Investigating the Factors Affecting On-line Shopping Adoption in Saudi Arabia

310 Pages·2013·6.04 MB·English

Investigating the Factors Affecting On-line
Shopping Adoption in Saudi Arabia

PhD Thesis
Faisal Fahhad Alsharif
Software Technology Research Laboratory
Faculty of Technology
De Montfort University
England

2013
Abstract
The Internet has played and still plays a vital role in people's lives in recent years. One
of the most important aspects of technology relating to the Internet is electronic
commerce (e-commerce).
Despite the tremendous growth in the number of Internet users in Saudi Arabia,
adoption of on-line shopping by individuals is still in its early stages.
The two main reasons that motivated the researcher to conduct this study to investigate
the factors that affect individuals in Saudi Arabia to use and adopt on-line shopping are
belief in the importance of on-line shopping for the economy in general and for people’s
lives in particular, as well as the limited studies conducted in this regard.
This research adopts a quantitative methodology to answer the research question: What
factors enhance the likelihood of adoption of on-line shopping in Saudi Arabia?
This research adopts a Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use Technology (UTAUT).
The constructs used in this model are: performance expectancy, effort expectancy,
social influence, facilitating conditions, attitude toward using technology, computer
self-efficacy, computer anxiety and behaviour intention.
The proposed additional constructs for this study are perceived credibility (security,
trust, privacy and risks), cultural background (religion and language) and prevention
factors (legislation availability, delivery services, postal address and quality of Internet
services).
The findings from this study show that there is a statistical effect of the factors noted
above on behavioural intentions to use the technology; the research hypotheses have
been achieved except four hypotheses in addition to the absence of the effect of
moderator’s factors, such as age, gender, education and experience. The finding also
proved the importance of additional factors effecting on-line shopping adoption such as
saving time, price, ease, faster shopping and delivery services.
I
Declaration
I declare that the work described within this thesis was originally taken by me between
January 2008 and October 2012 except where otherwise acknowledged. It is submitted
in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at De
Montfort University and has not been previously submitted for any other award.

Faisal Fahhad Al-Sharif

II
Publications
 Alsharif, F.F. et al. (2013) Extend the UTAUT to Measure the Adoption
of On-line Shopping in Saudi Environment. In: IADIS International
Conference E-Society. Lisbon, March 2013. IADIS Press, pp. 185-192.

 Alsharif, F.F. et al. (2013) The On-line Shopping Consumption Patterns
of Saudi Shoppers. In: International Conference on Information
Computer Applications ICICA. Rome, February, 2013.

III
Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to thank my God for all his blessings and guidance.
I would like to dedicate this work for my Father Fahhad Zamil Al-Sharif and my
Mother Noor Abdullah Al-Sharif and My wife Majdah, My children, Ghada, Abd-Al-
Rahman, Shaker, Ghazi, and my Brothers for their support and their sincere
supplications and good wishes for success.
My special appreciation is to my supervisory team, Dr. Chris Fidler, Dr Francois Siewe,
Prof. Hussein Zedan and Dr. Giampaolo Bella, for their valuable advice and assistance.
I would like to thank my assessors, Dr. Antonio Cau, Prof. Hongji Yang and Dr. Feng
Chen for their valuable suggestions.
I would like to thank DMU, particularly the Faculty of Technology, STRL, the
Kimberlin Library and the Graduate School Office for all the facilities available to
support researchers in their studies.
My gratitude is for all those who helped in collecting data and also the people who
agreed to take part in the research.
Finally, I hope that this thesis will contribute and accelerate the successful development
of on-line shopping adoption in Saudi Arabia.

