Gender-Based iTrust in E-Commerce: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Innovativeness

Abstract

Despite the extensive academic interest in e-commerce, cognitive innovativeness in e-commerce context has been neglected. This study focuses on the moderating role of consumer cognitive innovativeness on the influencing factors of interpersonal trust (iTrust) towards online purchase intention of new product in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Data were collected in Australia from consumers who has had prior online shopping experience. Variance-based structural equation modeling such as partial least squares (PLS-SEM) is used to test the research model. The results show men and women have different perceptions of what is important to be provided by an online store to make a positive shopping experience. We highlighted that in-addition to the e-commerce web design aspects; the individual cognitive innovativeness can influence females more to purchase online. Practitioners should adjust their online business strategies, considering consumer cognitive innovativeness to enhance their e-commerce desirable outcomes. This means online business should not treat their consumers as a uniform group with a ‘one-design-fits-all’ web design strategy but need to consider the individual needs of their male and female consumers.