How cultural background affects online purchase decisions: a survey of international students in Finland

Abstract

The market of e-commerce is getting globalized and digitally linked, and thus, consumer behavior is becoming a vital element of business success. The exposure to both the home cultures and Finland environment has created a large consumer group by international students in Finland. The thesis was meant to determine whether the online purchasing behavior of international students in Finland was still shaped by the cultural values. Quantitative research design was utilized and data gathered using a structured survey to international students studying in the Finnish universities. The Theory of Cultural Dimensions developed by Hofstede was used as the primary theoretical framework, and it addressed the aspects of Individualism/Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity/Femininity and Long-Term Orientation. The research examined the important variables in the online decision-making process, such as search and information in the current online seller, trust of the online seller, sensitivity price, security, social influence and the usability of the web site. The findings indicated definite connections between the cultural dimensions and the online buying attitude. High uncertainty avoidance students would like to see more information about the product and have guaranteed payment method whereas collectivist students would depend more on peer reviews and social recommendations. The conclusion made was that cultural background was still a major predictor of online consumer behaviour even though e-commerce in Finland is global. These results provided the need to have culturally sensitive e-commerce to multicultural consumers.