2006

with eight individuals, three males and five females. The researcher, being the moderator

of the group strives to ensure that the topic of online shopping trust and culture is

continuously brought up throughout. A two day selection was employed to conduct the

focus group due to the subject of availability of the respective participants.

Each focus group was conducted over the period of one hour where there was a good

amount of useful information gathered in order to assist in questionnaire development.

However, for the main purpose of the study, it is important to note too that focus group

only contributes to a small part of the whole study in order to obtain in direct,

confidential information together with exploring opinions and attitudes towards online

shopping (Fern, 1982). Moreover, according to the author further, the usage of focus

group is also important to assist in development of answers in questionnaire as well as

pretesting them with the purpose of having a finalized survey respondent’s version of the

copy that will be distributed to the general public (Please refer to Appendix A for a copy

of the interview questions).

The results from the informal focus group were used to derive qualitative responses for

additional discussion in the analysis chapter. Additionally, it is important to note that

most of the answers given by the interviewees were used in establishing and also serve as
a guideline for developing the questionnaire. Some of the important outcomes from the
interview conducted are as follows:
Variables development
Prior experience in shopping online
Convenience
Responses
“Browse online but don't buy. I don't trust
the security since ebay jacked up an
account of mine. Besides, I find it's
generally cheaper to drive to the store
than it is to pay shipping.”
“Yes, I enjoy it. Typically I will know what
product I will want before I order it and I
usually research the product in person and
just order it online.”
“Drawbacks? If your connection is not
secure you could have your credit card
information compromised. Other than
that, there are more conveniences than
inconveniences.”
“It’s the greatest thing since the invention
of the middle finger! I hate stores and
shopping (a.k.a. lines and rude personnel)
so I do 90% of my shopping online and
have never had a problem with my credit
cards. One exception would be
electronics, though. I've come to realize
that the internet marketplace is a
clearinghouse for electronic seconds and
junk. I've had such bad luck with
receiving defective electronics that I've
bought online that I've
sworn off it.”
“Convenience, no pressure shopping,
savings in time, consistency between
advertised price and site price, no driving
and parking, sometimes no cost delivery
even to third party receiver, information
on product comparison easily available,
sometimes price comparison available
online, third party shopping sites keeping
merchants competitive hence offering the
best products and prices, 24/7 shopping,

Availability of product information
ease in merchandise cancellation or
return, sometimes tracking of shipping
available, large online shopping site
offering store comparison and sometimes
no taxes.”
“Easy, you can do it from ho me,
no waiting in lines.”
“Easy access, quick shopping, everything
is in stock.”
“If you know what you want and don't have
a lot of time - it's great, because you get
what you want, don't have to deal with
parking or with employees and it just
shows up at your door.”
“I never buy anything without going to
http://www.ebay.com/ first. I look at lots of
places before placing an order. You might
be able to find it cheaper somewhere else.
The only thing I've found wrong with online
shopping is the shipping after you order
something. Sometimes they don't send it out
when they say they do but that's not all
companies.”
“I've shopped online a few times
before...generally if you find a price
that's 50% or less of the retail price
(price found in stores like Tesco, M&S
etc) then it's either a rip off or a cheap
knockoff.”
“If the website has nothing on it stating
it's a "secure transation", then leave it
NOW as they may be trying to rip your
credit card.”
“If the website is written in HTML (has
.html or .htm extensions) and then
shopping cart does not have .shtml, then it
is not secure and you may get your credit
card or identity stolen.”
“Always check the return policy on
anything you're buying. If it has a
warranty available, read the warranty
carefully.”
Culture “I'm living in one of the "eastern
country". I do not think culture has much
to do with online shopping.”

“Online shopping SECURITY is the main

worries of most online shoppers. This is
the main reason that many are still shy
from this mode of transaction.”

“A less important reason is the eligibility

of having a credit card. Chinese likes to
buy with cash. That's why the online
shopping are selling based on COD (cash
on delivery) method.”

“I think that there are many different

perspectives on the role of culture in
facilitating online shopping. Generally, it
all depends on the individual and the role
of influences the person has towards
online shopping. Culture may play an
important role, but not to a very large
extent of it.”
Table 3.1 Summary table of focus group responses

3.2.2 Pilot test

Pilot test has been carried out on 15 th August 2006 before the distribution of 10 copies of

the actual questionnaire to a few residents of Melton Hall, Jubilee Campus. This is to test

the success of the questionnaire designed from the trial population of interest before the

actual costs of full scaled survey are incurred. Follow up calls was done either in person

or through email to clarify certain discrepancies which was not understood by the

respondents such as:

• The classification of the income group data because of the difference in economic

income as well as choice of survey respondents.

 • Instructions in ranking order questions which was unclear on whether the

respondents should give extra answers or not.

At the end of the pilot testing period, the questionnaires collected came with the feedback

which indicate no additional alterations is required because the questionnaire was found

to be easily understood and comprehensible.

3.2.3 Questionnaire

The survey questionnaire is the selected method used to collect quantitative data. 20

questions were formulated for the purpose of the questionnaire analysis. Some of the

questions were divided into sub matrix proportion in order to encourage a better

understanding of the questioning trend for the survey respondents. Besides, it is also

intended to overcome the reluctance of the respondents in answering to many questions.

The questions were divided into two sections - respondent’s demographic profile in

Section A and research contents in Section B. They were designed according to the

objectives and theoretical framework developed in order to discover the factors which

influence online shopping. About 120 copies of questionnaires were distributed at

‘Hallward library’ and ‘Jubilee Campus business library’. Other venues of questionnaire

distribution are also Postgraduate student halls such as Melton Hall in Jubilee Campus of

the University. These questionnaires were distributed and collected during the duration of

one week.
 3.2.3.1 Method of collection

Since questionnaire distribution method was selected, the researcher adopted the method

of informal distribution that is through the recruitment of a few course mates and

individual volunteers to hand out the questionnaire personally. 10 volunteers were

recruited and each of them were given their choice of questionnaire copies each for

distribution at the designated areas mentioned, while the remaining copies was done by

the researcher personally. Each questionnaire was included a short introductory

instruction for query purposes which will be directed and forwarded to the researcher. No

pre advance notice, price draws were done and circulated due to the public oriented

choice of areas as well as limited funding. After the duration of one week, the

questionnaire response rate was only 100 copies due to certain cases of unusable data

copies as well as missing ones.

3.2.3.2 Questionnaire design

The first part of the questionnaire consists of respondent’s demographic variable of

gender, age, income, language spoken, education level and country of origin. Additionally,

questions like period of Internet usage and venue choice were added for further discussion

on statistical analysis. Therefore, these two questions would not be analyzed in detail using

the SPSS software. The development of the variables helps to analyze the relationship of

each factor in accordance to each demographic variable. Moreover, they serve to give a

summary on which type of respondents actually response

to the questionnaire. All questions were designed on the usage of nominal and ordinal

scale.

The second part was more on each factors of the research – most popular online

shopping website, trust, convenience, availability of product information. Similar to

the layout in section A, some of the questions in this section would not be formally

analyzed with SPSS software as they serve the purpose of assisting the discussion

section of data analysis and discussion chapters. They were designed on the basis to

get the respondent’s informal point of view. All questions were designed on the

mixture of five point likert scale, nominal and ordinal scale (Please refer to Appendix

B for a copy of the finalized questionnaire).

3.3 Secondary data

Secondary data was collected from academic research journals as well as Internet

journals. It is inefficient and insufficient to just use primary data for the purpose of the

whole study. Moreover, by reviewing prior studies will also assist in discovering

successful applicable methodologies employed by existing researchers in the field

(Cooper and Schindler, 2003). Additionally, secondary data are also quick source of

information as well as economical for background research of the whole industry

(Malhotra, 2004). Therefore, search engines like EBSCOHost, ProQuest, Mintel, IMRG

and Emerald were helpful in gathering information regarding the background of the

online shopping trade. Additionally, information from business magazines like Marketing
Week was also used in understanding the overall market review and condition of the

whole industry trend.

3.4 Sampling

3.4.1 Target population

The target population for this study is working individuals, university students and

college teenagers who are familiar with the system of online shopping. They are chosen

because usually there will be different factors and reasons that will lead them to do

shopping online.

3.4.2 Sample and sample size

Of the target population a sample size of 120 samples was chosen to represent the whole

population of online shoppers. Respondents are residents living within the vicinity of

University Park and Jubilee Campus, in the University of Nottingham which is the scope

picked for the study.

3.4.3 Sampling method

The sampling method used was judgmental sampling. This technique was decided on this

study because the study needed experienced individuals who at least have a prior
experience with the Internet as well as computers, and at the same time have a little

knowledge in online shopping get their opinions about the study contents. They would

provide better answers to the questionnaire as they are consumers who have to make

purchase decisions. This method was also chosen on three reasons – quicker, convenient

and less cost. This is because the study was done in areas where online shopping is

commonly used. The overall study was conducted during a period of four months. The

respondents were co-operative and answered to the questionnaire without much doubts

and queries.

3.5 Data analysis

The descriptive analysis was used to compile the demographic information of online

shoppers. Some of the analyses used are frequencies, ANOVA and crosstabs. The

statistical and inferential analysis which was used to decide whether two different

variables are independent is the chi – square test. The statistical tools used to analyze the

data are the usage of the SPSS version 11.0 software.

Chapter 4: Findings and analysis

4.1 Introduction

This chapter will focus on generating results and findings using descriptive analysis

based on the results from questionnaires and focus group interviews conducted with

survey participants in chapter three. The analysis outline of this chapter will be presented

according to the order of questions in the questionnaire designed. Additionally,

inferential analysis will also be used to correspond with the hypotheses developed. All

these scope are related to the objectives of the study. The data analysed will be presented

in tables and complemented by explanations and discussion on the rationale of the

analysis outcome. The findings of the study are as below:

4.2 Findings, analysis and discussion

4.2.1 Analysis on the demographic profile of the respondents

4.2.1.1 Descriptive and inferential analysis of online shoppers’ profile

In order to answer to the questions raised and objectives set for the purpose of the study,

the research questions will now be answered.

