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1. Introduction:
In the early fifties, the project RAND was introduced which aided the
researchers to contact from one place to the other. Then it was in 1960
when computers were used for commercial applications. Bank of America
was the first too use it for commercial purpose. The main notion of
internet was designed by APRANET, which was formed by the United
States Department of Defence and was regarded as the worlds first
operational package switching network. In 1970 the APRANET developed
the Network control protocol. In late 1970s and 80s businesses extended
their computing power by sending and receiving information electronically
via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). Thereby, eliminated paperwork and
human intervention. (E-Commerce Guides Ask the Experts, 1998).
Todays reformation of EDI is through internet to reduce the cost of
networking by eliminating old systems private network and by expanding
reach to include more businesses in supply chain. After that in 1984 ASC
X 12 standards established a means of transferring data whose
misutilisation leads to popularity of e-commerce.
But e-commerce relating to shopping was only open since 1991 when
internet was opened to commercial use. And since then, the power of
buying products online has been a gift to the customers. The origin of
Napster helped in gaining more popularity in the field of e-commerce. The
next giant leap was the incident of merging between AOL and Time
Warner. This was a major hit and it was referred to as the E-age. The
companies were thinking of various innovative ways to reach nearest tothe customers, so that the customers feel safe in transacting through
online. But suddenly the hackers attack to the most popular sites like
yahoo, msn, eBay, and Amazon etc, slightly discouraged the customers
from holding online transfers. Initially the e-commerce market was a
monopolistic market since statistics say tat the companies concerned with
these business sold 80% routers and 90% of web browsers but this figure
showed a drastic downfall from 160 to 14 especially in the US market. It
was seen that the Asia and Pacific accounted for a 46% of the total online
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subscribers in the whole world. In the later half of the report, we will
discuss about the scope of ecommerce in the Indian, Srilankan, or
Pakistan market and the detailed of it in the statistical form. Till 1997, in
India, internet was introduced to channelize between the government
agencies and various departments with the only purpose of education and
research.
In the late periods of 1995, the VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited)
was emerged which acted as the ISP (Internet service Provider) in all the
four metros in India. It expanded its reach to 100 cities in India with Dial-
up services. Though India has a base of 8,00,000 in 2004, the major
concern was the amount that had been sold in that base. This figure gave
an actual realistic shape after a survey report was published citing the
various category of users and calculated percentage mentioned along with
it and it was seen that a mere 21 million used internets once in a month.
The internet usage stats and telecommunication research showed that
22% of Indians use internet for jobsearch, 14% for banking, and 42% of
the active users use it for emails and IM. Besides this a small figure of 7%
use it for matrimony search, and 7%in stock trading.
The IT development in Pakistan emerged in the year 2000 but the main
purpose for this introduction was mainly facilitating the government in
their work. The common people used internet for information only. None
of the monitory transaction was possible then. The e-merchants handled
their accounts State Bank of Pakistan. Hence the Pakistan government
thought of relocating US $10 billion between the years 2005-2006. In
2005, the figures were about 2.1 million internet subscribers with an
average of 10million users. The main Internet Service Provider (ISP) was
SNDP in the year 1996 yet the largest one was PakNet. The status of e-
commerce in Pakistan is much undeveloped. People have limited usage of
debit cards and Plastic money, very limited online banking, still on the
verge of facilitating e-payments and utility bills. Due to the very low
telephone line penetration, the availability of broad band connection was
quite low.
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Starting with Ajzen and Fishbeins Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in
1967, where they for the first time introduced Attitude, Subjective Norm
and Behavioural Intention at the same platform. The main point of
introducing this theory was to find out the factors affecting the
Behavioural Intentions of a person. The factors they pointed were Attitude
and Subjective Norm.
But there was still a missing link. They found out it to be the Perceived
Behavioural Control. They also found that there is a common sub factor
affecting these three factors. And that is belief. They disintegrated beliefs
into three types (Behavioural Beliefs, Normative Belief and Control Beliefs)
and associated each with the three factors, Attitude, Subjective Norm and
Perceived Behavioural Control. On this basis they formed a new theory in
1988, The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB).
Just a year later in 1999 came Fred Davis, with his theory, The
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This was a very competent model
but focussed mainly on the Behavioural Intention only a part of the TRA.
But he neglected the other part that is the Subjective Norm. As the name
suggests, he focussed mainly on the Technological aspects associated with
the Transaction Intentions. He proposed few factors which affected the
Behavioural Attitude. The Main three sub factors affecting Attitude
towards using were Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and
External Factors. Still this model wont suffice the purpose of this research
as it doesnt include the cultural traits.
Then came Venkatesh with his model Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use
of Technology (UTAUT) 2003. This theory stands on mainly four functions
which are considered as direct determinants for the usage of behaviour viz.
a) performance expectancy
b) effort expectancy
c) social influence
d) Facilitating conditions.
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The following points are these which mediate the impact of these four key
which construct on differentiation and behaviour such as follows:
Gender, age, usage, and voluntaries of usage.
But all of them did lack something. And that is the effect of Cultural Traits.
Pavlou and Chai (2002) came up with a conceptual model where they
included three of the cultural traits proposed by Hofstede. Hofstedes Cultural
Model (1994), proposed five main traits and they were, Power Distance,
Long-Term vs. Short Term Orientation, Individualism/Collectivism, Femininity
vs. Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance. In order to devise a model
inculcating the earlier theories with culture, it was necessary to improvise
them within themselves. The idea is simple, if trust can affect the transaction
intentions (online), why cant Social Influence? Even it might be possible that
the Collectivism can affect Social Influence. So, the need to set a stage for all
these factors to come together had become very important. Since, the
research question in itself is trying to correlate culture with technology
selecting a single trait could be insufficient. At the same time focusing more
on a single cultural trait (out of five as proposed by Hofstede) could find more
and detailed correlations with the other vital factors affecting technology.
Being defined the requirements and the dimensional boundaries of this
research; the quest for such a model was extensive. One way of doing it
in a focused way could be to pick up one of the cultural traits of Hofstede
and mapping (Correlating) it with the other functional variables proposed
by Pavlou and Chai. Pavlou and Chais proposed model contained
Collectivism vs. Individualism, Power Distance and Long vs. Short Term
Orientation. This research will only focus on one of them and that is,
Collectivism vs. Individualism. So, in other words, this research will
propose a model focusing on one of the cultural traits proposed by
Hofstede and will try to correlate it with the previous conventional
theories.
The primary research will undergo a questionnaire where the answerswould reveal the correlations. Another way of cross checking the
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correlations could be searched in the theories of Cognitive Psychology. A
very exciting work done in this ground is done by Rapaille. He tries to
associate a code which he calls as culture code to every thing. This piece
of research will also try to imitate the underlying point. And that is, the
real answers lie in the subconscious mind. An interview will reveal
answers from the subconscious mind by asking for giving quick and
prompt answers so that the answers come from the subconscious mind
only.
Another relevant question might arise that If the Psychology of the
Students from Indian Subcontinents would change then, how would they
try to induce their thoughts or trust in their family members about
transacting online? This is one of the research objectives of this research.
One of the questions in the questionnaire will deal with this objective.
All the answers would be weighed and evaluated on an ordinal scale
through SPSS.
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Since then, the potential of internet has reached to such extent that,
today it is probably one of the strongest media we ever had. The increase
in its utility has grown many folds giving rise to multiple environment
system on the internet. A wide variety of applications are available now.
Be it a simple e-mail, chat, or information gathering, it serves a several
millions of people everyday. One of its traits which are growing its
popularity very fast is shopping on the internet. We sometimes call it e-
Commerce. Although e-Commerce in itself has many sub environments
such as Shopping grocery, clothes or electronic goods or online bank
transactions. This research paper will deal with the question of change in
the psychology of Indian Subcontinent Students studying here and its
effects on their family in their countries about e-shopping only.
