There are only a few studies that have specifically investigated what factors determine e-commerce adoption among older people. The determinants and studies are summarised in Table 2.5 and are further discussed in the following sub-sections.
Table 2.5 Previous studies on determinants of Technology/ E-commerce adoption Determinants Studies
Trust Gefen (2000); McCloskey (2006); Lepper & McCloskey (2011)
PEOU Sorce et al. (2005); McCloskey (2006); Ryu et al. (2008); Smith (2008);
McCloskey & Lepper (2010) Peceived
Usefulness
Sorce et al. (2005); McCloskey (2006); Ryu et al. (2008); Smith (2008);
McCloskey & Lepper (2010)
Gender Jokisuu et al. (2007); McCloskey & Lepper (2010); Lepper & McCloskey (2011)
Age Sorce et el. (2005); Jokisuu et al. (2007); Ryu et al. (2008); McCloskey &
Lepper (2010); Lepper & McCloskey (2011); Villarejo-Ramos et al. (2014) Education Smither & Braun (2001); Jokisuu et al. (2007); McCloskey & Lepper (2010) Experience Karjaluoto et al. (2002); Iyer & Eastman (2006); Ryu et al. (2008)
Figure 2.13 illustrates the determinants of e-commerce adoption and the number of studies discussing each barrier. It can be visualised that most studies have concentrated on age as a barrier compared to the others.
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Figure 2.13 Graph showing previous studies on determinants to e-commerce adoption
2.3.9.1 Trust
Trust is a critical characteristic of e-commerce (Gefen, 2000). It is defined as the expectation that others will not behave opportunistically or take advantage of a situation (Gefen, 2003).
It is was found that buyers are prevented from adopting e-commerce if there is lack of trust (Hoffman et al., 1999). There is no reason why consumers should expect to benefit from using a website if the online business cannot be trusted (Pavlou, 2003; Gefen, 2004). For example, McCloskey (2006) found that trust has a significant effect on e-commerce adoption, which was consistent with Gefen (2000) who carried a study of 217 undergraduate business students and MBA students. The study found trust to influence e-commerce adoption in websites which sold books. McCloskey and Lepper (2010)’s study investigated whether age had an impact on trust and to what extent does trust impact e-commerce participation. The study found that trust had a significant impact on both ease of use and usefulness which was consistent with McCloskey (2006) who found trust to be positively related to e-commerce. However, McCloskey and Lepper (2010)’s study also found that men
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Trust EOU Usefulness Gender Age Education Experience
No of studies
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and women did not differ in the level of e-commerce participation or attitudes concerning trust. In another study, Corbitt et al. (2003) found that participants were more likely to purchase from the internet if they perceive a higher degree of trust in the website thus trust is proving to be an important element in the adoption of e-commerce.
2.3.9.2 Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU)
Perceived ease of use refers to “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Davis, 1989, p. 320). Often, older people experience a decreased ease of use (EOU) compared to young people (Charness & Boot, 2009; Taylor et al., 2014). It is, therefore suggested that it is easy to navigate the websites (Taylor et al., 2014; Charness & Boot, 2009) even though this applies to all user groups. Among the studies which investigated ease of use was Smith (2008). He found that perceived ease of use of e-commerce websites were found to be significantly influenced by the positive usability of the websites. In another study by McCloskey and Lepper (2010) ease of use was found to have no direct influence on e-commerce participation.
A year later, McCloskey and Lepper (2011) found that most of the participants agreed that online shopping is more comfortable than traditional shopping, which contra-dictated McCloskey (2006). McCloskey (2006) found that ease of use does not appear to influence the level of participation in e-commerce despite having significant impacts on usefulness.
2.3.9.3 Perceived Usefulness (PU)
Perceived usefulness is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance” (Davis, 1989, p. 320). Among the studies which looked at the factors which influence e-commerce adoption was a study by McCloskey and Lepper (2010). A 5-point Likert scale was used for questions that addressed attitudes regarding the usefulness of online shopping. Three items were developed and used to measure the usefulness of e-commerce which was: convenience, efficiency and saving time. McCloskey and Lepper (2010)’s study found that higher perceptions of usefulness were found to be positively related to e-commerce while, McCloskey (2006) went further and found that usefulness has a positive direct effect on usage, indicating that it has a significant impact on all four of the measures of e-commerce participation which were investigated: whether it was used, frequency of use, number of times purchases made and amount spent on line. In another study carried out by Smith
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(2008), perceived usefulness of e-commerce Web sites significantly influenced older people’s attitudes towards using an intention to use the websites positively, thereby engaging themselves in e-commerce activities. In the USA, McCloskey and Lepper (2011)’s study found that most of the participants agreed that online shopping was more convenient and saved time thus usefulness positively affecting e-commerce.
