Hofstede's Cross Cultural Model

In addition to the literature review on online shopping, consumer purchasing behaviors, decision-making process, influential factors and the 4P marketing strategy, the theoretical framework of Hofstede’s cross-cultural model will also be considered in the research analysis. In this section, we will illustrate several assumptions of how Chinese and American consumers behave differently towards online shopping.

Assumption 1: Chinese buyers are less risk-averse towards online shopping than are American buyers.

This assumption is explained by the Hofstede’s dimension on the levels of Uncertainty Avoidance which are various across countries. Hofstede defined “Uncertainty Avoidance Index” (UAI) as the country’s tolerance to the uncertain or ambiguous

In the individualistic society, independence is valued and decisions are made based on their own desires. Separate identity and uniqueness are typical in this culture. On the other hand, the collective culture reflects the group-based behavior. People in the collective nations are tightly integrated with their friends and family (Smith et al., 2013). Based on the literature review, United States with the individualism score of 91 are considered much more independent than are China with the score of 20. According to study of Gong, Maddox & Stump (2012), people in the heavily individualistic nations such as the United States generally straightly convey their and thought and directly express information in precise meanings, hence reducing complexity in communication and allowing simplified use of online facility. On the contrary, Chinese people, regarded as more collective, generally rely on face-to-face communication. Surrounding context in conversation is crucial in the interpretation, while non-verbal communication is not common for them. Based on the given evidences, Chinese people find it more complex to use online facility than do American people. In conclusion, online shopping, which lacks face-to-face contact, is perceived as more complicated for Chinese consumers than for American

The Chinese are less risk-averse towards online shopping than the American and the Chinese is more likely to take advantage of online shopping more than the American. The reason for this result could be the perception of security when providing personal information to the internet websites of the American and the cash on delivery payment methods of the Chinese. On the other hands, Chinese consumers regard online shopping more complicated than the traditional methods, are less engaged with website review system and are less active in sharing online review than the American consumers do. The root causes of those behaviors are because of the society that the Chinese live in. Chinese prefers face-to-face contact and less direct way of communication. Chinese are also less likely to express their personal point of views and knowledge on the products or service that they bought, and seek for information on the spotlight reviews. Therefore, the above behaviors are the main differences between Chinese and American regarding the cross-culture psychology when shopping online that online shop operators should take into account when operate their