Chinese culture and e-commerce: an exploratory study

Differing characteristics of local environments, both infrastructural and socio-economic, have created a significant level of variation in the acceptance and growth of e-commerce in different regions of the world. This paper focuses on the impact of these infrastructural and socio-economic factors on e-commerce development in China. The findings provide insights into the role of culture in e-commerce, and the factors that may impact a broader acceptance and development of e-commerce in China. In this paper, we present and discuss our findings, and identify changes that will be required for broader acceptance and diffusion of e-commerce in China. Cultural issues such as ‘socializing effect of commerce’, ‘transactional and institutional trust’, and ‘attitudes toward debt’ were determined to be the major impediments to e-commerce in China. However, our research also shows that, even though their means for payment are different, the most enlightened, able, and sophisticated consumers in China participate in e-commerce in the same frequencies as the mainstream e-commerce consumers in the US.