2.3.9.4 Gender
Previous studies have shown that gender is a significant factor in using the internet (Karavidas et al., 2005; Watering, 2010). It has been found that men are more likely to use the internet compared to women (Fallows, 2005; Wu, 2003; Villarejo-Ramos, Peral-Peral &
Arenas-Gaitan, 2014; Werner, Carlson, & Jordan-Marsh, 2011) thereby engaging in e-commerce. This was inconsistent with McCloskey and Lepper (2010) who found men and women to behave the same in the level of e-commerce participation. A year later, Lepper and McCloskey (2011) did another study and noticed that women seemed less concerned about security issues than men when using credit cards for online shopping for goods.
Mature women were found to be more likely than mature men to agree that internet shopping makes life easier but young men were more likely to agree that e-commerce makes life easier. This is inconsistent with Villarejo-Ramos et al., (2014)’s study which found that men using the online bank facilities found it more comfortable than women. This was explained by the fact that women prefer the personal contact, unlike men.
In a study by Perrin and Puggan (2015), no difference was found between men and women with regards to internet use.
2.3.9.5 Age
There is evidence that age is an essential factor in older people adopting e-commerce (Tatnall & Lepa, 2003; Sorce et al., 2005; Ryu et al., 2008; McCloskey & Lepper, 2010;
Villarejo-Ramos et al., 2014). Sorce et al., (2005) found that there were significant differences in online buying attitudes between consumers of differences age groups Similarly, Wu (2003) was consistent with Sorce et al., (2005) who also highlighted the same in their study. According to Jokisuu et al., (2007)’s study, many older participants reported that their age-related issues caused problems because of deteriorating eyesight, motor functions and cognitive capabilities. Another study which investigated how age influences
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the adoption of e-commerce is McCloskey and Lepper (2010). They found that older people were less likely to participate in e-commerce while the younger people have greater ease of information access than the older people. The study, however, found that there was no difference between older people aged 50-69 years and young people. This no-significant-difference result might be better explained by the technology savvy participants who were mainly the baby boomers in the mature group (50-69 years age group).
2.3.9.6 Education
Previous research has suggested that older people with higher levels of education are more likely to shop online (Burke, 2002; Lepper and McCloskey, 2011). Lepper and McCloskey, (2011)’s study found that among those aged 50 to 69 and 70 and over, the percentage with at least some college education was higher among participants than among non-participants. This finding may indicate that exposure to a college education increases the level of comfort that individuals feel when they work with technology and the internet which may result in the adoption of e-commerce. However, this was disputed by McCloskey and Lepper (2010)’s study which found out that college education did not have an impact on participation, perceived usefulness, ease of information access or trust. Also, Eastman and Iyer (2004)’s study found out that education was negatively correlated with making a purchase online when they conducted a national survey of older people aged 65-85 years.
2.3.9.7 Previous Experience
Previous experience of technology adoption has also been investigated as a possible factor that could potentially influence e-commerce adoption by older people. For example, Niemela-Nyrhinen (2007) carried out a study which examined Finnish baby boomers and found that those older participants who have high levels of experience used internet and SMS. A study by Iyer and Eastman (2006) found that older people who were experienced in using computers were found to be more likely to use the internet for comparison shopping, but there was no link between older people’s satisfaction with their computer skills and use of the internet for comparison shopping. It was also noted that there was a higher level of education among the respondents may be due to the high percentage of men who took part.
Karjaluoto, Mattila and Pento (2002)’s study examined the effect of different factors affecting attitude formation towards internet banking and their relation to use online banking services.
The study found that prior experience of computers and technology influenced both attitudes
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towards online banking and actual behaviour. The study also found positive banking experience seemed to affect both the older people’s attitudes and the way they use and apply e-commerce. It was also found that older people were more likely to purchase from the internet if they have more experience in using the internet (Corbitt, Thanasankit & Yi, 2003).