Cross-Cultural Differences in Perceived Risk of Online Shopping

Abstract

This study investigates the perceived risk that has been considered as influencing the consumer purchase decision process during online shopping. For the purpose of this study, perceived risk is defined as the potential for loss in pursuing a desired outcome from online shopping. Specifically, this research investigates the differences in perceived risk between online shoppers and non-online shoppers, as well as online shoppers` perceived risk relating to two culturally different countries (i.e., Korea and the United States). The results indicate that the perceived risk is higher for non- (or less-experienced-) online shoppers than for frequent online shoppers, and that both Korean and US Internet users have a similar aggregated degree of perceived risk toward online shopping, though there are significant relative differences in specific risk items (i.e., social, financial, time, and psychological risk), which reflect the existence of the cultural differences in response to the specific risk factors.