연령과 인지욕구가 전자상거래 이용에 미치는 영향 : 미디어이용 정보격차의 매개효과

The number of consumers using e-commerce is increasing rapidly, partly because of the prolonged COVID-19 and widespread of mobile technology. The changes in consumption patterns which were brought out by COVID-19 are expected to continue even after the end of COVID-19. In particular, consumers who are friendly to the digital media environment are expected to use e-commerce more actively than non-friendly consumers. The current study examined how information gaps among consumers affect the use of e-commerce. In other words, the study investigated how the gaps influenced the use of e-commerce with the age and cognitive needs of consumers. To this purpose, we analyzed the KISDI‘s Korean Media Panel Data. The findings revealed that ages had a negative influence on the use of information gaps and e-commerce, and cognitive needs had a positive impact on the use of information gaps and e-commerce. In addition, the digital divide had a positively correlated to the use of e-commerce and mediates the effect of age and cognitive needs on the use of e-commerce. Based on these findings, the study contains discussions on the impact on e-commerce and the information gaps.