Predictors of E-commerce Use of the Internet: A Multinational Comparative Study – the U.S., the Netherlands, and S. Korea

With a focus on online consumer behavior in highly-wired countries (the United States, the Netherlands, and South Korea), this study attempted to identify and compare predictors of e-commerce activities in three areas – finance, product, and entertainment. The cross-national comparison revealed that users in each country did not have a compatible pattern of predictors in e-commerce activities. Although an age, web experiences, and a motivation of having less pressure were common predictors, there existed different social and cultural impacts on online consumer behaviors in each country. The main implication of this exploratory crossnational comparative study for e-commerce is that there are both global and local determinants of online consumer behavior. Therefore, researchers and practitioners should consider both culture-general and culture-specific components in multinational online commerce services and marketing.