How Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance and Indulgence Affect Social Commerce Expenditure? An Investigation Based on Facebook

Abstract

The increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNS) in recent years paved the way for the emergence of social commerce. As a subset of e-commerce, s-commerce establishes the communication between companies and consumers through SNS and allows online shopping. However, online shopping through s-commerce varies substantially between different regions. The differences observed in consumer behaviour stem from the different cultural background every society has. This study analyses the effects of Hofstede's cultural dimensions; uncertainty avoidance (UAI), power distance (PDI) and indulgence (ING), on s-commerce expenditure. With this purpose, the total amount of online expenditure for 53 countries chosen from different regions, their total number of internet and Facebook users, and data related to their cultural dimensions have been collected. In an effort to better understand the current state of s-commerce, annual average expenditure of per Facebook user in each country has been calculated through total online expenditure. Correlation and regression analysis have also been performed together with cultural dimensions. Following these findings, it has been concluded while UAI and PDI reduce s-commerce expenditure, ING increases it. Consequently, the findings demonstrate while consumer willingness to do online shopping decreases in the context of uncertainty and risk; increases when safety is provided.

The effect of culture on customers’ attitudes toward Facebook advertising: the moderating role of gender

“…This study found that uncertainty avoidance has a negative significant effect on attitudes toward Facebook advertising. This result is confirmed by Yildirim and Barutçu (2016) who studied the effect of uncertainty avoidance on social media commerce expenditure through Facebook as a social media platform. Both scholars confirmed that uncertainty avoidance usually decreases consumers' willingness to indulge in the social media commerce and may even cause them to decrease their expenditure.…”

“…The scholars found that the degree of power distance is of significance and influences online buying, while there was no association found between power distance and consumers' attitudes toward online brands. However, a study by Yildirim and Barutçu (2016) found that power distance has a negative influence on social advertising, commerce expenditure through social platforms, individuals' decisions about using the internet and even their attitudes toward Facebook advertising.…”

Statistical Modeling of Cultural Differences in Adopting Autonomous Vehicles

“…A high INDU society allows relatively free gratification of the basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun [33]. In other words, high INDU societies indicate a tendency to optimism, and people in high INDU societies will be optimistic about new technologies [53,58]. Therefore, in countries with high INDU, the values for concern and WTP were low.…”

The effect of cultural dimensions on conspicuous consumption and online compulsive buying behavior : a comparative study among Turkish and American consumers

“…On individual level, men and women with high uncertainty avoidance levels, seem to feel anxious and stressed in unknown and unstructured situations (Ayoun & Moreo, 2008). Hence, in this case, it is reasonable to assume that buyers that has high UA would also lean towards avoiding risks (Hwa-Froelich & Vigil, 2004;Yildirim & Barutçu, 2016).In addition, Park and Burns (2005) showed that pathological gambling, which is a compulsive behavior, is in negative correlation to uncertainty avoidance. In addition, previous studies showed that compulsive consumption is positively correlated to risk-taking (Campbell 1976;Wallach & Kogan 1961).…”