IV
List of Figures
Figure ‎2.1: On-line/Off-line Shopping Growth Estimate 2010- 2020 .............................. 7
Figure ‎2.2: Global E-commerce Sales by Region ........................................................... 10
Figure ‎2.3: Global E-commerce Sales 2010-2013 .......................................................... 10
Figure ‎2.4: U.S. E-commerce Sales 2011-2016 .............................................................. 11
Figure ‎2.5: U.S. E-retail Sales 2009-2015 ...................................................................... 11
Figure ‎2.6: Europe E-retail Sales 2009-2015 .................................................................. 12
Figure ‎2.7: Most Popular On-line Purchases .................................................................. 13
Figure ‎2.8: Difference between E-commerce and E-business ........................................ 15
Figure ‎3.1: Broadband Penetration ................................................................................ 26
Figure ‎3.2: Saudi Arabia Internet and Broadband Users ................................................ 26
Figure ‎3.3: E-commerce Activities in SA ....................................................................... 32
Figure ‎3.4: E-commerce Spending in Arabic Countries in US$ Millions ...................... 33
Figure ‎3.5: Source: E-commerce Products and Services in SA ...................................... 33
Figure ‎3.6: Whether E-commerce Users shop Locally ................................................... 34
Figure ‎3.7: Panda Superstore .......................................................................................... 35
Figure ‎4.1: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) .............................................................. 48
Figure ‎4.2: Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) ............................................................ 49
V
Figure ‎4.3: Model of Five Stages in the Innovation-Decision Process ........................... 51
Figure ‎4.4: Adopter Categorisation on the Basic of Innovativeness ............................... 53
Figure ‎4.5: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) ....................................................... 54
Figure ‎4.6: TAM Extended to Account for Social Influences ........................................ 54
Figure ‎4.7: TAM2 Model ................................................................................................ 56
Figure ‎4.8: Overview of Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Efficacy ............................. 60
Figure ‎4.9: Combined TAM and TPB ............................................................................ 62
Figure ‎4.10: The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Source .......... 63
Figure ‎4.11: The Revised Framework ............................................................................. 68
Figure ‎5.1: Steps in Quantitative and Qualitative Studies .............................................. 81
Figure ‎5.2: Research Methodology Proposal Framework............................................... 85
Figure ‎5.3: Research Methodology Frameworks ............................................................ 87
Figure ‎5.4: The Proposed Research Model ..................................................................... 88
Figure ‎6.1: Regression Standardised Residual .............................................................. 127
Figure ‎6.2: The Proposal Extended UTAUT ................................................................ 142
Figure ‎7.1: Frequency Distribution of the Various Activities of E-commerce ............. 162
VI
List of Tables
Table ‎2.1: The Major B2B Models ................................................................................. 16
Table ‎2.2: The Major B2C Models ................................................................................. 17
Table ‎3.1: Saudi Arabia Internet Usage .......................................................................... 30
Table ‎3.2: Internet Usage Growth in Saudi Arabia ......................................................... 31
Table ‎4.1: Stages in the Adoption Process ...................................................................... 46
Table ‎4.2: Important Terms in TRA and TPB ................................................................ 47
Table ‎4.3: Models and Theories of Individual Acceptance adopted from ...................... 65
Table ‎4.4: UTAUT Constructs ........................................................................................ 70
Table ‎5.1: Summary of Research Dichotomies............................................................... 73
Table ‎5.2: Predispositions of Quantitative and Qualitative Modes of Inquiry ............... 78
Table ‎5.3: Epistemological Differences between Qualitative and Quantitative ............. 79
Table ‎5.4: Methodological Differences between Qualitative and Quantitative .............. 80
Table ‎5.5: Confirmatory vs. Exploratory Data Analysis................................................. 85
Table ‎5.6: The Research Hypotheses .............................................................................. 97
Table ‎5.7: Constructs adopted with this Study ............................................................. 100
Table ‎5.8: Questionnaire mode of Data Collection ....................................................... 102
Table ‎6.1: Sample Distribution of the Pilot Study by Gender and Age ........................ 110
VII
Table ‎6.2: Reliability Analyses using the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient ....................... 111
Table ‎6.3: Descriptive Statistics .................................................................................... 112
Table ‎6.4: The Mean (M) and Standard Deviation for the Research Factors ............... 117
Table ‎6.5: H1 Model Summary ..................................................................................... 124
Table ‎6.6: H1 ANOVA ................................................................................................. 124
Table ‎6.7: H1 Coefficients ............................................................................................ 125
Table ‎6.8: Summary Analysis of H ............................................................................. 128
2
Table ‎6.9: Summary Analysis of H4 (a, b, c, & d) ....................................................... 131
Table ‎6.10: Summary Analysis of H6 ........................................................................... 133
Table ‎6.11: Summary Analysis of H8 ........................................................................... 134
Table ‎6.12: Summary Analysis of H9 (a, b, c, & d) ..................................................... 136
Table ‎6.13: Summary Analysis of H10 ......................................................................... 137
Table ‎6.14: Summary Analysis of H15 ......................................................................... 141
Table ‎7.1: Hypotheses Analysis Summary ................................................................... 157
Table ‎7.2: The Important Factors Affect BI and AU .................................................... 158
Table ‎7.3: Frequent Activities of Electronic Commerce over the Internet ................... 161
VIII
List of Abbreviations
AU Actual Usage
AT Attitude toward Using Technology
ATM Automated Teller Machine
AX Anxiety
B2B Business to Business
B2C Business to Consumer
BI Behavioural Intention
C2C Consumer to Consumer
CB Cultural Background
DOI Diffusion of Innovations
E- Business Electronic Business
E-commerce Electronic Commerce
EDI Electronic Data Interchange
EE Effort Expectance
E-Government Electronic Government
E-shopping Electronic shopping
FC Facilitating Conditions
GDP Gross Domestic Product
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IS Information System
IT Information Technology
IX