The Impact of National Culture on E-commerce Acceptance: the Italian Case

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 longterm 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.