Joint SOM/IS Conference Country-of-Origin Image in Cross-Border Electronic Commerce

The perception and influence of B2B e-commerce website’s features, such as color, images, translation of content, etc., varies depending on consumer culture. Indeed, these characteristics and their related effects are especially important in the context of cross-border electronic commerce, which involves websites and consumers from different countries and cultures. According to recent research on electronic commerce, the level of preference for certain aspects of website characteristics is not equal across countries. Unfortunately, the effect of an intrinsic part of the website, such as countryof-origin, has not been previously seriously studied. Clearly, country-of-origin image is known to have an influence on product and brand selection, but its effect on electronic commerce websites has not been previously examined. This research presentation will propose and analyze how positive or negative perceptions along affective and cognitive dimensions of the website’s country-of-origin image may affect trust and consumer’s willingness to purchase from foreign websites. In particular, this research will propose an experimental investigation to measure the responses of Japanese consumers towards online shops from two other Asian countries, where the electronic commerce market is not yet as developed as it is in Japan. Furthermore, the study will investigate the impact of varying degrees of translations on a website’s perceived quality.