 1. What is the adoption level of online shopping?

4.2.1.2 Summary format on the online shopper’s profile

Demographic characteristics Frequency Percentage Cumulative

percentage
Gender Female 42 42.0 42.0
Male 58 58.0 100.0
Total 100.0

Age 18 and below 29 29.0 29.0

19 - 29 years 43 43.0 72.0
30 - 40 years 15 15.0 87.0
41 and above 13 13.0 100.0
Total 100.0

Income Rather not say 25 25.0 25.0

(in £) 500 and below 18 18.0 43.0
501 – 1000 8 8.0 51.0
1001 – 1500 15 15.0 66.0
1501 – 2000 16 16.0 82.0
2001 – 3000 15 15.0 97.0
3001 and above 3 3.0 100.0
Total 100.0

Ethnicity Rather not say 5 5.0 5.0

Domestic British 27 27.0 32.0
Caucasian/White 8 8.0 40.0
Chinese 38 38.0 78.0
Indian 9 9.0 87.0
Others 13 13.0 100.0
Total 100.0
Language Chinese 14 14.0 14.0
Spanish 2 2.0 16.0
English 47 47.0 63.0
French 3 3.0 66.0
German 6 6.0 72.0
Hindi 6 6.0 78.0
Japanese 12 12.0 90.0
Others 10 10.0 100.0
Total 100.0

Period of Less than 6 months 9 9.0 9.0

Internet 6 to 12 months
usage 1 to 3 years 31 31.0 40.0
4 to 6 years 14 14.0 54.0
7 years or more 23 23.0 77.0
23 23.0 100.0
Total 100.0

Level of Grammar school 6 6.0 6.0

education High school 9 9.0 15.0
Masters degree 23 23.0 38.0
Others 8 8.0 46.0
Doctoral degree 5 5.0 51.0
Professional degree 5 5.0 56.0
Some college 36 36.0 92.0
Vocational/Technical 8 8.0 100.0
Total 100.0

Table 4.1 Summary profile of respondents

A total 58% of online shoppers are male while the percentage for female consumers is

42%. This results show that males shop more online compared to females. Regarding the

age grouping, a big proportion of respondents (43%) are between 19 – 29 years who shop

online followed by respondents who aged 18 and below (29%). The result above explains

these two age groups favor online shopping more than any other age groups within the

study. The outcome happens most likely due to the fact that both the age groups see

online shopping as a convenience and possibly due to their busy and hectic lifestyle

(school and at work). However, only 13% of the respondents between the age of 41 years

and above prefer to shop online. This may be because they probably are more conscious

about the disadvantages of online shopping and they prefer to shop in person at the store.

Most of the respondents are of the rather not to disclose their income group (25%). This

is followed by 18% from those who earns £ 500 and below. Yet, there are 16% of the

respondents from the income group of £ 1,501 – £ 2,000. The findings appear that most

of the respondents would favor doing online shopping more because it is good value to

purchase certain items online (through promotions, available only online products/services). On

the other hand, there are two income groups (£ 1,001 – £ 1,500 and £ 2,001 - £ 3,000)

which have the same share of percentages (15%). In all likelihood, the number of these

respondents’ is lesser because they prefer to shop in person or do not trust the

convenience of shopping online.

Generally, nearly all of the respondents are of the Chinese ethnicity (38%). This is

followed by 27% from the group of Domestic British respondents. There are 8% of the

respondents who are from the Caucasian or White group. The findings show that there
are 13% of the respondents under the Others ethnicity category. From the survey, it was

discovered that there are only 9% of Indian respondents while the remaining 5% chose to

not to disclose their nationality. Further elaboration on the ethnicity proportion will be

discussed at the end of this section. It can be mentioned that most of the respondents,

regardless of country of origin speaks English as their primary language (47%). This is

followed by 14% who speaks Chinese as well as 12% who speaks Japanese. A total of 5%

of the respondents speak French (3%) and Spanish (2%) respectively. However, it can be

observed that there is a similar percentage of 6% each for the individuals who speak

German and Hindi. To conclude, most of the respondents can converse in English

regardless of their country of origins to understand simple online shopping instructions

and procedures.

Further analysis shows that majority of the respondents (31%) have six to 12 months

experience with the Internet. This is followed by two matching percentages of 23% each

between respondents who have seven years or more and four to six years experience with

the Internet. On the other hand, a total of 9% of the respondents has less than six months

exposure to the Web world. Based from the findings, it appears that most of the

respondents are familiar with the usage and operations of the Internet through their period

of usage of between one to seven years or more. On the other hand, majority of the

respondents (36%) have a basic level of education at least at the college level. This is

followed by 23% of the respondents who have a Masters degree. Next, an equal

percentage proportion can be seen for those who have a doctoral and professional degree
with 5% each while those who indicate Others and vocational/technical education level

has an 8% response each.

Table 4.2 Crosstabs analysis on whether gender is related to period of internet usage

gender * period of internet usage Crosstabulation

period of internet usage

Total
7
less year
than 6 6 to 12 1 to 3 4 to 6 s or
month months years years more
s
gender female Count 6 13 6 12 5 42
% within
14.3% 31.0% 14.3% 28.6% 11.9% 100.0%
gender
male Count 3 18 8 11 18 58
% within
5.2% 31.0% 13.8% 19.0% 31.0% 100.0%
gender
Total Count 9 31 14 23 23 100
% within
9.0% 31.0% 14.0% 23.0% 23.0% 100.0%
gender

Table 4.3 Chi-Square tests on whether gender is related to period of Internet usage

Chi-Square Tests

Asymp. Sig.
Value df (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 7.105a 4 .130
Likelihood Ratio 7.388 4 .117
N of Valid Cases 100
a. 1 cells (10.0%) have expected count less than 5. The
minimum expected count is 3.78.

The findings indicates that 31.0% of female respondents' have at least 6 to 12 months

experience with the Internet while only 11.9% of them have 7 years or more experience.

In addition, a total of 31% of the male respondents' have at least 6 to 12 months

experience with the Internet. It can be noted as well that there are also 31% of the male
respondents who has 7 years or more experience with the Internet. However, as the chi-

square test (table 4.2) has a value greater than .05, this outcome present that even though
most male respondents would have more years of experience with the Internet compared

to the female group, gender is not significant for the period of Internet usage.

4.2.1.3 Discussion on online shoppers’ profile

Even though there is academic literature to support the disadvantage (Sorce et. al, 2005)

of using demographic classification in describing online shopping behavior variance

among the overall consumers, the researcher found that descriptive results produce

otherwise. Contrary to initial academic theory and discussion (please refer to Dholakia and

Chiang, 2003), online shopping can be a male’s job as more data responses were received

from males (58%) in this study. As for the examination on predicting the type of age group

who will shop more online, the result proves to be similar with most studies (Sheehan,

1999; Sorce et. al, 2005) indicating that the younger age group between age 19

– 29 years will shop more online (43%). Moreover, it can be noted that gender do not

have influence on the period of experience an individual has with the Internet.

Next, more inferential tests like crosstabs, chi – square and ANOVA will be used to

determine the exact influence of the descriptive results compared to other variables of the

study. Additionally, analysis will be done in order to answer to the research questions and

objectives developed in chapter one and further analysis will be done to determine the

acceptance of the hypotheses developed through literature review understanding in

chapter two.
 4.2.2 Analysis on the experience of whether the individual shop online
before and most popular choice of shopping website

2. Which is the most popular choice of online shopping website among consumers?

Table 4.4 Crosstabs analysis on whether gender is related to

the experience of having shop online before

gender * shop online Crosstabulation

shop online
yes no Total
gender female Count 14 28 42
% within gender 33.3% 66.7% 100.0%
male Count 16 42 58
% within gender 27.6% 72.4% 100.0%
Total Count 30 70 100
% within gender 30.0% 70.0% 100.0%

Table 4.5 Chi-Square tests on whether gender is related to

the experience of having shop online before
Chi-Square Tests

Asymp. Sig. Exact Sig. Exact Sig.

Value df (2-sided) (2-sided) (1-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square .383b 1 .536
Continuity Correctiona .158 1 .691
Likelihood Ratio .381 1 .537
Fisher's Exact Test .659 .344
N of Valid Cases 100
a. Computed only for a 2x2 table
b. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count
is 12.60.

The findings indicate that only 33.3% of female respondents' shop online while only 28%

who has not shop online before. In addition, a total of 27.6% of the male respondents'

who has the experience of shopping online while there are 72.4% who has not. Judging

by the contrast in summary of result information, chi – square test will be done to

determine the relative influence of gender towards experience of shopping online.

Nevertheless, the chi- square tests (table 4.5) assumptions remain no difference as it has

the value of more than 0.05.

Table 4.6 Crosstabs analysis on whether age is related to the choice of popular websites

age * most popular website Crosstabulation

most popular website

Amazon tesco argos pcworld others Total
age 18 and below Count 9 6 5 3 6 29
% within age 31.0% 20.7% 17.2% 10.3% 20.7% 100.0%
19 - 29 years Count 18 8 4 7 6 43
% within age 41.9% 18.6% 9.3% 16.3% 14.0% 100.0%
30 - 40 years Count 2 4 3 5 1 15
% within age 13.3% 26.7% 20.0% 33.3% 6.7% 100.0%
41 and above Count 6 2 3 1 1 13
% within age 46.2% 15.4% 23.1% 7.7% 7.7% 100.0%
Total Count 35 20 15 16 14 100
% within age 35.0% 20.0% 15.0% 16.0% 14.0% 100.0%

Table 4.7 Chi-Square tests on whether age is related to the choice of popular websites

Chi-Square Tests

Asymp. Sig.
Value df (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 11.378a 12 .497
Likelihood Ratio 11.587 12 .479
N of Valid Cases 100
a. 12 cells (60.0%) have expected count less than 5. The
minimum expected count is 1.82.

The findings indicates that 41.9% of respondents' between the age of 19 - 29 years favor

Amazon website while only 9.3% of the respondents from the same age group prefer

shopping at Argos. In addition, a total of 44.4% of the respondents' ages between 41 and

above choose Amazon as their favorite online shopping website. It can be noted that there

is an equal percentage of 7.7% each of respondents from this age category prefer

PCworld as the best online company to shop with while the rest chose websites from the

Others category.
However, the chi-square tests (table 4.7) prove otherwise as it has a value of more than

0.05.

Table 4.8 Crosstabs analysis on whether gender is related to

the choice of popular websites
gender1 * most popular website Crosstabulation

most popular website

Amazon tesco argos pcworld others Total
gender1 female Count 18 7 2 9 6 42
% within gender1 42.9% 16.7% 4.8% 21.4% 14.3% 100.0%
male Count 17 13 13 7 8 58
% within gender1 29.3% 22.4% 22.4% 12.1% 13.8% 100.0%
Total Count 35 20 15 16 14 100
% within gender1 35.0% 20.0% 15.0% 16.0% 14.0% 100.0%

Table 4.9 Chi-Square tests on whether gender is related to

the choice of popular websites

Chi-Square Tests

Asymp. Sig.
Value df (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 8.078a 4 .089
Likelihood Ratio 8.837 4 .065
N of Valid Cases 100
a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The
minimum expected count is 5.88.

The findings indicate that 42.9% of the female respondents prefer to shop at Amazon

while only 4.8% prefer to shop at Argos. In addition, a total of 29.3% of the male

respondents' prefer to shop at Amazon as well. It can be noted that there is an equal

percentage of 22.4% each of male respondents that prefer to shop from Tesco and Argos

website.

