UNDERSTANDING E-COMMERCE ADOPTION BY ETHNIC MINORITY CONSUMERS: THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CULTURE CONTACT

Abstract

The literature provides strong evidence to suggest that e-commerce adoption is subject to the effect of culture. In this stream, researchers adopting Hofstede’s framework (1980) conceptualise culture at the aggregate level, and thus they assume country’s cultural homogeneity. Yet, the argument emerges that this view does not seem to be appropriate anymore, as every country having its unique mix of ethnic groups portrays cultural diversity (Cleveland and Laroche, 2007). Research exploring the adoption of e-commerce by ethnic minority consumers however, is scare (Lacka and Yip, 2018). Considering growing migration levels, and particularly intra-European migration as well as the increase of ethnic consumers internet use (Kizgin et al, 2018), the investigation of migrants’ attitudes and behavioural intentions to adopt e-commerce as well as factors affecting adoption decision are important research topics for researchers, practitioners and policy makers. Although technology adoption has been extensively researched, previous studies on e-commerce adoption suffer from two limitations, which this study aims to address. First, most research on e-commerce adoption considers consumers to be a homogeneous group. Yet, within group differences exist, and they have an impact on e-commerce adoption decision. So far however, only a handful of studies explored the role of consumers’ individual characteristics on behavioural intentions to adopt e-commerce (e.g. Hasan 2010). Second, although the effect of culture on e-commerce adoption has been extensively studied, the simultaneous impact of various cultural influences migrants are subject to has not been examined. To address these research gaps, this research aim is to assess the role of individual characteristics in e-commence adoption and to reveal the impact of contact with heritage and host cultures on ethnic minority consumers’ attitudes towards behavioural intentions to adopt e-commerce.