Adoption of Online Shopping in South Asia: A Technology Acceptance Perspective

The worldwide proliferation of online shopping during the past decade has created a need to better understand the adoption of such activity across the globe. Viewing online shopping as a ‘process’, this study addresses some of the gaps in the online shopping adoption literature (i.e., consumer acceptance of online shopping in the Emerging Asian markets) by focusing on culture specific dimensions of the technology acceptance phenomenon. More specifically, it uses an extended version of TAM combined with literature on information technology and culture to identify the drivers of online shopping adoption in Pakistan. It then makes an attempt to validate the applicability of TAM in a cultural setting other than the developed Western world. An empirical study was conducted to test the proposed extended TAM model using data from university students in Pakistan. Contrary to previous research, results of this study render support for the applicability of TAM in a culture that scores high on uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, power distance, and masculinity.