As the chi-square tests (table 4.9) have the value of 0.089, it can then be concluded that

the results is statistically significant.

 4.2.2.3 Discussion on whether demographic profile of respondents
is related to the most popular choice of online shopping
website

Summary of experience of shopping online with crosstabs analysis proves that majority of

the respondents have never shop online before. On the other hand, inferential results

remained unchanged on the assumption that gender will influence the experience of

shopping online. It can be concluded that gender is not statistically significant to

respondent's experience of having shopped online.

In the next statistical tests on online website popularity, it was discovered that even

though Amazon is the main choice of shopping website among those between the older

age groups, but inferential tests discover that age is not significant for the choice of

popularity of the websites. Yet, in another test conducted, gender is discovered to play an

important role in determining the popularity of an online shopping website.

 4.2.3 Factors which influence online shopping

3. Why do people shop online?

Table 4.10 Frequency analysis on the reason consumers shop online

Reason to shop online

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Quick and convenient 37 37.0 37.0
Good value to buy online 6 6.0 43.0
Do no have time to go out and shop ' 2 2.0 45.0
Cheaper to buy certain types of goods
5 5.0 50.0
online
More product variety selection 7 7.0 57.0
No tax charges if shop online 9 9.0 66.0
Know how to use the computer, but do
5 5.0 71.0
not know how to shop on
Prefer to shop for product in person 18 18.0 89.0
Only prefer to browse the items online 7 7.0 96.0
others 4 4.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0

The table above shows the many reasons consumers shop online. Out of the 10 reasons

given, most of the respondents prefer to shop online because it is quick and convenient

(37%). Next, it can be seen that there are 9% of the respondents who prefer to shop

online because there are no extra tax charges if shopping is done online. Moreover, 6%

responded that one can get good value purchases by buying online. Surprisingly, there are

only 2% of the respondents who prefer to shop online because of the lack of time to do in

store shopping. Additionally, it must be noted that there are 18% of the respondents who

prefer to shop at the store due to many other reasons.

Further analysis will be done to determine if the reasons to shop online will varies by

gender and ethnicity.

4. Are consumers motivation to shop online affected by culture and demographic

classification?

Table 4.11 Descriptive table on reasons consumers shop online in terms of ethnicity
and gender

Descriptive Statistics

Dependent Variable: why want to shop online

ethnicity gender1 Mean Std. Deviation N
rather not to say female 4.33 2.082 3
male 1.00 .000 2
Total 3.00 2.345 5
domestic british female 5.64 3.433 14
male 5.38 3.404 13
Total 5.52 3.355 27
caucasian/white female 8.00 . 1
male 3.29 2.984 7
Total 3.88 3.227 8
chinese female 3.36 2.838 11
male 4.15 3.461 27
Total 3.92 3.275 38
indian female 3.71 3.251 7
male 3.00 2.828 2
Total 3.56 3.005 9
others female 4.83 3.061 6
male 5.86 2.968 7
Total 5.38 2.931 13
Total female 4.57 3.132 42
male 4.38 3.324 58
Total 4.46 3.230 100

The descriptive table shows that there are 38 respondents who are of the Chinese

ethnicity with the breakdown of 11 who are female while the remaining 27 are males.

There are a total of 27 domestic British respondents where the breakdown is 14 females

and 13 males.
Table 4.12 Levene’s statistic test on reasons consumers shop online
by ethnicity and gender

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Varianceas

Dependent Variable: why want to shop online

F df1 df2 Sig.
2.102 11 88 .028
Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the
dependent variable is equal across groups.
a. Design: Intercept+ETHNIC+GENDER1+ETHNIC
* GENDER1

Table 4.12 shows a significance level of 0.028. It is assumed that the variance of the

dependent variables across groups is equal. Therefore the significance level can be set at

0.05.

Table 4.13 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: why want to shop online

Type III Sum
Source of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 115.382a 11 10.489 1.006 .448
Intercept 862.087 1 862.087 82.689 .000
ETHNIC 82.973 5 16.595 1.592 .171
GENDER1 16.229 1 16.229 1.557 .215
ETHNIC * GENDER1 42.109 5 8.422 .808 .547
Error 917.458 88 10.426
Total 3022.000 100
Corrected Total 1032.840 99
a. R Squared = .112 (Adjusted R Squared = .001)

The test of between subject effects table will show if the mean values are statistically

significant.

The table shows F values and significance levels for ethnicity and gender and reason to

shop online as well as the interaction between the two. Here the null hypothesis can be
rejected in the case of ethnicity (F=1.592, df=5, sig. = 0.171) and also gender (F=1.557,

df=1, sig=0.215) plus the interaction between the two (F=0.808, df=5, sig. =0.547) at the

0.05 level.

It can then be concluded that ethnicity, gender has no impact on the reasons for shopping

online.

4.2.3.1 Discussion on whether ethnicity and gender impacts the

reasons for consumers to shop online

Generally, as the result from the analysis has derived, most of the consumers will shop

online for the convenience it provides. It can also be mentioned that there is a quite large

percentage of consumers who prefer to do online shopping for many other non stated

reasons. However, additional analysis done discovered that none of the variables of

gender and especially culture (ethnicity) has an immediate effect on the reasons for

consumers to shop online. Therefore, it can be concluded that culture and gender may

effect online shopping in other untested areas of study, but not within the context of this

present research.
 5. Are consumer’s trusts in online shopping affected by demographic classification?

Table 4.14 Crosstabs analysis on whether online trust is affected by gender

gender * opinion of safety online Crosstabulation

opinion of safety online

Total
Cannot
Trusting get A
your credit desired Can shop at 'phishing
Lack of card product your ' scam, a
close quality informatio (or convenience, company
examination n to the Bad service) no worrries mimics a
on product online shipmen that on space reputable
purchase company t you and time company
services wanted
gender female Count 6 13 3 6 5 9 42
%
within 14.3% 31.0% 7.1% 14.3% 11.9% 21.4% 100.0%
gender
male Count 16 11 14 4 4 9 58
%
within 27.6% 19.0% 24.1% 6.9% 6.9% 15.5% 100.0%
gender
Total Count 22 24 17 10 9 18 100
%
within 22.0% 24.0% 17.0% 10.0% 9.0% 18.0% 100.0%
gender

The cross tab table shows that there are a high percentage of female respondents (31%)

who based their opinion online shopping safety mean that shopping online requires the

individual to trust their online credit information with the online company. On the other

hand, only 19% of male respondents feel likewise on online shopping safety. In addition,

there are 27.6% of the male respondents who based their opinion on online shopping

safety means that the individual would not be able to have close examination on the

quality of the product purchased. It can be noted that only 14.3% of the respondents feel

otherwise. These results was supported by a high total percentage of opinion that not

being able to have a close examination on the quality of product purchased (22%) for
both genders. This goes the same for the opinion of trusting the individual's credit card

information to the online company with a total of 24% for both genders.
Table 4.15 Chi – Square tests on whether online trust is affected by gender

Chi-Square Tests

Asymp. Sig.
Value df (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 10.038a 5 .074
Likelihood Ratio 10.549 5 .061
N of Valid Cases 100
a. 2 cells (16.7%) have expected count less than 5. The
minimum expected count is 3.78.

As the chi square test has a value of 0.074, the result is then statistically significant.

Table 4.16 Descriptive table on whether different age groups differ in terms
of their opinion on online shopping trust
Descriptives

opinion of safety online

95% Confidence Interval for
Mean
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound Minimum Maximum
18 and below 29 2.76 1.618 .300 2.14 3.37 1 6
19 - 29 years 43 3.65 1.926 .294 3.06 4.24 1 6
30 - 40 years 15 2.60 1.549 .400 1.74 3.46 1 6
41 and above 13 2.92 1.706 .473 1.89 3.95 1 6
Total 100 3.14 1.792 .179 2.78 3.50 1 6

The above table shows the descriptive analysis for opinion of safety online across

different age groups. It shows that there are many respondents (43) from those between

19 - 29 years than from the ones who are 41 years and above (13) and 30 - 40 years (15).

It can also be seen that those between the age group of 30 - 40 years old seemed to be

having a stronger opinion than the rest of the other age groups as the mean value for

those between 30 - 40 years old is 2.60. On the other hand, there are close mean

satisfaction values between those of 18 years and below (2.76) and those who are 41

years and above (2.92). It is expected this difference in mean value to be significant.
Therefore, statistical tests need to be done to decide whether the different age group's

opinion truly differs or whether the difference is simply due to sampling.

Table 4.17 Homogeneity of variance test on whether different age groups

differ in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust

Test of Homogeneity of Variances

opinion of safety online

Levene
Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
2.079 3 96 .108

The table above shows the results of the test of homogeneity of variances. The null

hypothesis is that the variances across all 4 age groups are equal. The test statistic for this

test is Levene Statistic. The value for the test result is associated with a significance level

of 0.108. Therefore, the variance of the dependent variables across groups is equal and a

significance level of 0.05 will be used.

Table 4.18 ANOVA table on whether different age groups differ

in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust

ANOVA

opinion of safety online

Sum of
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 20.439 3 6.813 2.198 .093
Within Groups 297.601 96 3.100
Total 318.040 99

The ANOVA table shows F values and significance levels for opinion of safety online

and the different age groups as well as the interaction between the two. As discussed

earlier, the null hypothesis is that the mean values for opinions of safety online are equal

across all age groups. Looking at the mean square values (which indicate variability), it
 can be seen that there is much more variation between groups (6.813) compared to those

within groups (3.100). This is reflected in the results of the F statistic of 2.198, which in

turn has a significance value of 0.093. Here the null hypothesis can be rejected in the case

of opinions on safety online are equal across the age groups and can be concluded that

opinions on safety online differ across the different age groups. The Post hoc test will

determine which age group differs from each other.

Table 4.19 Post hoc tests on whether different age groups differ
in terms of their opinion on online shopping trust

Multiple Comparisons

Dependent Variable: opinion of safety online Scheffe

Mean
Difference 95% Confidence Interval
(I) age (J) age (I-J) Std. Error Sig. Lower Bound Upper Bound
18 and below 19 - 29 years -.89 .423 .224 -2.10 .31
30 - 40 years .16 .560 .994 -1.43 1.75
41 and above -.16 .588 .994 -1.84 1.51
19 - 29 years 18 and below .89 .423 .224 -.31 2.10
30 - 40 years 1.05 .528 .272 -.45 2.55
41 and above .73 .557 .637 -.86 2.31
30 - 40 years 18 and below -.16 .560 .994 -1.75 1.43
19 - 29 years -1.05 .528 .272 -2.55 .45
41 and above -.32 .667 .972 -2.22 1.58
41 and above 18 and below .16 .588 .994 -1.51 1.84
19 - 29 years -.73 .557 .637 -2.31 .86
30 - 40 years .32 .667 .972 -1.58 2.22

The above table includes all possible comparisons across the 4 different age groups. (It was

included twice) In the first row, it compares age group between 18 years and below and

also 19 - 29 years old. The mean difference is -0.89.