The history of e-Commerce started in 1968, when for the first time the E-
Commerce started with a basic EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) format
which enabled the business men to interchange data between one another
and perform a kind of B2B transaction. Although the format was too basic
as was the idea but still, it was only the beginning. Todays world
experience a very new and efficient format but still, Kerry Stackpole (CEO,
Data Interchange Standard Association) considers EDI to be a sort of
invisible technology and is really at the core of most productivity
improvements of the last half of the century. (Wiseman J; 22nd August,
2000)
In 1984, ASC X 12 standards established itself as a reliable means of
transferring data with a larger potential. But unfortunately the over
utilisation of this standard increased the e-traffic which in turn increased
the popularity of e-commerce.
In 1994, the search for a more user friendly and point to click browser
interface ended with the evolvement of a Mosaic browser called Netscape.
This was more user friendly with options to download and point and click
devices. The downloadable features of this new browser made it
immensely popular among the audience because it was very simple and
they did not need any computer programmer to download software. Thisrevolution might be considered as a great point of achievement for the E-
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commerce history as this technology burp gave the common people the
power to go online and experience different applications and spread their
wings by trying new things online. This was a great step towards the B2C
transactions.
It was in May 1998, when SBS Communications for the first time in
California extended their DSL cables to ADSL (Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line) and gave them the experience of trying a 50 times faster
bandwidth than what they were using (28.8 kbps). (Wiseman J; 22nd
August, 2000)
Another major step towards the popularity of E-commerce was the
evolution of Napster in 1999, which allowed the audience to download
music files for free. This led a greater audience towards E-Commerce
since this increased the curiosity and generosity to go online and
download their favourite things.
Another big leap towards the road to success was the Merger between
AOL (America Online) and Time Warner in 2000. The entertainment giant
merged with a new electronic media giant with a base of 24 million
customers at that time. This is a very good example of foresightedness
Time Warner had that time. They got the pulse of the future and recon
that it is E-age and the only way to grow is by adopting the technology to
improve quality and customer reach.
All these events were proving to be good for encouraging people to
transact online which was growing every day but, on 7th February 2000
the mass attack on the e-commerce giants such as Yahoo, e-Bay and
Amazon by the hackers set the common man into confusion whether it
was safe at all to transact online or not. This was a major setback to this
growing trade.
It was seen that the whole Industry is almost under Monopoly or at least
under huge Oligopolistic pressure. In a development report published in2001 in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in
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2.1 Development of e-Commerce in Indian Subcontinent:
2.1.1 Development of e-Commerce in India:
Country Profile:
India is a very big country having a large area of around 3,287,590 sq.
km. in Southern Asia bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. It
is a very heavily populated country of about 1,129,866, 154 person. The
literacy rate is as high as 61%. (CIA Fact Book) [Online] Available from:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
The history of internet in India started with an initial approach from a
division of Department of Electronics and Department of Statistics called
as ERNet and NICNet. While ERNet (Education and Research Network) was
basically responsible for providing Internet services to the Education and
Research Institutes, NICNet was dealing with connecting Government
departments and agencies. In the year 1993, the director of ERNet Dr. S.
Ramakrishnan developed a command based user Interface which did not
used the TCP-IP network Protocols. This was called SHELL. It again
developed to UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Programme) which was because
the connection reliability was still poor.
For the first time in 1996, the whole system was upgraded to a nationwide
V-SAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) which was the first satellite based
digital communication system in INDIA. Although the speed was only
2400 BPS initially but within a year the speed was increased by 64 KBPS
V-SAT links.
The main focus of introducing internet in INDIA till 1997 was to
communicate between Government Agencies and Departments and for the
purpose of Education and Research. The main point to observe here is the
common people in the country was still not aware of all this techno-
revolution going on as they never felt its use to them. Since ERNet and
NICNet were under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) whichwas run by the Government of INDIA, they had to rely on the Government
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policies. This could be considered as a mean of restriction in spite of being
the first ISPs of INDIA. (Ghosh A; 1998)
The advent of VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited.) in the late 1995 as
an ISP was a huge hope, since it was providing internet services to STPI
(Software Technology Parks of INDIA) by launching the GATEWAY
INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE. But it was also acting under the DoT
(indirectly the Govt. of INDIA) which gave him the licence to go public
only in four Metro Cities. The charter with the DoT was only to provide
International Telecom Gateways but not the end-user services. That
means a common man still was starving for Internet.
In a press release in the year 2004 VSNL stated that it has extended its
reach of Dial-Up internet connection services to 100 cities in INDIA. The
starter packs costing between Rs.100 to Rs. 3,000 depending upon the
needs and internet hours. This may imply that the concept of high speed
broadband was still missing even at that point of time. Being the main ISP
of INDIA VSNL has a customer base of over 8,00,000 in 2004 alone. But
the main lookout is how many of them buy its internet services and up to
what extent. (VSNL; August 17, 2004, Press Release, VSNL Extends
Reach of Dial-Up Internet Service to Over 100 Cities,
http://www.vsnl.in/vsnlnews/PR_Dial-up_Internet_17-08-04.pdf)
In a summary report published in 2006 by IMRB International and IAMAI
it was revealed that the active users using internet was just over 21
million. The definition set by the board for Active User is someone who
has used the internet at least once in the last one month. A survey was
conducted including 16,500 households, 1000 business houses and 250
cyber caf owners across 28 major metropolitan cities in INDIA. Being so
huge and broad in its nature it is being considered as one of its kind. They
revealed a data of people connecting internet and suggested that it looks
like a funnel to get the real users.
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FIGURE-1 THE INTERNET USERS FUNNEL
Urban Popula tion - 243 mill ion
Literate Population - 203 million
English Knowing - 77 million
PC Literate - 59 million
Ever User 32 million
Active User-
21 million
Internet in India-2006; Summary Report of I-Cube 2006, p.8
It was observed that only 55% of the PC literate people have experienced
the Internet. The development in internet users was shown in a graph in
the summit.
FIGURE-2 PERCENTAGE OF ACTIVE INTERNET USERS
Internet in India-2006; Summary Report of I-Cube 2006, p.9
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An interesting fact was also this that the percentage of people owning PCs
and have internet as well is increasing.
FIGURE-3 PERCENTAGE OF PC OWNERS HAVING INTERNET
Internet in India-2006; Summary Report of I-Cube 2006, p.14
Although the Cyber Cafs are still dominating as the access points for
Internet, Home usage is not far behind. The graph shown below clearly
demonstrates that the use of cyber cafes have decreased from 43% to
39% in just 6 years. Although looking at the number of years it might look
weak but, the home usage increased from 22% in 2000 to 31% in 2006.
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FIGURE-4 GROWTH OF ACCESS POINTS OF INTERNET USAGE
43%
30%
22%
5%0%
44%
19%
30%
4%3%
52%
20%
23%
3%2%
46%
20%
27%
5%2%
39%
22%
31%
6%2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2000 2001 2003 2004 2006
Access Points for Interne
Cyber Caf Office Home School/College Others
Adopted from Internet in India-2006; Summary Report of I-Cube 2006
The committee recognised six main demographics that use the internet.
FIGURE-5 SIX DEMOGRAPHICS USING INTERNET IN INDIA
Internet Usage Demographically
Young Men
28%
School Kids
14%Working Women
9%
College Students
23%
Older Men
17%
Non-Working
Women
9%
Adopted from Internet in India-2006; Summary Report of I-Cube 2006
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The age of each component of the Demography was also explained as:
Young Men Less than 35 years
School Kids 12-17 years
Working Women- 18-45 years
College Students- 18-23 years
Older Men 35-58 years
Non-Working Women - More than 45 years.
The main inference that can be drawn here is the major contributor to the
internet usage is the Young Men and the College Students. Which can be
explained as the college students needs Internet for education, training
and communicate to their friend circles etc. The Young Men use Internet
mostly in the office for business purposes and for communicating each
other.
