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disagreement with the security of credit card on-line and electronic commerce being
advantageous for purchasing groceries.
Table 5 contains the average responses for non-ecommerce users. There were
significant differences in the attitudes of the U.S. and UK non-electronic commerce
participants concerning five statements. The UK non e-commerce users were
significantly more positive concerning the convenience of home delivery of goods, and
that e-commerce is advantageous for the purchase of CDs and books and travel
tickets. The greatest difference between the U.S. and UK respondents was
regarding Internet banking. Students from the U.S. were more likely to be negative or
neutral concerning managing a bank account on-line whereas the UK students were
more
positive (2.84 vs. 3.46).
Those individuals who have purchased items over the internet were more
positive about electronic commerce. Figure 3 contains a graphical representation
of their attitudes on eleven items. Both U.S. and UK electronic commerce users
reported positive attitudes toward seven of the items, compared to only three for
non-ecommerce users. In addition to agreeing that electronic commerce is more
convenient than traditional shopping and is advantageous for the purchase of books
and music and travel tickets, the electronic commerce users were also positive
about electronic commerce offering a better value, being beneficial for the mainte-
nance of a bank account and being superior to other direct sales channels.
Table 6 contains the average response on each of the eleven items. U.S. and
UK respondents who have participated in an electronic commerce transaction
reported significantly different attitudes on three of the items. The UK respon-
dents were more negative concerning the advantages of purchasing clothing on-
line whereas the U.S. respondents were neutral (2.44 vs 3.04). Both groups
were concerned with being able to readily rectify problems with products pur-
chased on-line, however the U.S. students were not as concerned as the UK
students (2.92 vs. 2.66).
DISCUSSION AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE
RESEARCH
Regardless of culture, it appears that security is a concern for on-line shop-
pers. Both the U.S. and UK respondents, regardless of e-commerce participa-