The Role of Culture in E-Commerce Use for the Egyptian Consumers

The ubiquitous nature of E-commerce demands an innovative conceptualization of consumer behaviour that responds to various cultural preferences. The paper employs a laboratory experiential survey with 370 Egyptian Internet users during an Internet shopping experience. The paper highlights the significant role of the Internet store´s perceived familiarity and reputation as the main antecedents of online trust. The relationship between trust and its two antecedents are found to be culturally sensitive, the high uncertainty avoidance of the consumer is found to be associated with a stronger effect of the store´s reputation on trust, and a stronger effect of store´s familiarity on trust. This paper, by providing an understanding of the cultural drivers of E-commerce, contributes to providing recommendations for retailers planning to deliver E-commerce solutions in high uncertainty avoidance cultures, such as the Arab countries.