Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism and the Readiness of Business-to-Consumer E-commerce

This study aims to test whether and to what extend national culture affects the readiness of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce across the world. We regress two sets of data at national level: (1) the ratings of two main dimensions of Hofstede’s national culture framework, uncertainty avoidance and individualism, and (2) UTCTAD B2C e-commerce index value. A sample of 83 countries was tested in this study. Several control variables at national level are included in our regression model. We find that these two cultural dimensions have an effect on the readiness of B2C e-commerce in various ways. We find that countries with high individualism score have high index value of B2C e-commerce development. We discuss the implications of these findings for B2C e-commerce developing strategies. We then call for designing relative policies with full consideration on national culture to promote the development of B2C e-commerce. In addition, we identify the limitations of the study and propose recommendations for future research. This study is the first one to use UNCTAD data on B2C e-commerce to explore the relationships between two dimensions of Hofstede’s national culture and the readiness of B2C e-commerce and adds to the knowledge of literature in this research field.