The 2.6 million Internet users in INDIA still rely on Dial-Up connection as
compared to Broadband connections. Only 23% of the 2.6 million internet
using population uses Broadband. Looking at the Development in India
alone in the last ten years in not very impressive, still the picture is
growing better. An argument can be drawn that the picture is looking
bright in future days to come, but still the main problem lies somewhere
else. At this age of technology favouring world, the neighbourhood is
becoming small. That is the world is getting smaller place to
communicate. The globalisation (both in terms of Business Resources and
Communication) is huge and getting bigger every day. So the main
problem becomes the growth rate. May it be e-Commerce or Economy,
Career or Architecture, the question lies in how quick it is going to grow
big as others. The data given by the Internet World Stats this year can
throw some light on the issue.
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Table: 1 Internet Usage and Population Statistics, India
YEAR Users Population % Pen. Usage Source
1998 1,400,000 1,094,870,677 0.1 % ITU
1999 2,800,000 1,094,870,677 0.3 % ITU
2000 5,500,000 1,094,870,677 0.5 % ITU2001 7,000,000 1,094,870,677 0.7 % ITU
2002 16,500,000 1,094,870,677 1.6 % ITU
2003 22,500,000 1,094,870,677 2.1 % ITU
2004 39,200,000 1,094,870,677 3.6 % C.I. Almanac
2005 50,600,000 1,112,225,812 4.5 % C.I. Almanac
2006 40,000,000 1,112,225,812 3.6 % IAMAI
2007 42,000,000 1,129,667,528 3.7 % IWS
Internet Usage Stats and Telecommunications Market Report. [Online
www.internetworldstats.com]
In a report published by IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India)
in February, 2006 they mention the internet activities done by the Indians
as,
FIGURE-6 INTERNET ACTIVITIES BY INDIANS
Internet Activities by Indians
e-Mail & IM 42%
Job Search 22%
Banking 14%
Bill Payment 8%
Stock Trading 7%
Matrimony Search
7%
Internet Usage Stats and Telecommunications Market Report. [Online
www.internetworldstats.com]
Now, it would be better to summarise the development of e-Commerce by
dividing it into 3 phases:
a) Introductory Phase- Early 90s
b) Early Growth Phase- Mid 90sc) Growth Phase - Till Now
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FIGURE-7 GROWTH OF INTERNET USAGE SNAPSHOT
Information
search, Gaming,
Chat and E -mail,
E-Commerce
E-mail, Chatting,
Information
Search
E-mail,
Notifications
Applications
used
Multi -LingualEnglishEnglishInterface
Language
Branded Chains
of Cafe
Home Access
Cyber Caf
Limited Home
Access
Dial -UpsAccess Points
Smaller TownsSmall MetrosTop 8 MetrosTarget Segment
HighAverageLowAffordability
AdequateAverageLimitedAvailability
GrowthPhase
EarlyGrowth
Phase
IntroductionPhase
Parameters
Author Generated
2.1.2 Development of e-Commerce in Pakistan:
Pakistan is a small country in the Southern Asia bordering the Arabian
Sea. It has a coastline of around thousand km along the Arabian Sea. As
per World-Gazetteer the population of this country in 2007 was
167,806,831. GNI per capita was US$ 2,628 in 2006 as per World Bank.
The literacy rate is about 50% The inflation rate is one of the biggest
threats to the economy. The growth rate in the GDP was observed to be
6.6% as compared to last year.(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/pk.html)
A somewhat clear picture can be obtained by looking at the statistics
provide by internetworldstats.com about the population, internet users
and the percentage penetration.
TABLE-2 INTERNET USERS vs. POPULATION IN PAKISTAN
YEAR Users Population % Pen. GDP p.c.* Usage Source
2000 133,900 163,985,373 0.1 % N/A ITU
2006 12,000,000 167,806,831 7.2 % US$ 690 ITU
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http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/pk.htm
By looking at the above table it is evident that Pakistan being a smaller
country in the Indian Subcontinent the situation is even worse. The Govt.
started IT and Internet initiatives in early 2000 but still the main e-
infrastructure was to facilitate the Govt. agencies to communicate in an
easy way. The interfaces used by common man are to gather information
and not monitory transaction. One of the main monitory transactions that
happen till now is the foreign remittance to some banks. The e-merchant
accounts used by e-vendors were under State Bank of Pakistan till
2001.The poor usage of e-Commerce in Pakistan can be facilitated by the
poor IT and Communication Infrastructure. The Govt. decided to relocate
US $10 billion during the year 2005/2006. (The Economist Intelligence
Unit, 1st Nov 2006; Overview of e-commerce in Pakistan,
http://globaltechforum.eiu.com/index.asp?
layout=rich_story&doc_id=9616&title=Overview+of+e-
commerce+in+Pakistan&categoryid=30&channelid=4
As per the Govt. survey in 2005 there were about 2.1 million internet
subscribers and 10 million internet users by June 2005. In the beginning
of1993 the main ISP was SNDP (Sustainable Development Networking
Programme). The Govt. first allowed the licence to private owners in
1996. The largest ISP is PakNet.
In the same report a comparison of Pakistan vis--vis world relating the
internet usage and its capacity by means of ICT Infrastructure measure
and Human Capital measure was given.
FIGURE-8 INTERNET USAGE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
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(Khushnood B, 2002; Initiatives for eCommerce Capacity-Building of
SMEs, http://www.unescap.org/tid/publication/part_three2261_pak.pdf)
FIGURE-9 ICT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
(Khushnood B, 2002; Initiatives for eCommerce Capacity-Building of
SMEs, http://www.unescap.org/tid/publication/part_three2261_pak.pdf)
Status of e-Commerce till 2001 in Pakistan a snapshot:
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Limited usage of Debit Cards and Plastic Money.
Still facilitating e-Payments and utility bills.
Limited online banking due to non-availability of digital signatures.
None of the Connection Authority available.
No B2B e-Commerce infrastructure available.
(Khushnood B, 2002); [Online] Available from:
http://www.unescap.org/tid/publication/part_three2261_pak.pdf)
The fixed line penetration is just about 4% which is about 6.4 million
telephone lines, less than what was targeted (10 million). Since the
telepenetration is still so low, broadband is also experiencing negligible
growth.
(2007 Telecom, Mobile and Broadband in Asia Report. Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka). [Online] Available
from: http://www.budde.com.au/publications/annual/asia/afghanistan-
bangladesh-maldives-pakistan-sri-lanka-summary.html)
2.1.3 Development of e-Commerce in Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka is a very small country located at about 31 km. off the Southern
coast of India. Being a link between the West and South-East Asia the
place is renowned for its Buddhist and Hindu culture. The approximate
land area is about 65,610 sq. km. with a population of 19,796,874 in
2007 (World-Gazetteer). As per the data of World Bank the GNI per capita
in 2006 was US$ 1,310. The main language is Sinhalese and Tamil. Only
10% of the population speaks English. In the last 10 years the GDP
growth was just 4.5 %. There are about 2.087 million Telephone lines in
use accounting for 4,26,000 Internet Users. (CIA Fact Book) [Online]
Available from:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html
In a report published by Sri Lanka Business Development centre reveals
that, about 80% of the SMEs use internet for business. As a matter offact, this rate has grown in the last three years since, 63% out of 67
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companies are using it for the last three years. It was found out that 75%
of the employees use internet for less than an hour in a day even after
having facilities to be online. This shows the disbelief of Internet as a tool
for growing business. The light of hope is that, about 46% of the SMEs
communicate daily with their customers through e-mails. Most of the
connections being popular today are Dial-Ups still. The survey showed
that ISDN lines are way far behind the competition.
