FACTORS AFFECTING ONLINE PURCHASING BEHAVIOR

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10component and the degree of acceptance of an individual’s satisfaction of his orher own needs within collective groups.However in the collectivist societies the group is considered to be the mostfundamental component of society. In such societies, the individual’s rights aresecondary to those of group. According to the study of Hofstede (1984), theAsian culture is an example of a collectivistic nation where dependence is valuedand society expects the individual to subordinate his own needs to those of thegroup.Hypothesis 5:Individualism / collectivism dimensions is significantly relatedto the purchasing behavior through cyber ads.The Power distance dimensionPower distance measures the extent to which a society tolerates inequality ofpower in organizations and in society. In a high power distance society, hierarchyis strong and power is centralized at the top. Individuals are very conscious oftheir rank, and superiors and subordinates feel separate from each other. Koreafor example is of high power distance society just like most of the other Asiancountries (Schutte & Ciarlante 2000).Darley and Luethge (2003) refers to power distance as the acceptance ofinequality in power and authority between individuals in a society. Whileinequality may exist within any culture however the degree to which it is acceptedvaries considerably across cultures. Therefore, individuals who come fromcultures exhibiting high power distances such as Malaysia, Egypt, India, Nigeria,Saudi Arabia and Venezuela (Hofstede 1991) might be expected to respond insocially desirable ways designed to please those in higher positions of power,stressing coercive, established and referent power (Simon 2001).Hypothesis 6:Power Distance dimension is significantly related to thepurchasing behavior through cyber ads.Uncertainty Avoidance dimensionThe third dimension chosen for this study is the uncertainty avoidance. This itemreflects a culture’s tolerance or intolerance of uncertainty. In a high uncertaintyavoidance culture, uncertain, ambiguous, risky or undefined situations areviewed as threatening and to be avoided at all costs. In order to avoid uncertaintyavoidance culture, risk is regarded as a natural component of life that can oftenproduce opportunity. Since individual are regarded as the engines of change,therefore they must take risks (Schutte & Ciarlante 2000). While Hofstede (1991)
11stressed that uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which the members of aculture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations.Cultures that are risk averse are also cultures that have low uncertaintyavoidance while those that are not risk averse tend to have high uncertaintyavoidance. In low uncertainty avoidance culture there is a tendency to acceptcalculated risk as necessary in order to seize opportunity. However, in a highuncertainty culture risk is regarded as threatening and to be avoided. In thestudy conducted by La Ferle (2002), Malaysia was found to be in the groups ofcountries that was the least risk averse.Hypothesis 7:Uncertainty Avoidance dimension is significantly related tothe purchasing behavior through cyber ads.MethodA survey was conducted in the middle of September 2004 and 504 completedquestionnaires were returned by early November 2004. A 12-pagesquestionnaires survey forms were distributed to respondents chosen throughsimple random sampling from amongst the Internet users from the Subang Jaya,Puchong and Kuala Lumpur areas. The sample is relatively homogenous interms of its demographics and thereby helps enhance internal validity.Appropriately the simple random sampling was chosen since the purpose of thestudy was to test the relationships among the variables (Calder, Phillips andTybout 1981). The questions consisted of both open-ended and close-endedquestions.The purchasing behavior through cyber ads was operationalized by asking threeinterrelated questions. The first question asked the respondents whether theyhad purchased goods or services from cyber ads in the previous six months, witha dichotomous “yes” or “no” as possible response. Two questions designed tocapture the Ringgit amount as well as the frequency of purchases made in thepast twelve months.The demographics information provided by the respondents included age,gender measured as either male of female, ethnic, education, and profession.The sample consisted of 53 per cent respondents between the age brackets of20 – 29 years old and the least number represented was form the age group of50 years and older. As reported by Kotler et al. (2005), in Malaysia, a consumerlifestyle segmentation by attitudes toward technology showed that the “e-savvy”segment comprises high proportion of young people in their 20s (29 percent). Infact many Internet surveys agreed that online population and purchasers arerelatively younger, more educated and wealthier (Bellman et al.1999). In terms
Page 2 and 3: 2relationship between marketer and
Page 4 and 5: 4A Roper Starch survey of consumers
Page 6 and 7: 62001 from US $ 3.2 billion in June
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Page 12 and 13: 12of gender, the sample was almost
Page 14 and 15: 14It was also found that respondent
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Page 18 and 19: 18Table 6: Relationship between cul
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Page 22 and 23: 22Korgaonkar, P. & Wolin. L.D. 2002

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