Therefore, the null hypothesis tested in the above table is opinions on safety in shopping

online are the same across the different age group. However, with the significance value
0.5 , the null hypothesis can be rejected because the test significance value for all age

groups is more than 0.05. The age group of 30 - 40 years and 41 years and above differ

significantly in terms of opinions with the significance value of 0.994 each.

Table 4.20 Descriptive table on whether gender and ethnicity

have impact on online shopping trust
Descriptive Statistics

Dependent Variable: opinion of safety online

gender1 ethnicity Mean Std. Deviation N
female rather not to say 4.00 1.732 3
domestic british 4.00 1.922 14
caucasian/white 6.00 . 1
chinese 2.91 1.375 11
indian 3.29 2.059 7
others 2.50 1.871 6
Total 3.43 1.823 42
male rather not to say 1.50 .707 2
domestic british 2.92 1.754 13
caucasian/white 4.14 1.952 7
chinese 2.93 1.615 27
indian 1.50 .707 2
others 2.57 2.149 7
Total 2.93 1.756 58
Total rather not to say 3.00 1.871 5
domestic british 3.48 1.889 27
caucasian/white 4.38 1.923 8
chinese 2.92 1.531 38
indian 2.89 1.965 9
others 2.54 1.941 13
Total 3.14 1.792 100

The table above shows that there are 42 females of different ethnicity and 58 males who

responded to the survey done. Of the breakdown for the female group, it shows that 14

are of the domestic British ethnicity while 11 are Chinese. Likewise with the male group,

there are 27 who are Chinese while it is followed by 13 who are domestic British. The

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variances will determine whether the mean values in the

results above are statistically significant to each other.

Table 4.21 Levene’s statistic test on whether gender and ethnicity have impact
online shopping trust

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Varianceas

Dependent Variable: opinion of safety online

F df1 df2 Sig.
.913 11 88 .531
Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the
dependent variable is equal across groups.
a. Design: Intercept+GENDER1+ETHNIC+GENDER1
* ETHNIC

The test result above shows the result of significance value of 0.531. Therefore, the

variance of the dependent variables across groups is equal and a significance level of 0.05

will be used.

Table 4.22 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: opinion of safety online

Type III Sum
Source of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 45.856a 11 4.169 1.348 .212
Intercept 456.706 1 456.706 147.658 .000
GENDER1 15.869 1 15.869 5.131 .026
ETHNIC 25.914 5 5.183 1.676 .149
GENDER1 * ETHNIC 13.767 5 2.753 .890 .491
Error 272.184 88 3.093
Total 1304.000 100
Corrected Total 318.040 99
a. R Squared = .144 (Adjusted R Squared = .037)

Test result shows F values and significance levels for gender, ethnicity and opinion of

safety in shopping online as well as the interaction between the gender and ethnicity.

Here the null hypothesis can be rejected in the case of gender (F=5.131, df=1, sig. =
0.026) but not for ethnicity (F=1,676, df=5, sig. = 0.149) or the interaction between the

two (F=0.890, df=5, sig. =0.491) at the 0.05 level.

It can be concluded that the ethnicity seems to have no impact. However, gender has a

great impact on opinion of shopping online, with males having been more opinionated on

the safety of shopping online.

4.2.3.2 Discussion on whether gender and age have impact on

online trust

It can be concluded that online trust can still differ between gender and age. However,

statistical evidence conducted later on discovered that males seemed to be more

opinionated on the issue of online trust compared to females. On the other hand, there is

evidence also to determine that that age between 30 and above will have different

opinions on safety in online shopping compared to those age 30 years and below.

However, ethnicity seemed to have no direct impact in influencing online trust as there is

no evidence to link the two variables together to determine the relationship between the

two.
Table 4.23 Frequency table of online shopper’s choice of shopping style

rather shop at

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
at a recommended
38 38.0 38.0
website
unknown site, but
32 32.0 70.0
still get the product
store shopping 30 30.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0

The table above shows that most of the respondents (38%) prefer to shop at a

recommended web site. This is followed by 32% of the respondents who consider

shopping at an unknown site is better as they still can get the desired product. Lastly, only

30% of the respondents prefer store shopping.

It can then be concluded that the close proximity in results shows that the respondents

have a mixed response towards their choice of shopping style.

Table 4.24 Frequency table of the period of respondent’s period

of online shopping experience

how often shop online

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
once a week 13 13.0 13.0
several times a week 14 14.0 27.0
once a month 33 33.0 60.0
rarely 31 31.0 91.0
never 9 9.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0

As seen in the table above, the results show that 33% of the respondents shopped online

once a month. This is followed by those who rarely shopped online (31%). A total of

14% of the respondents shopped online several times a week while 13% of the
respondents' shopped online once a week. However, a total of 9% of the respondents never

shopped online at all.

In conclusion, the 33% proportion in the above results happen maybe because some

respondents do not have the time to go out and shop and also only needed to buy a few

items online. The 9% of the respondents do not shop online because feel that shopping in

person is safer.

6. Do consumer’s comfort level with the Internet, computers and online shopping

service experience still affect their decision to shop online?

Table 4.25 Frequency table of the service experience level of online shoppers

service experience level

Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent
Very pleasant 11 11.0 11.0
Somewhat pleasant 12 12.0 23.0
Neither pleasant nor
73 73.0 96.0
unpleasant
Somewhat unpleasant 3 3.0 99.0
Very unpleasant 1 1.0 100.0
Total 100 100.0

The table above shows the service experience level of online shoppers when they

purchase goods or services online. It can be noted that most of the respondents have a

neutral (neither pleasant nor unpleasant) experience towards online shopping (73%). This

is followed by 12% who feels somewhat pleasant towards the service received and 11%

who are satisfied with their experiences. However, only a small percentage (1%) who feel

very unpleasant.
Table 4.26 Descriptive statistics of the effect of age and
ethnicity on internet comfort level
Descriptive Statistics

Dependent Variable: internet comfort level

ethnicity age Mean Std. Deviation N
rather not to say 19 - 29 years 2.33 1.528 3
41 and above 2.50 .707 2
Total 2.40 1.140 5
domestic british 18 and below 1.71 .756 7
19 - 29 years 2.46 .660 13
30 - 40 years 2.00 1.000 3
41 and above 2.75 1.500 4
Total 2.26 .903 27
caucasian/white 18 and below 1.00 . 1
19 - 29 years 2.00 1.000 5
30 - 40 years 3.00 . 1
41 and above 2.00 . 1
Total 2.00 .926 8
chinese 18 and below 2.08 1.165 12
19 - 29 years 1.93 .704 15
30 - 40 years 2.14 .690 7
41 and above 2.50 .577 4
Total 2.08 .850 38
indian 18 and below 4.00 1.000 3
19 - 29 years 3.33 .577 3
30 - 40 years 1.50 .707 2
41 and above 2.00 . 1
Total 3.00 1.225 9
others 18 and below 2.67 .516 6
19 - 29 years 2.00 1.155 4
30 - 40 years 4.00 1.414 2
41 and above 2.00 . 1
Total 2.62 1.044 13
Total 18 and below 2.28 1.131 29
19 - 29 years 2.23 .868 43
30 - 40 years 2.33 1.047 15
41 and above 2.46 .877 13
Total 2.29 .967 100
Table 4.27 Levene’s statistic test of the effect of age and
ethnicity on internet comfort level

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Varianceas

Dependent Variable: internet comfort level

F df1 df2 Sig.
1.869 21 78 .025
Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the
dependent variable is equal across groups.
a. Design: Intercept+ETHNIC+AGE+ETHNIC * AGE

The test result above shows Levene's test of equality of error variances. The null

hypothesis is that the variances across the different ethnic group are equal. The test value

result shows a significance value of 0.025. Normally, the test usually operates with a 0.05

significance level and the significance level associated with this test is even smaller than

the risk that will be taken. This means that null hypothesis of equal variances can be

rejected and the variance of the dependent variables (ethnic) across groups is not equal

when a significance level of 0.05 is used.

Table 4.28 Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: internet comfort level

Type III Sum
Source of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 29.807a 21 1.419 1.763 .038
Intercept 277.840 1 277.840 345.180 .000
ETHNIC 3.660 5 .732 .910 .479
AGE .430 3 .143 .178 .911
ETHNIC * AGE 20.921 13 1.609 1.999 .032
Error 62.783 78 .805
Total 617.000 100
Corrected Total 92.590 99
a. R Squared = .322 (Adjusted R Squared = .139)

Test result shows F values and significance levels for age, ethnicity and internet comfort

level as well as the interaction between the age and ethnicity. Here the null hypothesis
can be rejected in the case of age (F=0.178, df=3, sig. = 0.911) and also ethnic (F=0.910,

df=5, sig.=0.479) but not for the interaction between the two (F=1.999, df=13, sig.

=0.032) at the 0.05 level.

Table 4.29 Descriptive statistics of the effect of age, gender

and ethnicity on satisfaction with internet skills

(Refer Appendix C)

Table 4.30 Levene’s statistics test of the effect of age,

gender and ethnicity on satisfaction with internet
skills

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Varianceas

Dependent Variable: internet skills satisfaction

F df1 df2 Sig.
1.758 36 63 .025
Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the
dependent variable is equal across groups.
a. Design:
Intercept+GENDER1+AGE+ETHNIC+GENDER1 *
AGE+GENDER1 * ETHNIC+AGE *
ETHNIC+GENDER1 * AGE * ETHNIC

The test result above shows Levene's test of equality of error variances. The null

hypothesis is that the variances across the different ethnic group are equal. The test value

result shows a significance value of 0.025. Normally, the test usually operates with a 0.05

significance level and the significance level associated with this test is even smaller than

the risk that will be taken. This means that null hypothesis of equal variances can be

rejected and the variance of the dependent variables (ethnic) across groups is not equal

when a significance level of 0.05 is used.

Table 4.31Table of analysis on test of between subjects’ effects

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: internet skills satisfaction

Type III Sum
Source of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 33.687a 36 .936 .925 .592
Intercept 216.235 1 216.235 213.848 .000
GENDER1 1.862 1 1.862 1.842 .180
AGE .337 3 .112 .111 .953
ETHNIC 8.490 5 1.698 1.679 .153
GENDER1 * AGE 1.750 3 .583 .577 .632
GENDER1 * ETHNIC .717 4 .179 .177 .949
AGE * ETHNIC 12.060 12 1.005 .994 .465
GENDER1 * AGE *
9.459 7 1.351 1.336 .248
ETHNIC
Error 63.703 63 1.011
Total 631.000 100
Corrected Total 97.390 99
a. R Squared = .346 (Adjusted R Squared = -.028)

Test result shows F values and significance levels for age, gender, ethnicity and internet

skills satisfaction level as well as the interaction between the age, gender and ethnicity.