FIGURE-10 PERCENTAGE OF DIAL UPS vs. ISDN IN SRI-LANKA
Types of Connection
Dial Up
66%
ISDN
9%
Leased Line
24%
Cable
1%
(SLBDC, June 2002; Survey on E-Commerce Implementation in the SME
Sector of Sri-Lanka,
http://www.asiafoundation.org/pdf/SMEsurvey_srilanka.pdf)
This data infers that the SMEs are not considering the Internet at least as
a tool to sell things, since it requires more bandwidth and dedicated
broadband lines to serve the internet traffic.
The most prominent hint to the e-commerce development there would be
the answer to the question that, why do the companies have their own
websites (only 51%)? The most popular answer (93%) was to promote
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their company to the potential customers. None of the answers depicted
Sell goods over the internet.
(SLBDC, June 2002; Survey on E-Commerce Implementation in the SME
Sector of Sri-Lanka,
http://www.asiafoundation.org/pdf/SMEsurvey_srilanka.pdf)
With a total of 80 SMEs in the survey only 12.5% have ever sold their
goods on internet. The most popular method of transaction is Debit/Credit
Cards. And out of these SMEs only 30% sells 21-30% of their overall
sales volume through internet.
About 30% of the Internet availing community places order online. This is
in accordance with the previous data of the sales revenue.
TABLE-3 INTERNET USERS vs. POPULATION IN SRI-LANKA
YEAR Users Population % Pen. GDP p.c.*Usage
Source
2000 121,500 19,630,230 0.5 % N/A ITU
2007 428,000 19,796,874 2.2 % US$ 1,310 ITU
(SLBDC, June 2002; Survey on E-Commerce Implementation in the SMESector of Sri-Lanka,
http://www.asiafoundation.org/pdf/SMEsurvey_srilanka.pdf)
After Looking at the E-Commerce development scenarios of each of
countries of the subcontinent it is evident that the pace required to keep
themselves updated to the recent world I clearly missing. It might be
because of the Psychology of the consumers. Hence, it would be a noble
try to find out how the Psychology of the Indian Subcontinent Students
have changed and might affect the behaviour of their family members
towards e-Commerce?
To study the Psychology of these subjects there would come many
theories but, to start with the basic one should be appropriate. That is the
Hofstedes Theory of Cultural Dependency.
2.2 The Culture Dependency:
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Apart from the different models suggested by different researchers to
relate Psychology and behaviour, there is still something left to be
understood. And that is culture. Although a part of it can be included in
the subjective norm and social experience but looking at it as an
independent factor can give the whole theory a new meaning. It is already
known that Human Behaviour is highly influenced by culture. Between
many theories Hofstedes models (1997) is a popular one. He focused
basically upon patterns of thinking, feeling and acting of customers. As
per him Culture is always a collective phenomenon, because it is al least
partly shared with people who live within the same social environment.
Although the early sociologists like Bourdieu thinks culture as the
collective programming of mind which distinguishes the members of one
group or category of people from another (Bourdieu, 1980; pp. 88-89)
1. Power distance: is one of the dimensions of national cultures, which
reflects the range of answers found in the various countries to the
basic question of how to handle the fact that the people are unequal.
In other words it is the extent by which the less powerful members of
organizations or a family accept that power is distributed unequally.
Hofstede also calculated a Power Distance Index for each country by
his famous IBM survey.
2. Individualism: is a quality present in every individual to a certain
extent. Many people live in societies and sometimes the interest of the
individual prevail over the interest of the group. That is why in some
societies the ties between people are loose eg; Nuclear Family. Most of
the people in UK dont live with their parents after a certain age. There
the Individualism Index (II) of the Societies is considered to be low.
Countries like India where people still believes in Joint Family have a
high II score.
3) Masculinity: is the distribution of roles between a male and a female.
This is the gender index in the culture tree. As per their respective
natures the assertive and competitive poles are called as Masculineand the modest poles are called as Feminine.
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4) Uncertainty: is the environments tolerance level for any uncertainty. It
is the level to which a certain group of people belonging to any society
can bear to any unstructured ambiguity. The level of un-comfortibility
is a measure of this index.
5) Long Term and short Term Orientation: are the two virtues by which
one can get to know the values of a society. The value associated with
the Long-Term orientation was Thrift and Perseverance whereas for
Short Term it was respect for Tradition and Fulfilling social obligations.
This theory by Hofstede was a very important reference to understand the
relationship between culture and its dependency. Although there are other
factors as well which affect the behaviour of a person.
2.3 Theory of Reasoned Action:
There were many theories which tried to find out the real psychology of a
customer to transact. Theories such as Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory
of Planned Behaviour, Technology Acceptance Model and United Theory of
Acceptance and Use of Technology have tried independent approaches to
justify the reason of the behaviours done by the customers. The earlystones were laid by Ajzen and Fishbein (1967) by introducing the Theory
of Reasoned Action.
This theory states that a persons behaviour is determined by their
attitude toward the outcome of that behaviour and by the opinions of the
persons social environment. They suggested that behaviour is driven by
behavioural intentions where behavioural intentions were a function of an
individuals approach/attitude towards the behaviour and subjective
norms surrounding the performance of behaviour.
Now while going into the theories of human psychology of buying or even
behaving some terms must be understood well. Terms such as Subjective
Norms, Attitude etc. should be understood well in order to get the real
meaning of these theories.
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Attitude has been defined by many researchers in different lights. But in
a more generalised way it can be defined as the feelings of an individual
(be it positive or negative) associated with the performance of the
behaviour. It is believed that there are certain beliefs responsible for the
attitude and the results of the attitude being evaluated from the sum of
the individual consequence x desirability assessments for all expected
consequences of the behaviour.
Subjective Norm was first introduced by Ajzen and Fishbein (1967) in
their first model the TRA. This was basically an individual's perception of
whether people important to the individual think the behaviour should be
performed. Hence, overall subjective norm can be expressed as the sum
of the individual perception x motivation assessments for all relevant
referents.
Algebraically TRA can be described as
B I = (Aact) w1 + (SN) w2
Where,
B = Behaviour,
I = Intention,
Aact = Attitude towards the behaviour,
SN = Influence of the persons Subjective Norms
Diagrammatically, this can be represented as
FIGURE-11 TRA
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Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behaviour:
An introduction to theory and research. Reading, Mass.; Don Mills,
Ontario: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
In this theory the intention plays a key role in predicting someones
behaviour. Although the factors that determine the Behavioural Intentions
are Subjective Norms and Attitude towards the Behaviour. The main
limitation of this theory was no observation was used from a different
perspective but only self reported is counted as a factor for deciding the
results. It might be possible in some cases that the answers might be
framed or distorted by some compulsions. Also, the behaviour done un-
consciously is not taken into account.
2.4 Introduction of TPB:
Understanding this problem Ajzen and Fishbein (1988) further extended
their research and landed up with the Theory of Planned Behaviour in
1988. This time the model was almost the same but with the inclusion of
the sub-factors affecting the factors towards the intention to behave and a
new factor called Perceived Behavioural Control. Ajzens intention was to
capture motivational factors that influence the behaviour. (Ajzen 1991,
pp. 181)
FIGURE-12 THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR
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Adopted from http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen/tpb.diag.html
The changes in TPB from TRA are shown by the shaded area in the figure.
The sub-factors influencing the factors were clearly identified in this
model. Hence, this model was more prepared to deal with the current
world scenarios and more importantly a clear guideline was given to
implement the model to decide the reason of doing a particular behaviour.
As per the Theory of Planned Behaviour, human action is controlled by
three types of considerations which are categorised as:
a) Behavioural beliefs (beliefs about likely consequences of the
behaviour).
b) Normative beliefs (beliefs about normative expectations of others).
c) Control beliefs (beliefs regarding presence of factors which
facilitates or impede behavioural performance).
