This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.
The ubiquitous nature of e-commerce demands an innovative conceptualization of
consumer behaviour that responds to various cultural preferences. Culture has been
identified as an underlying determinant of consumer behaviour, and this extends to ecommerce.
This research investigates this phenomenon for the Egyptian consumer.
This research designed a plausible, integrated framework for investigating the target
phenomenon, especially for un-explored cultures. To help to identify salient components
of the phenomenon, a three-study exploratory phase, that included: interviews, a survey,
and card sorting sessions, was undertaken. The exploratory results highlighted the roles
of trust, uncertainty avoidance, Internet store familiarity, and reputation as the main
salient factors affecting the perception of the targeted group toward e-commerce. The
research hypotheses were then developed based on the exploratory results. Finally, a
model testing phase to empirically assess the research hypotheses through a laboratory
experiential survey with 370 Egyptian Internet users was undertaken.
The experiential survey results support the significant role of the Internet store’s
perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The
relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive; the
high uncertainty avoidance of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger
effect of the store’s reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of store’s familiarity on
trust. The research also highlights the significant effect of trust on the attitude towards
and the willingness to buy from an e-commerce site.
This research, by providing an understanding of the cultural drivers of e-commerce,
contributes to building a theory of consumer’s cultural trust within an Internet store
context. The research reports on the development of an integrated cultural trust model
that highlights recommendations for expanding the adoption of e-commerce. The
systematic research framework, introduced by this research, can be a robust starting point
for further related work in this area.