CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON ON THE IMPACT OF ONLINE CONSUMERS' TRUST AND RISK PERCEPTIONS ON B2C ONLINE MARKETPLACE ACCEPTANCE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF ONLINE CONSUMERS IN THAILAND AND GERMANY

Abstract

The usage of B2C online marketplaces for shopping online is different around the world. While most online consumers in North America and several western countries in Europe as well are used to shop online via well-established B2C online marketplaces such as Amazon for quite some time, online consumers in some Asian countries have started using B2C online marketplaces quite recently. Analyzing cross-country differences in the influences of online consumers’ beliefs and perceptions of B2C online marketplaces on the online consumers’ acceptance of such technologies can help to understand differences in the popularity and success of B2C online marketplaces between and across countries. This study analyzed the influence of online consumers’ trust, perceived risk, usefulness and ease of use in/of B2C online marketplaces in Thailand and Germany. The influences were compared between online consumers in Thailand and online consumers in Germany to show that country specific differences exist. In addition, moderation effects of consumer characteristics such as cultural dimensions at the individual level, years of experience with B2C online marketplaces, and income were controlled to identify the effects of the national specific environment that surrounds online consumers in these two countries. The results of the analysis of 404 online consumers in Thailand and 405 online consumers in Germany show among others that for online consumers in Thailand the influence of trust in the community of sellers has a higher influence on their intention to use B2C online marketplaces than for online consumers in Germany. In contrast, German online consumers’ intention to use B2C online marketplace is highly influenced by their perceived usefulness of B2C online marketplaces. Trust in the intermediary has shown to be an important factor that should be explored in more detail in future studies about B2C online marketplaces. Online consumers’ values of cultural dimensions, their level experience, and income gave some more insights on differences between the respondents of the survey. The study has implications for theory and managers, operators of, and retailers on national and international B2C online marketplaces with intercultural consumers as it poses the use of B2C online marketplaces in an international context. It can be worthwhile to examine consumers’ beliefs, perceptions, and characteristics that are particularly related to their country specific environment in order to get more insights on country specific differences in the intention to use and usage of B2C online marketplaces. The implications are discussed and limitations and future research are provided in this study.