How Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance and Indulgence Affect Social Commerce Expenditure? An Investigation Based on Facebook

The increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNS) in recent years paved the way for the emergence of social commerce. As a subset of e-commerce, s-commerce establishes the communication between companies and consumers through SNS and allows online shopping. However, online shopping through s-commerce varies substantially between different regions. The differences observed in consumer behaviour stem from the different cultural background every society has. This study analyses the effects of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions; uncertainty avoidance (UAI), power distance (PDI) and indulgence (ING), on s-commerce expenditure. With this purpose, the total amount of online expenditure for 53 countries chosen from different regions, their total number of internet and Facebook users, and data related to their cultural dimensions have been collected. In an effort to better understand the current state of s-commerce, annual average expenditure of per Facebook user in each country has been calculated through total online expenditure. Correlation and regression analysis have also been performed together with cultural dimensions. Following these findings, it has been concluded while UAI and PDI reduce s-commerce expenditure, ING increases it. Consequently, the findings demonstrate while consumer willingness to do online shopping decreases in the context of uncertainty and risk; increases when safety is provided.