Abstract
Despite the internationalization of e‐commerce, it is our contention that national cultures still play an important role in affecting online customers' behaviours. Nevertheless, few researchers have studied the impact of national cultures on e‐commerce. To fill this gap, this paper explores the role that culture plays with respect to consumers' acceptance of e‐commerce in Italy.Using a previous model as a foundation on our work, we study the effect of culture on perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust and intention to use of e‐commerce in Italy. Moreover, by employing Hofstede's cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long‐term orientation) as moderators, our empirical results show that power distance and individualism affect significantly the relationship between trust and intention to use e‐commerce in Italy. Contrary to expectations masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long‐term orientation have no significant effect on the diffusing of e‐commerce. Lastly, a comparison with a similar study carried out in China provides a further support of our results and underlines the influence of national cultures on e‐commerce acceptance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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