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Behavioural Beliefs are the beliefs about the probable consequences of
the most likely behaviour. It might be considered as the probable result of
the final behaviour and influences the Attitude towards Behaviour.
Attitude Towards a Behaviour is basically the degree to which the
performance of the behaviour is valued as a Positive or Negative
behaviour. This is directly proportional to the strength of the belief and
evaluation of the outcome of the behaviour.
A bjej
Where,
A= Attitude.
b=Strength of each belief.
e= Evaluation of the outcome of the behaviour.
Normative Beliefs are the beliefs whichrefer to the perceived behavioural
expectations of such important referent individuals/groups such as Friends,
Relatives etc. In this paper the normative belief could be the belief of the
subjects (Indian Subcontinent Students in U.K) that since they have found
the advantages of e-Commerce, their family and friends back in their country
could also become interested towards it.
Subjective Norm is the apparent communal obligation to decide engage
or not to engage in the behaviour. In this case it is the opportunity and
adventurous experience (for those who have not done this in their
country) to indulge in purchasing online. Lack of time here can also be
considered as a Subjective Norm in this case. This can be calculated as,
SN njmj
Where,
SN= Subjective Norm.
n = Normative Belief.
m= Motivation to Comply.
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Control Beliefs are the perceived beliefs whose presence may assist or
impede performance of behaviour.
Perceived Behavioural Control is the perception of an individual about
his ability to perform a given set of behaviour. It is of two types the first is
about self-efficacy and the second is the conditions that provide the
resources to engage in a behaviour. (Triandis, 1979) This can be
calculated as,
PBC cjpj
Where,
PBC = Perceived Behavioural Control.
c = Control Belief.
p = perceived Power.
Intention is the readiness of an individual to perform a given behaviour
and is considered to be an immediate antecedent of behaviour.
Behaviour is the manifest, observable response in a given situation with
respect to a given target.
Although researchers such as Bagozzi and Burnkrant (1979); Di Tecco and
Schlegel (1982); believed that behavioural intensions were independent of
the effect of attitudes. It would also be a lookout that the belief
structures are too complex to be captured in numbers or in writing. It
would be hard to refer someones belief strengths in numbers.
2.5 Introducing TAM:
In the year 1989 Fred Davis came up with the idea of how the ease of
using a technology influences the intention and attitude to do behaviour.
All the previous models were trying to measure the behavioural intentionsto use internet based shopping experience. The main idea of
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implementing this model was to understand the relationship between the
main idea of internet shopping behaviour and the external factors other
than the human psychology. Before Davis (1989), Ajzen and Fishbein
(1967) dealt with the psychological part of the consumer behaviour and
attitude towards e-shopping. Fred Davis for the first time included the
technological aspect of the behaviour and constructed a bridge between
technology and psychology. The main intention was to include the
technological constraints, time constraints and the ease of use constraints
into the earlier model (Bagozzi et al; 1992). As Warshaw and David said
Because new technologies such as personal computers are complex and
an element of uncertainty exists in the minds of decision makers with
respect to the successful adoption of them, people form attitudes and
intentions toward trying to learn to use the new technology prior to
initiating efforts directed at using. Attitudes towards usage and intentions
to use may be ill-formed or lacking in conviction or else may occur only
after preliminary strivings to learn to use the technology evolve. Thus,
actual usage may not be a direct or immediate consequence of such
attitudes and intentions. (Bagozzi et al; 1992).
FIGURE-13 TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODEL
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Dillon and Morris IEEE Software, 14(4), 61
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~adillon/Journals/IEEE
%20papers_files/User%20Preceptions.htm
Across many theories and tests the term Perceived Usefulness introduced
in TAM has increased its popularity towards analysing exact factors as
well.
Although Hastie and Park believe that the information strategies used by
different consumers can be of two types. Either a Stimulus based or a
memory based processing (Hastie and Park, 1986). In a Stimulus based
processing all the information are observable and the customer can
compare all relevant alternatives across all Attributes (Mantel and Kardes,
1999).
A paper published in the Journal of Electronic Commerce Research in
November 2002 by Pavlou and Chai argues that the adoption of E-
Commerce primarily depends upon the consumer behavioural intentions to
engage in product purchase. The perceived Behavioural control and Trust
as proposed in TPB have a very critical role to play in this case. (Pavlou;
2002/03). The extra factors added in TPB from TRA gives a better picture
since the issues include more external factors than before. (Madden et al.,
1992)
2.6 Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology:
This theory stands on mainly four functions which are considered as direct
determinants for the usage of behaviour viz.
e) performance expectancy
f) effort expectancy
g) social influence
h) Facilitating conditions.
The following points are these which mediate the impact of these four key
which construct on differentiation and behaviour such as follows:
Gender, age, usage ,voluntaries of usage.
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This theory was developed very smartly. It contained a thorough review
and consolidation of the works done earlier by the Researchers. There
were about eight models available related to this field (Linking
Information Systems and the Behaviour). The eight main theories
proposed earlier are Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned
Behaviour, Technology Acceptance Model, and Motivational model, A
Combined Theory of Planned Behaviour/Technology Acceptance Model,
Model of PC Utilization, Innovation Diffusion Theory, and Social Cognitive
Theory. Subsequent validation of UTAUT in a longitudinal study found it to
account for 70% of the variance in usage intention (Venkatesh et. al.,
2003).
FIGURE-14 UNIFIED THEORY OF ACCEPTANCE AND USE OF TECHNOLOGY
Eija K, 2005; User Acceptance of Mobile Services- Value, Ease of Use,Trust and Ease of Adoption, Tampere University of Technologypp. 67.
http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/publications/2005/P566.pdf
2.7 The Conceptual Model:
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) asserted that there are some
specific beliefs which influence behavioural perceptions and subsequent
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actual behaviour (Ajzen, 1985, 1988, 1991). The three basic beliefs that
affect three perceptual constructs are
1. Behavioural Beliefs that affect Attitudes.
2. Normative Beliefs that affect Subjective Norm.
3. Control Beliefs that affect Perceived behavioural control.
And, these three constructs determine behavioural intentions and actual
behaviour. In this research we will first carefully understand the
perceptual approaches and terms to get a platform to decide upon the
methodology.
As per Pavlou and Chai attitude towards a behaviour can be defined as the
overall evaluation of the desirability of the potential transaction with a
specific web retailer. In 1995 Taylor and Todd (1995) describe the
construct as the generalized attitudinal belief that behaviour will lead to a
particular outcome.
This is basically the intention of a consumer to engage him in an
electronic transaction with an e-vendor/retailer (Zwass, 1998). Electronic
transaction here means sharing business information, maintaining
business relations or conducting business transactions and hence online
transaction can be viewed as interactive marketing communications
(Pavlou and Stewart, 2000).
An accepted theory is, consumers do not widely accepted e-commerce,
primarily because of the trust related issues. It was confirmed by differentstudies conducted at Hoffman et al (1999); Palmer, Baley and Faraj
(2000); Pavlou, (2000, 2003). Since trust is fundamental in predicting e-
commerce adoption (Gefen D, 2000) developing consumer rust is critical
for the continued growth of e-commerce (Palmer et al (2000); Stewart,
Pavlou and Ward (2002). It is not only the trust but also, the concerns
about privacy and security underscores the importance of trust (Chellapa
and Pavlou, (2002). Even in Asia it is arguable that the importance of
trust has become elevated in e-commerce given the high degree of
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uncertainty present in most online transactions (Fung and Lee, 1999;
Lee, 1998). Trust in a Web Vendor/Retailer may be defined as a
subjective probability by which consumers expects that a web retailer will
perform a given transaction in accordance with their confident
expectations (Ba and Pavlou, 2002). So, trust as a factor can be
controlled by the e-retailers by their trustworthiness.