Here the null hypothesis can be rejected in the case of age (F=0.111, df=3, sig. = 0.953),

gender (F=1.842, df=1, sig.=0.180 and also ethnic (F=1.679, df=5, sig.=0.153) but not for

the interaction between the three (F=1.336, df=7, sig. =0.248) at the 0.05 level.

Table 4.32 Descriptive statistics on whether age, gender and ethnicity

have an impact on computer usage comfort level

(Refer Appendix D)
Table 4.33 Levene’s statistics test on whether age, gender and ethnicity
have an impact on computer usage comfort level

Levene's Test of Equality of Error Varianceas

Dependent Variable: pc usage comfort level

F df1 df2 Sig.
1.728 36 63 .028
Tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the
dependent variable is equal across groups.
a. Design:
Intercept+GENDER1+AGE+ETHNIC+GENDER1 *
AGE+GENDER1 * ETHNIC+AGE *
ETHNIC+GENDER1 * AGE * ETHNIC

The test result above shows Levene's test of equality of error variances. The null

hypothesis is that the variances across the different ethnic group are equal. The test value

result shows a significance value of 0.028. Normally, the test usually operates with a 0.05

significance level and the significance level associated with this test is even smaller than

the risk that will be taken. This means that null hypothesis of equal variances can be

rejected and the variance of the dependent variables (ethnic) across groups is not equal

when a significance level of 0.05 is used.

Table 4.34 Table of analysis test of between subjects’ effects

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: pc usage comfort level

Type III Sum
Source of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Corrected Model 37.840a 36 1.051 1.267 .203
Intercept 227.260 1 227.260 273.913 .000
GENDER1 .154 1 .154 .185 .668
AGE 9.136 3 3.045 3.670 .017
ETHNIC 4.020 5 .804 .969 .444
GENDER1 * AGE 6.425 3 2.142 2.581 .061
GENDER1 * ETHNIC .534 4 .134 .161 .957
AGE * ETHNIC 6.086 12 .507 .611 .825
GENDER1 * AGE *
6.776 7 .968 1.167 .335
ETHNIC
Error 52.270 63 .830
Total 561.000 100
Corrected Total 90.110 99
a. R Squared = .420 (Adjusted R Squared = .088)

Test result shows F values and significance levels for gender, age, ethnicity and pc usage

comfort level as well as the interaction between the gender, age and ethnicity. Here the

null hypothesis can be rejected in the case of gender (F=0.185, df=1, sig. = 0.668),

ethnicity (F=0.969, df=5, sig. = 0.444) and also the interaction between the three

variables (F=1.167, df=7, sig. =0.0.335) but not age (F=3.670, df=3, sig.=0.017) at the

0.05 level.

4.2.3.3 Discussion on whether age, gender, ethnicity have impact

on the Internet, computer and online shopping experience
of the online shopper

In conclusion, shoppers generally do not feel uneasy or have any discomfort in shopping

online regardless of the different service experiences they have or heard.

Age and ethnicity seems to have no direct impact on the Internet comfort level of the

online shopper. However, there is evidence to prove that both variables seemed impact on

each other as reflected by the F statistics result on a shopper’s Internet comfort level.

On the other hand, when it comes to determine Internet skills satisfaction level, the

variables of age, gender and ethnicity seemed to be having a relatively high impact on a

shopper’s Internet skills satisfaction level.

Nevertheless, age seemed to play an important role when it comes to computer usage

comfort level. However, there is no evidence to associate all three variables (age, gender

and ethnic) together even though the F statistic result proves to be quite high with a 1.167

F-value.

4.2.4 Studies comparison

In this section, the researcher shall describe the comparison of the study to previous

studies and will seek to illustrate the distinction and similarities of the research conducted

in a table format. The breakdown of studies description shall be divided according to the

variables as discussed in theoretical framework developed in chapter two.

Variable Similarities Differences
Prior experience in This study is similar to the It is difference with a few
shopping online works of Brown et. al prior studies like Bhatnagar
(2001), Cyr et. al (2005) et. al (2000), Doolin et. al
Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky (2005) and Gupta et. al
(1999) to a certain extent (2003) as the study only
where prior experience and concentrated on consumer’s
also trust in online shopping prior experience in
is a common denominator shopping online and also
in anticipating consumer the trust in technological
online shopping trust. development.
Convenience This is similar to the However, the difference for
research done by Brown et. this study compared to
al (2001) where in spite of Brown et. al (2001) is that,
widespread belief that the authors put more
consumers generally shop emphasis on discovering the
online for convenience, but impact of shopping
the findings for the overall orientation that influence
objectives comparison of online shopping.
both studies discovered that
convenience is not the main
criteria for online shopping.
Availability of product The information for product However, in the case of this
information information is similar in thestudy at present, the author
studies of Elliot and Speck chooses to look at the
(2005) where better product perspective of the comfort
information, would ability of the online
encourage a better online shoppers (and non online
shopping trust. shoppers) on the adoption
level of the Internet and the
computer.
Culture Just like in the work of The difference of this study
Jarvenpaa and Todd (1999), is that, culture does not
Cyr et. al (2005), this study seem to have any major
objective also take the work impact in developing online
of Hofstede (1994) as a shopping trust. Other
background framework. factors derived are deemed
to be more important
compared to culture.
Table 4.35 Summary table of how this study is similar and different compared to
previous research works
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Introduction

This is the final chapter of the dissertation. The early part of this chapter concludes the

whole study and detailed interpretations on the results of the findings in Chapter Four.

The conclusions discussed in this chapter will provide insights to the objectives

accordingly. At the end of this chapter, useful recommendations will be provided to

compliment the objectives of the whole study. This research was intended to discover

factors which influence online shopping. Moreover, another aim of this study was to

discover the influence of national cultures in affecting the perception towards online

shopping as well. In order to address this management research problem, a few research

questions were set to be analyzed using statistical tests.

5.2 Conclusion

This study initially started off with the sample size of 120 of students from the

community of the University of Nottingham and eventually only a total of 100 were

received. Among these samples, 58% were male respondents while the remaining 42%

are female respondents. As of this study, it was found out that gender would influence the

choice most popular online shopping website, but not the period of experience they (the

respondents) have used the Internet. The findings also showed that males would be more

likely to shop online compared to females. It is difficult to determine the effect of online
trust through other forms of demographic variables, like income or educational levels of

the respondents as majority of them (the respondents) chose to not disclose their earnings

for the purpose of the study. In the context of educational level, there is lack of statistical

analysis due to the disproportion of respondents’ educational level to represent the entire

community. Additionally, primary language analysis was conducted to ensure that the

studied subjects can comprehend any computer and Internet language used for the

purpose of the research.

On the other hand, gender, age and ethnicity prove to be the three important demographic

aspects that assist in determining the relationship between all antecedents of online trust.

Even though inferential statistics results proved otherwise for two different kinds of

questions, gender seemed to be an important determiner for the choice of most popular

online shopping website, but not the experience of having shop online before.

Conversely, the study did not find strong age influence in determining the Internet

experience of the respective respondents.

As discussed in literature review, most of the respondents would shop online for the

convenience online shopping provides. For them, shopping online also means that there

are no additional tax charges that needed to be paid for. In spite of convenience still being

the main reason for consumers to shop online, there are still a large number of

respondents who prefer traditional shopping knowing that they will still have some in

store purchasing disadvantage as well as some real life issues on Internet marketing such as

credit card frauds and misusing of public information. It is important to note that in the
area of cultural influences, it was discovered that culture does not play an important role

in influencing online trust. Culture may have higher and better influence in other context of

the study, namely if done with a bigger sample size as well as a larger target sampling, but

not within the position of this research.

In spite of the contrast in result, gender and age still plays an important role in arbitrating

online trust with consumers. The study shows that the older generation still tends to be

having main concerns in the issues of online trust within the computer mediated

environment compared to the younger Net generation. Gender wise, males seemed to be

more opinionated compared to females unlike as discussed in the study done by

Bhatnagar et. al (2000). Furthermore, it can be added that most respondents would prefer

to shop at a recommended website due to reliability and trust. Despite there is a majority

of respondents who shop online, analysis results discovered that most of them only do

online shopping once a month. This can happened because maybe the individuals would

only shop for minor stuff such as books and CDs unlike commonly depicted as grocery or

making electronic and electrical purchases. Moreover, with most of the respondents

besides those who wished to not disclose their income have only allowances either from

home country or temporary job earnings which totaled up to below £ 500. This would not

allow them to make excessive purchases from online.

The study also attempts to establish a relationship between age, gender and ethnicity of

the online shopper with the individual’s experience and adoption level of computer and

the Internet. Here, it can be concluded that the three variables only have an impact on
Internet skills satisfaction level compared to Internet and computer usage comfort level.

However, it has been discovered that age seemed to play a relative important role in

understanding the computer usage comfort level of the individual.

5.3 Recommendations

As with any other kinds of study, recommendations will be derived to justify and explain

the whole research purpose. At the same time, it is hoped that the few recommendations

derived can be applicable to the online merchants to enable them to market their

‘marketspace’ more effectively and employ effective marketing communications

techniques in the future.

First and foremost, it was found out that gender do influence the choice of online

shopping website. Therefore, online merchants are recommended to further investigate to

determine what actually incur the trend. By doing a proper big scale market survey would

be best as it can help to understand and find out the criteria of the real reason of online

shopping among genders. The reasons revealed from the survey would definitely help to

improve and assist marketers to understand better the needs and wants through a clearer

statistical breakdown of both genders.

Marketers could also try and understand better why older generation does not favor

online shopping as much as the younger generation. Even though age group do not have a

significant influence on popular online shopping website choice, it is important for

marketers to attract more customers plus maintaining the current customers because the

younger generation would eventually grow up and grow out of their online shopping

choice and taste. Marketers can always increase their target market by differentiate as

well as customize the service quality provided through their online shop to untapped

markets – that is the older generation customers.

Understanding of the specific needs of the customers is also important as the marketers

must always make sure that online service performance is up to standard. Besides, they

should also realize and emphasize the specified performance required by their customers

to the organization. Customer loyalty should also be emphasized as the main priority

within everyone in the organization. An improvement internally can then ensure proper

satisfaction of the consumer’s needs and wants. Moreover, the consumers can then be

educated and maybe even converted from existing customers to long term clients just like

in traditional marketing practices.

