Influence of Cultural Differences and Interest Level in Thai Culture on the Online Shopping Behavior of Chinese Consumers

Abstract

In the past ten years, Cross-border e-commerce has rapidly developed becoming an important tool for small and large businesses worldwide. This has primarily been achieved owing to the internet technologies, which facilitated international trade and, subsequently, had great influence on national economies and society globally and individual’s life locally. Cultural difference is one of several factors that affect consumer’s attitude and decision to purchase. This research has several aims: 1) to study different cultural factors and the interest level in Thai culture that affect purchase decision to shop online Thai product. 2) to investigate various cultural factors related to demographic factor. To collect data from random samples of consumers that experienced online shopping of Thai products in China obtained from valid 212 questionnaires and apply descriptive and quantitative analysis using SPSS statistical software. We apply the theories of culture and sub-culture as well as Hofstede’s Distinguishing National Cultures to predict the probability of the influence of cultural difference on online shopping behavior using Ordinal Regression in Logit model to verify constructed research hypotheses. Surprisingly, the results revealed that cultural difference has no effect on any cultural factors, which were assumed to influence Chinese consumers’ online shopping behavior of Thai products; however, Thai culture contributes to satisfaction in buying. In addition, gender and education level play an important role in perception of other cultures making customers more open to purchase foreign products.