Hofstedes (1980) cultural dimensions serve as the most influential culture
theory among social science research (Nokata and Sivakumar, 2001) The
study conducted by Hofstede has got a greater relevance and the
framework was generated among most extensive study ever undertaken
with about 116,000 respondents across 40 countries. And the results were
similar to 38 other studies (Nokata and Sivakumar, 2001).
FIGURE-15 THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF PAVLOU AND CHAI
TRUST
ATTITUDE
SOCIAL NOR M
SOCIAL
INFLUENCE
Perceived
Behavioral
Control
TRANSACTION
INTENTIONS
Long Vs. Short term
Orientation
High Vs. Low Power
Distance
CollectivismVs.
Individualism
Subjective Norm
Cultural Effects
Adopted from Pavlou & Chai; 2002; What drives e-commerce across culturespage 243,Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Vol.3, No.4
This is the model suggested by Pavlou and Chai to understand the factorsaffecting Transaction Intensions of a consumer. This model is
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Chapter-1 Introduction
implemented in this research as well. The reason behind implementing
this specific model is due to its inclusion of the cultural dependency as a
factor to decide upon the actual behaviour.
2.8 The Culture Code:
Another very interesting study was done by the renowned Cultural
Anthropologist and marketing expert Dr. Clotaire Rapaille. As he says in
his bookthe Culture Code is the unconscious meaning we apply to any
given thing. The American experience with Jeeps is very different from the
French and German experience because our cultures evolved differently
(we have strong cultural memories of the open frontier; the French and
Germans have strong cultural memories of occupation and war).
Therefore, the Codes the meanings we give to the Jeep at an
unconscious level are different as well. (Rapaille C, 2006; pp.5)
Look at the Jews after the Diaspora; the Chinese, Indians and Brits. Their
success is based on some basic code elements that they share: tight
family structures, a belief in education, and a flexible but powerful
network. (Pesala S, 1
st
February, 2007; The Man Behind The CultureCode; http://solomonp.blogspot.com/2007/02/man-behind-culture-
code.html )
He claims that the culture code for Americans for shopping is
Reconnecting with Life. He also claims that shopping means more than
just buying things that are needed. It also means the Social Experience.
Its a way to go out and experience new things such as new fashion,
trends and products see them and feel them not relying just on television
promos. As per Rapaille this culture code is tapped into the adolescent
component of everyones life. An interesting aspect to look upon the
research problem would be to consider this factor as well. As the
implementation of the Conceptual Model adopted from Pavlou and Chai
also includes the Cultural effects on buying behaviour, cross checking the
results of the cultural affects by this method would make the results more
justified. Although Rapaille did found out the codes for shopping related to
Americans, still no such work has been done with Indian Subcontinent
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Chapter-1 Introduction
Peoples. An interview was conducted with few subjects of this type which
had thrown some light on this context.
The justification behind implementing this approach is because; the
intention of buying online may be affected by culture. The Conceptual
Model gives a very rough idea on this matter since, the questions in the
questionnaire answering this are well thought and as Rapaille said in his
book The Culture Code that questionnaire surveys are of very less
relevance when the real answers are expected. As the subject answers
mostly, what the interviewee wants to hear. The answers which are
prompt are believed to be delivered from the unconscious mind which
might be considered as of greater relevance. He further gives some
scientific explanation for this. He says, When asked direct questions
about their interests and preferences, people tend to give answers they
believe the questionnaire wants to hear. It is because people respond to
these questions with their Cortexes, the part of brain that controls
intelligence rather than emotion or instinct (Rapaille C, 2006; pp. 14)
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Chapter-1 Introduction
3. Research Methodology:
This part of the research is divided into four parts.
3.1 Justification of the Proposed Model Adopted (each of its
factors)
3.2 Justification of the second Model Adopted (need of cross-
checking)
3.3 How the adopted models will answer the research question
(Analysing the questions in the Questionnaire and Interview)
3.4 Establishing the relation between the Research Aims and
Objectives and the Research Method Adopted.
The first section (3.1) will deal with the question why it was necessary to
include this attribute in this model used in this research? The second
section (3.2) will deal with the question why is it necessary to cross-
check and what benefit would the second model bring to this research?
The third section (3.3) will deal with the question what importance does
this question hold in the Questionnaire or in the Interview? The fourthsection (3.4) will establish a relationship between the Research Aims and
Methodology Adopted.
3.1 Justification of the Proposed Model Adopted
The research methodology used in this paper is based on the Conceptual
Model proposed by Pavlou and Chai. It explains the interrelationship
between the factors affecting the Transaction Intensions of the Indian
Subcontinent Students about Online Shopping. An approach towards
knowing how the changed psychology (if at all), of the subjects will affect
their family when they will go back to their countries is also a question
that is to be answered by implementing this model. The Model as
discussed earlier has the inclusion of the culture theory (Known as
Hofstedes Theory). Out of the five paradigms explained by Hofstede, only
three were included by Pavlou and Chai. The Long Term vs. Short TermOrientation, Power Distance and Collectivism vs. Individualism were
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Chapter-1 Introduction
included. The Dependent Variable is the Transaction Intentions is
representing the Consumers e-Commerce Adoption Intentions. The
Attitude towards Transaction, Subjective Norm and the Perceived
Behavioural Control directly influence intentions of a customer to shop
online. (Pavlou; 2002).
The Model adopted from Pavlou is shown in the figure below,
Figure-16 The Adopted Model
TRUST
Social
Influence
Societal Norm
Attitude
Influence on
Family
Members
Collectivist vs.
Individualist
Transaction
Intentions
Subjective Norm s
Perceived
Control
PerceivedDifficulty
Perceived
Behavioural
Control
HI
H2H3H4
H5
H6
Author Generated
3.1.1 Attitude
The acceptance of Attitude, influencing Behavioural Intentions has been
very popular and supported by many theories such as Theory of Reasoned
Action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen
1991). In this case of research Attitude covers the evaluation of the whole
Transaction Attributes with a Web Vendor/Retailer. So it would be quite
simple to understand that a Positive Attitude towards this whole thing will
facilitate Online Transaction whereas the Negative Attitude will create a
barrier towards it. (Tractinsky and Jarvenpaa 1999)
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Chapter-1 Introduction
In the suggested model it is shown that Attitude is affected by Trust and
Collectivism vs. Individualism as one of the traits of Hofstedes Culture
Theory.
FIGURE-17 FACTORS AFFECTING ATTITUDE
TRUST
ATTITUDE
COLLECTIVISM vs.
INDIVIDUALISM
TRANSACTION
INTENTIONS
AUTHOR GENERATED
3.1.1.1 Trust Attitude
David Gefen in his research paper has considered Trust as a leading and
potential factor towards the acceptance of new IT procedures. It has
grown a challenge to the online retailers to make their customer
trustworthy in order to retain them. Many researches have considered it
as a single dimensional constructs. But in his paper Geffen has rather
viewed it as a multidimensional construct. He has included some specific
beliefs that directly or indirectly (by the overall assessment of trust)
influences Behavioural Intentions. (Geffen D, August 2002. pp. 38-53). In
this paper the Behavioural Intentions lies pretty close to the Transaction
Intentions. Because the ultimate behavioural outcome expected here is
transaction.
Other than Gefen, Chellapa and Pavlou in 2002 stated that the question of
trustworthiness overweighs the question of security. In their paper they
quoted Fung and Lee as trust has always been of high importance in
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influencing the attitude towards the consumer behaviour and holds high
relevance in Internet based e-Commerce environments. (Fung and Lee,
1999) In their paper, after studying 179 consumers they suggested a
strong relationship between consumers Perceived Information Security
and Trust in e-Commerce transactions. (Chellappa and Pavlou, 2002; pp.
358-368)
Also, Hoffman stated that the perceived ability to control their personal
information on the web is lacking in the consumers in most of the times.
And this lack of trust on their web retailers is one of the strongest barriers
to transact online.