It was discovered that respondents from the lower income group would shop lesser

compared to those with higher income. Most of those with lower income are younger

generation group and being the net generation, they will view online shopping as a form

of leisure or only for channel surfing on the latest entertainment trends or news.

Therefore, marketers must try and change this mindset by introducing new outlook,

simpler, educational, informative and entertaining legal access towards reliable shopping

sites for the younger consumers. At the same time, this may change the perspective of the
older generation and maybe even consumer advocate groups’ impression on online

shopping.

Next, the popularity of an online shopping website does play an important role for the

online shopping environment. Amazon is viewed as the most common online shopping

website probably because of its brand name as well as its reliability in sales and services.

For that reason, other online shopping website companies should improve their

positioning in the customer’s minds because if this goes on, they could probably lose out

the main competitor within the industry. Other companies’ websites may differ in terms

of products and services, but generally they operate in the same way, that is to sell out

their product and services through a different medium, that is online. In addition to that,

online merchants must also know that they are in a service based industry, regardless of

the products they sell. Therefore, providing the best quality, service, being reliable

creating the personal touch would be very important to attract and maintain customers.

The market is always a company’s best customers. Customers also want to know that the

company they buy from even though not in person are doing good as well in business and

in industry. Therefore, letting them know about the way the company operates, its

philosophy, philanthropy and community service would then establish the connection,

and maybe even generating the much needed trust. Customers do compare the services

provided no matter what and from there, the word – of – mouth could spread easily and it

could either improve or tarnish the image of the company.

Just as Hoffman et. al (1999) puts it, “Moving consumers to the purchase click is proving

to be difficult, despite the impressive recent growth in online shopping”. It is undeniable

that trust would always be a consumer’s main issue when it comes to click shopping with

the Internet, let it be traditional shopping. Regardless on whichever field of study,

marketing has always been implemented with the philosophy of putting customers first.

Academic literature works such as Houston (1986) would put it as a form of marketing

concept, while Kohli and Jarworski (1990) would describe it as a form of marketing

orientation.

Therefore, the point to note here is, even in the field of Internet marketing, the concept of

‘putting customers first’ still exists. Even though the exchange relationship (Bagozzi,

1975), may not occur just like traditional marketing, but there the relationship between

the online merchant and the cyberconsumer (Hoffman et. al, 1999) still counts. To

implement a successful relationship with the consumer would require successful

integration and adaptation from internal stakeholders, before attempting to acquire as

well as retaining the existing customers for long term.

In conclusion, to keep customers happy and satisfied is never easy. However, keeping them

happy is the smartest way for a company, regardless of whether it is online or not is the

smartest way to grow a business, be it locally or internationally. Even though the empirical

analysis of this study may not project big scale results to determine the effect of culture on

online trust, it has supported the concept of online shopping trust as discussed in the

beginning of the research that while understanding the general consumer behavior
through different ways might be necessary to ensure customer retention, trust is still an

important paradigm to keeping the universal customers of the web to continue shopping

online.

5.4 Limitations of the study

Like any other studies, this study also does not proceed without certain limitations.

Several limitations occurred during the course of the research period. Firstly, the scope of

study is only limited within the customer aspect. Moreover, it is also the preferred choice

of in target population sample because of the researcher’s interest in reviewing and

measuring consumer’s perception of trust from a cross cultural validation which is visible

in the international community contained within the University of Nottingham.

Secondly, the selection on choice of variables to study was based on generalization of the

literature reviewed. Different results may occur if other extra variables like for example

price was included.

Thirdly, the procedures used may cause some bias in results because there was no role-

play (Cooper and Schindler, 2003), participant observation (Van Maanen, 1991), street

ethnography (Russell, 2005) and most importantly expert interviewing (Beck, 2002)

techniques applied to conduct the research. The research outcome might have been

slightly different if these methods are added in. Fourthly, it is important to point out that

certain information derived from questionnaire development was also based on the

researcher’s country of origin effect context. The researcher experienced some slight
ethnocentrism on subject coherence when it comes to analysis of the overall literature and

also questionnaire development. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that this kind of study is

easily replicated in other countries research with larger scope of study, finances and even

research methods (Mukherjee and Nath, 2003).

References

Barney, J. (1991) “Firm Resources and Sustainable Competitive Advantage”, Journal of

Management, (17: 1), pp 99-120.

Bart, Y.; Shankar, V.; Sultan, F. and Urban, G.L. (2005), “Are the drivers and role of
online trust the same for all website consumers? A large scale exploratory empirical
study”, Journal of Marketing, (69), pp 133 – 152.

Black, N.J.; Lockett, A.; Ennew, C.; Winklhofer, H.; McKechnie, S. (2002), “Modelling
consumer choice of distribution channels: an illustration from financial services”,
International Journal of Bank Marketing, (20:4), pp 161 – 173.

Beck, J. (2002), “Practitioner perspectives – Qualitative research and the Data protection
act 1998’, Qualitative market research: An international journal, (5:1), pp78 – 79.

Bellman, S., Lohse, G.L., Johnson, E.J. (1999), “Predictors of online Buying behavior”,
Communications of the ACM, (42:12), pp. 32-38.

Bhatnagar, A., Misra, S., Rao, H.R., (2000), “On Risk, Convenience, and Internet
Shopping Behavior”, Communications of the ACM, (43: 11), pp. 98-105.

Brown, M.; Pope, N.; Voges, K. (2003), “Buying or Browsing? An exploration of

shopping orientations and online purchase intention”, European Journal of
Marketing, (37:11/12), pp 1666 – 1684.

Calder, B. J. (1977), “Focus group and the nature of qualitative research”, Journal of
Marketing Research, (14), pp 353 – 364.

Cassell, C. and Symon, G. (2005) “Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in

Organizational Research”, UK, Sage Publications.

Chaffey, D.; Mayer, R.; Johnston, K.; Ellis – Chadwick, F. (2003), “Internet Marketing”,
2nd edition, Essex, England, Pearson Education limited.

Cheung, C.M.K. and Lee, M.K.O. (2006), “Understanding Consumer Trust in Internet
Shopping: A multidisciplinary Approach”, Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, (57:4), pp 479 – 492.

Cogswell, J. (2005), “To the checkout without going out”, Marketing Week (UK), (28:1),
pp. 26-27.

Cooper, D.R. and Schindler, P.S. (2003), “Business Research Method”, 8 th edition,
Singapore, McGraw Hill.
Cyr, D.; Bonanni, C.; Bowes, J.; Ilsever, J. (2005), “Beyond Trust, Web site design
preference across cultures”, Journal of Global Information Management, (13:4),
pp 25 – 54.

Doolin, B. (2005), “Perceived Risk, the Internet Shopping experience and online
Purchasing Behavior, A New Zealand Perspective”, Journal of Global
Information Management, (13:2), pp. 66–88.

Dholakia, U.M. and Rego, L.L. (1998) “What makes commercial web pages popular?”
European Journal of Marketing, (32:7/8), pp 724 – 737.

Dholakia, R.R., Chiang, K.P., (2003), “Shoppers in Cyberspace: Are They From Venus
or Mars and Does It Matter?”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, (13:1/2),
pp.171- 177.

Dubois, B. (2000), “Understanding the Consumer”, Pearson, Harlow.

Duffy, D. L. (2005), “Affiliate marketing and its impact on e – commerce”, Journal of

Consumer Marketing, (22:3), pp 161 – 163.

Earl, P.E. and Kemp, S. (eds.)(2002), “The Elgar Companion to Consumer Research and
Economic Psyhology”, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, UK.

Eastlick, M.A. and Liu, M. (1997), “The Influence of Store Attitudes and other nonstore
shopping patterns on patronage of television programs”, Journal of Direct
Marketing, (11:3), pp 14 – 24.

Elliott, M.T. and Speck, P.S. (2005), “Factors that affect attitude toward a retail web
site”, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, (13:1), pp 40-51.

Fern, E.F. (1982), “The Use of Focus Groups for Idea Generation: The Effects of Group
Size, Acquaintanceship, and Moderator on Response Quantity and Quality”,
Journal of Marketing Research, (19:1), pp 1 – 13.

Firat, F.A. (1991), “The Consumer in Postmodernity”, Advances in Consumer Research

(18), pp 70 – 76.

Friedlos, D. (2006) “Web Rage Turns Shoppers Back to the Street”, E Commerce Times,
[online](cited on 13th July 2006). Available from: URL:
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/51627.html

Forsythe, S.M. and Shi, B. (2003), “Consumer patronage and risk perceptions in Internet
shopping”, Journal of Business Research, (56), pp 867 – 875.

Gefen, D.; Karahana, E. and Straub, D.W. (2003), “Trust and TAM in online shopping:
an Integrated Model”, MIS Quarterly, (27:1), pp 51 – 90.
Gehrt, K.C.; Yale, .L.J. and Lawson, D.A. (1996) “The convenience of catalog shopping:
is there more to it than time?” Journal of Direct Marketing, (10:4), pp 49 – 69 as
seen in: Brown, M.; Pope, N.; Voges, K. (2003), “Buying or Browsing? An
exploration of shopping orientations and online purchase intention”, European
Journal of Marketing, (37:11/12), pp 1669.

Gephart, R.P. (2004), “Qualitative research and the academy of management Journal”,
Academy of Management Journal, (47:4), pp 454 – 462.

Gounaris, S. and Dimitriadis, S. (2003), “Assessing service quality on the web: evidence
from Business to Consumer portal”, Journal of Services Marketing, (17:4/5), pp
529 – 546.

Greenway, C. (2004) “Brits Avoid Online Shopping, Some with irrational Fear”, Internet
Marketing News, [online](cited on 11th July 2006). Available from: URL:
http://www.boostmarketing.com/Brits-Avoid-Online-Shopping_p38.html

Gupta, A., Su, B.C., Walter, Z.P. (2003), “Risk profile and consumer shopping behavior
in electronic and traditional channel”, Decision Support Systems, (38:3), p347-
367.

Haeckel, S.H. (1998), “About the nature and future of Interactive Marketing”, Journal of
Interactive Marketing, (12:1), pp 63 – 71.

Hibbert, S. and Smith, A. (2002), “Consumer Behavior”, International Encyclopedia of

Business and Management, Thomson, London.

Hoffman, D.L, Novak, T.P., and Peralta, M.A. (1997) “Information Privacy in
Marketspace: Implications for Commercial uses of anonymity on the Web”, [online]
(cited 31st July 2006). Available from: URL:
http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/papers/anonymity/anonymity2_nov10.htm

Hoffman, D.L, Novak, T.P., and Peralta, M.A. (1999), “Building consumer trust online”,
Communications of the ACM, (42:4), pp 80 – 85.

Hofstede, G. (1980), “Culture Consequences”, Sage, London.

Hofstede, G. (1994), “The Business of International business is culture”, International

Business Review, (3:1), pp 1 – 14.

Holbrook, M.B. and Hirshman, E.C. (1982), “The Experiential Aspects of Consumption:
Consumer Fantasies, Feeling and Fun”, Journal of Consumer Research, (9), pp.
132 – 140.

Hofstede, G. (1980) as seen in Ess, C., and Sudweeks, F. (2005) “Culture and computer-
mediated communication: Toward new understandings”, Journal of Computer-
 Mediated Communication, (11:1), [online](cited on 11th July 2006). Available
from: URL: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/ess.html

Houston, F.S. (1986), “The Marketing Concept: What it is and what it is not”, Journal of
Marketing, (50:2), pp 81-87.

IMRG (2006) “Web sales to rise 20% in 2006 (23/05/2006)”, IMRG, [online](cited on
11th July 2006). Available from: URL: http://www.imrg.org/ItemDetail.aspx?
clg=News&cid=nws&pid=News_Forrester&l anguage=en-GB

Jarvenpaa, S.L. and Tractinsky, N. (1999), “Consumer Trust in an Internet Store: a cross
cultural validation”, Journal of Computer – Mediated Communication, (5:2)
[online] (cited on 7th June 2006). Available from: URL:
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol5/issue2/jarvenpaa.html

Jevons, C. and Gabbott, M. (2000), “Trust, brand equity and brand reality in Internet
Business relationships: an interdisciplinary approach”, Journal of Marketing
Management, (16), pp 619 – 634.

Joergensen, J.L. and Blythe, J. (2003), “A guide to a more effective World Wide Web
presence”, Journal of Marketing Communications, (9), pp 45 – 58.

Joines, J.L., Scherer, C.W., Scheufele, D.A. (2003), “Exploring motivations for consumer
web use and their implications for e-commerce”, The Journal of Consumer
Marketing, (20:2/3), pp 90 – 105.

Kau, A.K., Tang, Y.E. and Ghose, S. (2003), “Typology of online shoppers”, Journal of
Consumer Marketing, (20:2/3), pp 139 – 156.

Keilor, B.D.; Hult, G. Tomas, M.(1999), “A five-country study of national identity”,

International Marketing Review, (16:1), pp 65 – 82.

Kerem, K. (2005), “Adoption of electronic banking: underlying consumer behavior and

critical success factors”, PhD conference papers for Tallinn Technical University,
[online](cited on 31st July 2006). Available from: URL:
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/EMTEL/Conference/papers/Kerem.pdf

Kohli, A.K. and Jaworskil, B.J. (1990), “Market Orientation: The Construct, Research
Propositions and Managerial Implications”, Journal of Marketing, (54:4), pp 81 –
87.

Kotler, P. (2003), “Marketing Management”, 11th edition, Upper Saddle River – New
Jersey, Prentice Hall – Pearson Education, Inc.

Lee, M.K.O and Turban, E. (2001), “A Trust model in Internet Shopping”, International
Journal of Electronic Commerce, (6:1), pp 75 – 91.
Levitt, T. (1960), “Marketing Myopia”, Harvard Business Review, pp 138-149.

Lim, .K.H.; Leung, K.; Sia, C.L. and Lee, M.K.O. (2002), “Is ecommerce boundary –
less? Effects of individualism – collectivism and uncertainty avoidance on Internet
shopping”, Journal of International Business Studies, (35:6), pp 545 – 559.

Littrel, R.F. and Valetin, L.N. (2005), “Preferred leadership behaviours: exploratory
results from Romania, Germany, and the UK”, Journal of Management
Development, (24:5), pp 421 – 442.

Malhotra, N.K. (2004) Marketing Research, an applied orientation, 4th ed, Pearson
Education Ltd, U.S.

Metzger, M.J. (2004), “Privacy, Trust and Disclosure: Exploring Barriers to Electronic
Commerce”, Journal of Computer – mediated Communication, (9:4), [online](cited
on 7th June 2006). Available from: URL:
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol9/issue4/metzger.html

McCole, P. (2004) “Marketing is not dead: A response to Elegy on the death of

marketing”, European Journal of Marketing, (38:11/12), pp 1349 – 1354.

Mukherjee, A. and Nath, P. (2003), “A model of trust in online relationship banking”,

The International Journal of Bank Marketing, (21:1), pp 5 – 15.

Muniz, A.M. and O’Guinn, T.C. (2001), “Brand Community”, Journal of Consumer
Research, (27:3), pp 412 – 432.

Nicovich, S. and Cornwell, T.B. (1998), “An Internet Culture: Implications for
Marketing”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, (12:4), pp 22 – 33.

Phelps, J.E.; D’Souza, G.; Novak, G.J. (2001), “Antecedents and consequences of
Consumer Privacy concerns”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, (15:4); pp 2 – 17.

Quinn, C. (1999), “How leading – Edge companies are marketing, selling and fulfilling
over the Internet”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, (13:4), pp 39 – 50.

Reynolds, J. (2001), “Report review: Future shock or E hype?: The impact of online
shopping on UK retail property, College of Estate management, University of
Reading for the British council of Shopping centres”, European Retail Digest, (31),
pp 53.

Russell, L. (2005), ‘It’s a question of trust: balancing the relationship between students
and teachers in ethnographic fieldwork’, Qualitative Research, (5:2), pp 181 – 199.
Roznowski, J.L. (2003) “A content analysis of mass media policies surrounding the
consumer privacy issues 1990 – 2001”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, (17:2), pp
52 – 69.
Samiee, S. (1998), “The Internet and International marketing: is there a fit?” Journal of
Interactive Marketing, (12:4), pp 5 – 21.

Schlosser, A.E.; White, T.B.; Lloyd, S.M. (2006), “Converting website visitors into
buyers: How website investment increases consumer trusting beliefs and online
purchase intentions”, Journal of Marketing, (70), pp 133 – 148.

Schimmack, U.; Oishi, S.; Diener, E. (2005), “Individualism: A Valid and Important
Dimension of Cultural Differences Between Nations”, Personality & Social
Psychology Review, (9:1), pp 17 – 31.

Sheehan, K.B. (1999), “An investigation of gender differences in online privacy concerns
and resultant behaviors”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, (13:4), pp 24 – 38.

Sheth, J.N., “An integrative theory of patronage preference and behavior”. In: Darden,
W.R., Lusch, R.F., editors (1983), “Patronage behavior and retail management”.
Orlando (FL): Elsevier. p. 9 – 28. Cited in: Bhatnagar, A. and Ghose, S. (2004),
“Segmenting consumers based on the benefits and risks of Internet shopping”,
Journal of Business Research, (57), pp. 1352 – 1360.

Shiu, E.C.C. and Dawson, J.A. (2004), “Comparing the impacts of Internet technology
and national culture on online usage and purchase from a four – country
perspective”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer services, (11), pp 385 – 394.

Silverman, D. (2000), “Doing qualitative research – a practical handbook”, London,

Sage.

Sorce, P., Perotti, V., Widrick, S. (2005), “Attitude and age difference in online buying”,
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, (33:2), p122-132.

Spann, M. and Tellis, G.J. (2006), “Does the internet promote better consumer decisions?
The case of name your own price auctions”, Journal of Marketing (70:1), pp 65 –
78.

Usunier, J.C. (2000), “Marketing across cultures”, 3 rd edition, Prentice Hall, pp 56 – 76.

Van Maanen, J. (1991), ‘The smile factory: Work at Disneyland’, in P.J. Frost, L.F.
Moore, M.R. Louis, C.C. Lundberg and J. Martin (Eds), Refraining organizational
culture, 58 – 76, Newbury Prk, CA: Sage.

Weber, L.R. and Carter, A. (1998), “On constructing trust: temporality, self - disclosure
and perspective taking”, Journal of Sociology and social policy, (18:1), pp 7 – 26.
Appendix

Appendix A: Focus group interview questions

Focus group

1. Do you shop online?

a) If so, which category? Bedding, etc….
b) What are your favourite online shopping websites?
c) After listing them down, do you buy goods/services from the site(s) you have
listed above?

2. What is your opinion on online shopping?

a) What store(s) are great, and what is the worst in service and billing?

3. What do you think are the effect of online shopping on a traditional shop?

4. Do you think whether there are any similarities between online and traditional shopping?

5. Are there any advantages on online shopping?

6. Is there any disadvantage on online shopping?

7. Do you think whether there is any difference between the online shopping behaviour of
men and women?

8. Do you think whether there is difference of online shopping attitudes among cultures?

9. When you think about online shopping security, would branding come into mind?

10. Have you ever had any bad online shopping experiences? If so, please share your
experience and explain what you did to resolve it.

11. How can online shopping increase their credibility in consumer's minds?

12. Online shopping vs. traditional shopping? If given a choice, which would, you choose? Why?
Appendix B: Final Questionnaire Copy

Questionnaire

“Cultural effect on online shopping trust”

I am a MA Postgraduate student in Marketing of Nottingham University Business School at the University
of Nottingham. I am required to do a research study in partial fulfillment of my Marketing Dissertation
course.

The overall purpose of this project is to identify the different perception of online shopping trust among
those of the international population. The information gained from you would be of private and confidential
matter. You can rest assured that the information will not be disclosed to any unreliable third parties as it is
for academic purposes. It is hoped that this study may provide academics and practitioner alike with a
better understanding of the researched topic.

The questionnaire consists of 22 questions and has two sections. This questionnaire may take you about 10
- 15 minutes to complete. Please take your time to answer the questions.

Thank you for your kind co – operation. I hope that you will find the questionnaire easy to comprehend.
Your honest opinion would be greatly appreciated so as to ensure the accuracy of this study.

Please contact the researcher at the following lixwcy1@nottingham.ac.uk or wchin.yeong@yahoo.co.uk if

you have any query about the research. You can contact me by this number: 08700122948 should you need
to speak to me directly regarding any questions in answering the questionnaire. Thank you very much

SECTION A: Respondent’s demographic profile

1. Gender

◻Female ◻ Male

2. Age

◻18 and below ◻ 30 – 40 years

◻19 - 29 years ◻ 41 and above

3. Annual income (working respondents)/ allowances (non working respondents)

◻Rather not to say ◻ £1501 – £ 2000

◻ £ 500 and below ◻ £ 2001 – £ 3000
◻ £ 501 – £ 1000 ◻ £3001 and above
◻£ 1001 – £ 1500

4. Although this is a sensitive question, the answer can help the researcher to understand
the needs of current web users. It is not intended to offend. How would you classify
yourself?

◻Rather not say ◻ Chinese, please specify

◻Domestic British ◻ Indian, please specify
◻Caucasian/White, please specify ◻ Others, please specify
5. What is your primary language (i.e., the one you speak most of the time)?