H1: Higher the trust, more positive would be the attitude towards
online transactions.
Since this barrier is affecting the attitude of the consumer towards
transacting online. (Hoffman et al; April, 1999, pp. 80-85)
So, the inclusion of trust in the Conceptual Model was very important. In
the questionnaire there were two questions answering the real trust based
scenario in this case.
3.1.1.2 Collectivism vs. Individualism Attitude
As per the theory presented by Hofstede Collectivism and Individualism
are the traits of the society. Some Societies tend to stick together for
example, a Joint Family. Whereas some Societies tend to live
independently e.g. Nuclear Family. These qualities have a very strong
effect on Attitude. Pavlou and Chai stated A cultural dimension is relevant
to attitude toward transactions with Web retailers (Pavlou and Chai, pp.
243)
In a paper submitted by Bond and Smith analysing Cross-Cultural
Psychology infers that in a highly collective society a trait picked up bysomeone would be followed by the others in the society. Whereas, in an
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Individualistic Society the opinions differ to every individual. In a
Collective Society everyone is closely bonded to each other. Hence, it can
be well predicted that the people like to do everything in their respective
groups in this society. In this paper the question of Shopping Online is
being masked by this reason also (one of the reasons). People in Indian
Subcontinent are highly collectivist (IDV Score of 48 as per Hofstede),
(Hofstede, 1994 pp. 53) and hence like to do shopping with friends and
family than doing it online (as the results suggests from the
questionnaire).
So, a Hypothesis can be drawn that,
H2: The more the people are collectivist, more they will have a
positive attitude towards following others in the group and
indulge themselves in the same activity.
Shopping is also an activity and hence they will try more to do it in groups
rather than doing it online. In this way the Collectivism affects the attitude
which in turn affects the Transaction intentions.
3.1.2 Societal Norm and Social Influence
The Subjective Norm used in the Theory of Panned Behaviour has been
divided into two categories. One is Social Norm and the other is Social
Influence. A very interesting approach towards looking at Social Norm
would be by further dividing it into Injunctive Norm and Descriptive Norm.
This new definition published in The Higher Education Center for Alcohol
and Drug Prevention, U.S Department of Education has added a new way
to look at it. The Injunctive Norm refers to the attitude is based on Morals
or Belief. Descriptive Norm refers to the behaviour. That is, what people
actually do? (Berkowitz D A, 12th August, 2004; The Social Norms
Approach: Theory, Research and Annotated Bibliography,
http://www.higheredcenter.org/socialnorms/theory/types.html)
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FIGURE-18 FACTORS AFFECTING SUBJECTIVE NORM
TRANSACTION
INTENTIONS
COLLECTIVISM vs.
INDIVIDUALISM
SUBJECTIVE
NORM
SOCIAL
INFLUENCE
SOCIETAL
NORM
Author Generated
3.1.2.1 Collectivism Subjective Norm
As defined earlier, collectivism is the kind of society that tends to stick
together with strong beliefs. According to Hoffman et al, 2005 the
collectivist countries were more acceptant towards socially reticent andwithdrawn behaviours than was the case in individualistic countries.
(Hoffman et al; 2005) So, in other words being a collectivist society
Students from Indian Subcontinent have definitely been affected by not
joining the flow of revolutionary e-commerce which in turn has affected
their Transaction Intentions Online. It also says that, Social anxiety may
be higher in countries where the social norms are clear and extensive,
than in the countries where the social norms are a bit relaxed (Hoffman
et al; 2005). It can be contingent here that a adopting a new system
always increase Social Anxiety which is basically due to the
interdependence of Subjective Norms and Transaction Intentions.
Pavlou and Chai have differentiated the Subjective Norm as Societal Norm
and Social Influence. Societal Norm here in this case means the outlook of
the larger circle. That is, the whole community, for example, Middle class
people in the subcontinent. The Social Influence is the influence of the
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opinion of the closed ones for example, Family and Friends. Moreover, in a
collectivist society, keeping harmony within the group is the highest
priority and hence, social norms have a serious impact on behaviour. It is
generally observed that in a collectivist society the rules are very strict in
order to maintain guidelines to avoid social-slips. As a result trying new
things is very rare. (Hein Richs et al; 2006)
The inclusion of this factor in the conceptual model used in this paper is
influenced by the high interdependence of Subjective Norm, Collectivist
Culture and Transaction Intentions.
Hence, it can be said that,
H3: Collectivism is correlated to the Societal Norm and seems to
share a directly proportional interrelation.
3.1.3 Perceived Behavioural Control
Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC) may be defined as ones ability to
perform a given task. The concept of including PBC in the TPB (Theory of
Planned Behaviour) was to amalgamate the Perceived Difficulty and
Perceived Control in order to understand the affects of PBC on Transaction
Intentions. However, there is enough proof of PBC influencing the
Intentions. (Mathieson K, September 1991; pp.178 and Ajzen 1994)
3.1.3.2 Trust PBC
Pavlou argued that Trust is probably one of the most vital issues when it
comes to online transaction in B2C commerce. Trust provides the
consumer with the Perceived Behavioural Belief (Control) to incorporate
the total perceived control over their web retailer/vendor. Trust can never
affect Transaction intentions directly. Because it will either affect the
attitude of the customer in a positive/negative way or can affect the PBC.
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FIGURE- 19 FACTORS AFFETING PBC
TRUST
Perceived
Control
Perceived
Difficulty
Transaction
Intention
Author Generated
In the first case the customer not having Trust on his web vendor will
change his attitude towards e-shopping. Whereas, in the second case if a
customer have a minimal level of Trust on his web vendor will generate a
minimal level of Perceived Control over the whole process. He will
perceive that he knows his web vendor well (have seen people buying and
getting satisfied) and will have a control over the whole process, which is
generated by his PBC (because of being effected by Trust). (Proctor W R,
Phuong K and Vu L, 2005; Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design,
pp. 582)
So, it can be said that,
H4: More the Trust, More positive would be the Perceived Control.
3.1.4 Influence on Family Members:
One of the questions I the questionnaire was dealing with one of the
research objective to know the Influence on Family Members by the
Subjects. In some communities or societies people accepts or inherits
Trust from word of mouth communications as well. The inheritance of
Trust from word of mouth is not new and has been accepted by many
researchers. And some strong determinants of Trust were identified by
word of mouth related to exchange of information obtained from family
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and friends are very high. (Kautonen and Welter; 2005, The Conceptual
Model of Trust In the Online Environment(2005), Trust, social networksand enterprise development: exploring evidence from East and West
Germany, International Entrepreneurship & Management Journal, Vol. 1
No. 3, pp. 367-79.OIR31,5620 )
It might be said that Trust can generate some positive effects on the
subjects which in turn can influence their family members about online
transaction intentions and hence it can be said that,
H5: More the Trust, More would be the initiative to Influence
Family members.
Table-20 Trust and Influence on family members
TRUSTTransactionIntention
Influence on
FamilyMembers
Author Generated
3.1.5 Social Influence and Attitude:
As a matter of fact the research using these two variables is not new.
Lucas (1978); suggested the support of managers have a social-critical
influence on workers attitude. Klobass PBiC model suggested the
extensional use of the Network Information as mathematical functions of
intentions (Klobas 1997). And then comes Ajzen (1985) who proposed the
linkage between Attitude and Social Norm by saying Intentions are formed
from Attitudes to outcomes of use. The most important part that the
Social Influence plays is accessing affects of it towards the different
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Attitudes of the First Time Users and Late Adopters. Klobas studied the
nature of few people and concluded Social Influences were frequently
combined with Positive Attitudes. They also observed that Social
Influence affects the Intended Use (Transaction Intentions here) by
influencing users perceptions of the Internet and Attitudes to the
outcomes of use. (Klobas J and Clyde L, November 2001; Social
Influence and Internet use, Library Management, 22(1/2), pp. 66)
Figure-21 Attitude and Social Influence
Attitude
Social Influence
Societal Norm
Transaction
Intentions
Author GeneratedHence it can be said that,
H6: Higher the Social Influence, stronger would be the Attitude to
Transact Online.