◻English ◻ Hindi
◻Japanese ◻ Spanish
◻Hebrew ◻ Chinese
◻Swedish ◻ French
◻German ◻ Other

6. Please indicate the highest level of education completed

◻Grammar School ◻ Master’s Degree (MS)

◻High School or equivalent ◻ Doctoral Degree (PhD)
◻Vocational/Technical School (2 year) ◻ Professional Degree (MD, JD, etc.)
◻ Some College ◻ Other

7. How long have you been using the Internet (including using e-mail, gopher, ftp, etc.)?

◻Less than 6 months

◻6 to 12 months
◻1 to 3 years
◻4 to 6 years
◻7 years or more

SECTION B: Please tick in whichever box applies

a) Most popular online website

8. “I shop online”
1 2 3 4 5 6

Not so often Often

9. Based on the answer given in question 9, have you shopped online before?

◻Yes ◻ No

10. Relying on what you have seen, heard, and experienced, please rank the following
online websites according to their reliability. Place a "1" next to the brand site that is
most reliable, a "2" next to the brand site that is next most reliable, and so on.
Remember, no two websites can have the same ranking.

( ) www.amazon.com
( ) www.tesco.com
( ) www.argos.co.uk
( ) www.pcworld.co.uk
( ) www.midlandmainline.com
( ) Others
b) Factors influencing online shopping

Trust

11. On what grounds do you base your opinion about the safety of shopping online?

◻ Lack of close quality examination on product purchase (especially

electronic products, groceries and clothes)
◻Trusting your credit card information to the online company
◻Bad shipment services (if ordered from overseas sites)
◻Cannot get desired product (or service) that you wanted
◻Can shop at your convenience, do not need to worry on parking space and
save time
◻A ‘phishing’ scam, where a company mimics another reputable site to steal
your personal information through online

12. Would you rather be

◻Shopping at a recommended website brand

◻Shopping at a unknown website brand, but at the same time you still can get
the product (or service that you wanted)
◻Shop at the store, easier and safer even though you will still have to pay
for petrol money

13. In your opinion, what is the single most critical issue facing the Internet?

◻Finding things/navigating around

◻Speed/bandwidth
◻Government regulation
◻Equal access for all
◻Pornography
◻Internet crime (e.g. hatecrimes, stalking)
◻Paying for online services or information
◻Censorship
◻Privacy
◻Other

Convenience

14. How frequent do you shop online?

◻Once a week
◻Several times a week
◻Once a month
◻Rarely
◻Never

15. Based on the answer given above, why do you do so?

◻Quick and convenient

◻Good value to buy online (through promotions, available only online products/services)
◻Do no have time to go out and shop
◻Cheaper to buy certain types of goods online (example: electronic gadgets, books)
◻More product variety selection, can get the types that are not available in
your home country (example: music CDs, movies, electronic gadgets)
◻No tax charges if shop online
◻Know how to use the computer, but do not know how to shop online
◻Prefer to shop for product in person (and with cash)
◻ Only prefer to browse the items online, feels it’s cheaper to drive to the store than
paying for shipping prices
◻Others

16. How many transactions have you made with this Internet retailer over the
past 12 months?

◻1 ◻5
◻2 ◻6
◻3 ◻7
◻4 ◻ other

Availability of product information

17. How comfortable do you feel using the Internet?

◻Very comfortable
◻Somewhat comfortable
◻Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable
◻Somewhat uncomfortable
◻Very uncomfortable

18. How satisfied are you with your current skills for using the Internet?

◻Very satisfied - I can do everything that I want to do

◻Somewhat satisfied - I can do most things I want to do
◻Neither satisfied nor unsatisfied
◻Somewhat unsatisfied - I can’t do many things I would like to do
◻Very unsatisfied - I can’t do most things I would like to do

19. How comfortable do you feel using computers, in general?

◻ Very comfortable
◻Somewhat comfortable
◻Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable
◻Somewhat uncomfortable
◻Very uncomfortable

20. Which of the following best describe your experience purchasing a product or service
through an online website? Would you say that your experience was:

◻Very pleasant
◻Somewhat pleasant
◻Neither pleasant nor unpleasant
◻Somewhat unpleasant
◻Very unpleasant
Thank you for your time
Appendix C: Univariate Analysis of Variance on whether age, gender and
ethnicity of online shopper or interaction between them have impact on
satisfaction with Internet skills – Descriptive statistic table
Descriptive Statistics

Dependent Variable: internet skills satisfaction

gender1 age ethnicity Mean Std. Deviation N
female 18 and below domestic british 1.80 .837 5
chinese 2.00 1.414 2
indian 3.00 1.000 3
others 3.00 1.000 3
Total 2.38 1.044 13
19 - 29 years rather not to say 2.00 .000 2
domestic british 2.33 .816 6
chinese 2.67 1.211 6
indian 2.00 .000 2
others 1.50 .707 2
Total 2.28 .895 18
30 - 40 years domestic british 3.00 . 1
chinese 4.00 1.414 2
indian 1.00 . 1
others 2.00 . 1
Total 2.80 1.483 5
41 and above rather not to say 2.00 . 1
domestic british 4.00 1.414 2
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 3.00 . 1
indian 2.00 . 1
Total 2.83 1.169 6
Total rather not to say 2.00 .000 3
domestic british 2.43 1.089 14
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 2.82 1.250 11
indian 2.29 .951 7
others 2.33 1.033 6
Total 2.45 1.041 42
male 18 and below domestic british 2.50 .707 2
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 2.40 1.075 10
others 1.67 .577 3
Total 2.25 .931 16
19 - 29 years rather not to say 2.00 . 1
domestic british 2.43 1.272 7
caucasian/white 2.60 1.342 5
chinese 1.89 .782 9
indian 1.00 . 1
others 2.50 .707 2
Total 2.20 1.041 25
30 - 40 years domestic british 2.00 .000 2
caucasian/white 1.00 . 1
chinese 2.60 1.140 5
indian 1.00 . 1
others 3.00 . 1
Total 2.20 1.033 10
41 and above rather not to say 1.00 . 1
domestic british 2.00 .000 2
chinese 2.33 .577 3
others 3.00 . 1
Total 2.14 .690 7
Total rather not to say 1.50 .707 2
domestic british 2.31 .947 13
caucasian/white 2.29 1.254 7
chinese 2.26 .944 27
indian 1.00 .000 2
others 2.29 .756 7
Total 2.21 .951 58
Total 18 and below domestic british 2.00 .816 7
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 2.33 1.073 12
indian 3.00 1.000 3
others 2.33 1.033 6
Total 2.31 .967 29
19 - 29 years rather not to say 2.00 .000 3
domestic british 2.38 1.044 13
caucasian/white 2.60 1.342 5
chinese 2.20 1.014 15
indian 1.67 .577 3
others 2.00 .816 4
Total 2.23 .972 43
30 - 40 years domestic british 2.33 .577 3
caucasian/white 1.00 . 1
chinese 3.00 1.291 7
indian 1.00 .000 2
others 2.50 .707 2
Total 2.40 1.183 15
41 and above rather not to say 1.50 .707 2
domestic british 3.00 1.414 4
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 2.50 .577 4
indian 2.00 . 1
others 3.00 . 1
Total 2.46 .967 13
Total rather not to say 1.80 .447 5
domestic british 2.37 1.006 27
caucasian/white 2.25 1.165 8
chinese 2.42 1.056 38
indian 2.00 1.000 9
others 2.31 .855 13
Total 2.31 .992 100
Appendix D: Univariate Analysis of Variance on whether age, gender and ethnicity
of online shopper or interaction between them have impact on computer usage
comfort level – Descriptive statistic table
Descriptive Statistics

Dependent Variable: pc usage comfort level

gender1 age ethnicity Mean Std. Deviation N
female 18 and below domestic british 1.80 .837 5
chinese 2.50 .707 2
indian 1.33 .577 3
others 3.00 1.000 3
Total 2.08 .954 13
19 - 29 years rather not to say 1.50 .707 2
domestic british 2.50 1.049 6
chinese 2.00 .632 6
indian 1.50 .707 2
others 2.00 .000 2
Total 2.06 .802 18
30 - 40 years domestic british 4.00 . 1
chinese 4.00 1.414 2
indian 3.00 . 1
others 3.00 . 1
Total 3.60 .894 5
41 and above rather not to say 1.00 . 1
domestic british 1.50 .707 2
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 1.00 . 1
indian 2.00 . 1
Total 1.50 .548 6
Total rather not to say 1.33 .577 3
domestic british 2.21 1.051 14
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 2.36 1.120 11
indian 1.71 .756 7
others 2.67 .816 6
Total 2.17 .986 42
male 18 and below domestic british 3.50 .707 2
caucasian/white 3.00 . 1
chinese 2.50 1.269 10
others 2.00 .000 3
Total 2.56 1.094 16
19 - 29 years rather not to say 1.00 . 1
domestic british 2.43 .976 7
caucasian/white 1.40 .548 5
chinese 1.89 1.054 9
indian 1.00 . 1
others 3.00 1.414 2
Total 1.96 1.020 25
30 - 40 years domestic british 2.50 .707 2
caucasian/white 3.00 . 1
chinese 2.00 .000 5
indian 2.00 . 1
others 2.00 . 1
Total 2.20 .422 10
41 and above rather not to say 2.00 . 1
domestic british 2.00 1.414 2
chinese 2.00 .000 3
others 2.00 . 1
Total 2.00 .577 7
Total rather not to say 1.50 .707 2
domestic british 2.54 .967 13
caucasian/white 1.86 .900 7
chinese 2.15 .989 27
indian 1.50 .707 2
others 2.29 .756 7
Total 2.17 .939 58
Total 18 and below domestic british 2.29 1.113 7
caucasian/white 3.00 . 1
chinese 2.50 1.168 12
indian 1.33 .577 3
others 2.50 .837 6
Total 2.34 1.045 29
19 - 29 years rather not to say 1.33 .577 3
domestic british 2.46 .967 13
caucasian/white 1.40 .548 5
chinese 1.93 .884 15
indian 1.33 .577 3
others 2.50 1.000 4
Total 2.00 .926 43
30 - 40 years domestic british 3.00 1.000 3
caucasian/white 3.00 . 1
chinese 2.57 1.134 7
indian 2.50 .707 2
others 2.50 .707 2
Total 2.67 .900 15
41 and above rather not to say 1.50 .707 2
domestic british 1.75 .957 4
caucasian/white 2.00 . 1
chinese 1.75 .500 4
indian 2.00 . 1
others 2.00 . 1
Total 1.77 .599 13
Total rather not to say 1.40 .548 5
domestic british 2.37 1.006 27
caucasian/white 1.88 .835 8
chinese 2.21 1.018 38
indian 1.67 .707 9
others 2.46 .776 13
Total 2.17 .954 100