3.2 Justification of the second Model Adopted
In the above section, the justification for adopting the Conceptual Modeladopted has been discussed in length. In simple words, the above model
will form the platform for judging the interrelationship between the factors
affecting the Transaction Intention of a consumer for buying online. The
Indian Subcontinent Scenario is such that most of the students coming to
UK have started realising the importance of e-shopping. The affect of a
strong cultural factors were being combined with the psychological factors
revealing the truth behind the slow progression of e-commerce could be
answered with such a tool. Moreover the second research question of
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what would happen when they will go back to their country could also be
addressed to some extent with the help of the model. But, an interesting
idea could be to cross check the results obtained from the above model.
The primary research of data gathering was done by circulating
questionnaires both manually and online. Still one question would remain
unaddressed if the culture is also responsible for this even to a little
extent then, why?
Here comes the role of understanding the culture code. A Culture Code as
described by Rapaille is the unconscious meaning anyone applies to
anything. Understanding the Consumer Behaviour with the help of
Cognitive Theories of Psychology were the early steps for marketing.
There are many proofs of Psychologists conducting sessions with focus
groups and doing surveys. As Bagozzi says, . are on the side of
inclusion by introducing research from cognitive psychology and emotional
psychology as they inform or directly interface with contemporary social
psychology in consumer behaviour (Bagozzi P R, 2000; pp. 2) Previous
related works done by Artino Jr. A and Stephens M J, 2002, for predicting
Attitude towards Online Learning gives a great deal of insight on this
subject.
The interview format adopted in this research was divided into two
groups. This can also be termed as Attitude Survey. Although, while
following the Pavlou and Chais Model, questionnaire were based on closed
ended questions. Since, the results of social surveys today are mainly
based on closed ended questions it has become convenient to analyse the
final results in tabular or graphical form. (Schuman H and Presser S;
1996) This part of the research is a combination of both open and closed
ended questions. The Fist section started with open ended questions to
set a mental frame for the subjects about online shopping. Questions such
as How do you like to shop? or How do you feel shopping online? will
help the subjects to set a mental frame about online shopping. The
answers they were giving in this section were completely coming from
their intelligence. That is, the Cortex. Now comes the second part. Afterthe mental frame being set, in the second section they were asked to say
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two words against one word said. But, the trick was they had to say the
two words as soon as the first word was said. For example, if the word
was wallet the answers were Money and Rupees in most of the cases.
Very less people said Debit Cards. This shows the imprint of objects they
associate with Wallet. The argument is if someone says Money and
Rupees and not Electronic Cards this shows the attitude of buying
things with CASH only. Even if he has cards he prefers to use cash and
which is very rare in online transactions.
3.3 Analysing the questions in the Questionnaire and Interview
The whole research is divided into two very important parts. Looking at
the overview, the two parts are called as
3.3.1 The Primary Research
3.3.2 The Secondary Research
3.3.1 Primary Research
It is the manual research done to answer the research questions. This
includes Designing the Questionnaire, Distributing it (to Target Surveyors)
and finally gathering al together to form a meaningful picture in order to
answer the research Aims and Objectives. This part of the research will
discuss the types of question that has been asked in the questionnaire
and the behavioural attributes associated to it.
3.3.1.1 The Questionnaire
Q1. Do you use Internet very often?
Behavioural Attribute: Exposure towards Internet
a) Yes ------------------------------ Positive Exposure.
b) No ------------------------------- Negative Exposure.
c) Sometimes ---------------------- Neutral Exposure.
d) Every time ---------------------- Strong Positive Exposure.e) Others --------------------------- Case Sensitive.
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Q2. How long you have been using Internet?
Behavioural Attribute: Experience of using Internet
a) 1-2 years --------------------------- Nominal Experience.
b) 2-3 years --------------------------- Some Experience.
c) More than 5 years ------------------ Good Experience.
d) More than 10 years ---------------- Very Good Experience.
Q3. Where do you access Internet from?
Behavioural Attribute: Access Type
a) Cyber Caf --------------------------- Highly Paid Access.
b) Institution ---------------------------- Very Easy Access.
c) Office --------------------------------- Easy Access.
d) Home --------------------------------- Paid Access.
Q4. What are the activities you use Internet for?
Behavioural Attribute: Perceived Usefulness
a) Communication (e-mail, IM, Chat) ------------------ PU is lowest.
b) Information Gathering (Research, Job Search) ----- PU is low.
c) Entertainment (Games, Adult Entertainment) ------- PU is low.
d) Finance (Investments, Online Banking) -------------- PU is high.
e) Shopping (Auctions, Grocery, Electronic goods) ----- PU is high.
Any two PU is Very High, Any three PU is Highest.
Q5. Have you purchased anything online ever?
Behavioural Attribute: Buying Experience
a) Yes ------------------------------------------- Have the experience.
b) No -------------------------------------------- Dont have experience.
c) Thought of but, didnt ----------------------- Wants to have experience.
Q6. If Yes, then how many times?
Behavioural Attribute: Trust.
a) Once --------------------------------------- Have some Trust.
b) More than once --------------------------- Have strong Trust.c) Couple of Times --------------------------- Have strongest Trust.
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Q7. What, according to you are most important barriers to purchase
online?
Behavioural Attribute: Perceived Difficulty
a) Worried about credit card number ---------- Have strongest PD.
b) I enjoy going out to do my shopping ------- Have more PD.
c) I like to feel, see, touch the product -------- Have very high PD.
d) Dont like giving personal information ------ Have very high PD.
e) Dont have a credit card --------------------- Have strong PD.
f) Internet is too slow --------------------------- Have some PD.
g) Cost of after sales service -------------------- Have high PD.
h) Delivery Costs are too high ------------------- Have highest PD.
i) Technical foul-ups ----------------------------- Have low PD.
j) I am uncomfortable ---------------------------- Have some PD.
k) Other ------------------------------------------- Case Sensitive.
Q8. Would you like to consider buying online provided you get a help
with?
Behavioural Attribute: Perceived Control
a) Transaction guarantee by reliable source ---- Have weak PC.
b) Explained the advantages of online buying - Have high PC.
c) Pay when you get the delivery ---------------- Have no PC.
d) Good after sales service -------------------- Have some PC.
e) Get value added services ------------------- Have good PC.
Q9. If you know someone who bought something online, how do you feel?
Behavioural Attribute: Social Influence
a) Quite Normal ---------------------------------- Some SI.
b) WOW!!!!! -------------------------------------- High SI.
c) Doesnt Matter --------------------------------- Least SI.
d) Lets give it a try ------------------------------- Highest SI.
Q10. How do you feel talking to someone about buying things online?
Behavioural Attribute: Attitudea) Comfortable -------------------------------------- Positive Attitude.
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b) Uncomfortable ------------------------------------ Negative Attitude.
c) Should share the benefits with others -----------Strong Positive
Attitude.
Q11. Did the behaviour about buying online changed as I moved to UK
from my country?
Behavioural Attribute: Societal Norm
a) I never did e-shopping but now I do ------------ Highest SN.
b) All the same --------------------------------------- Neutral SN.
c) Getting interested --------------------------------- Positive SN.
d) Getting highly interested ------------------------- High SI.
Q12. How do you like to shop most?
Behavioural Attribute: Collectivism vs. Individualism
a) With Friends ------------------------------------- Very Collectivist.
b) With Family -------------------------------------- Very Collectivist.
c) Go out and visit many stores and then decideNeutral.
d) Shopping with great food and fun -------------- Collectivist.
e) Shop online --------------------------------------- Individualistic.
Q13. After yo
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