Customer information search in the context of e-commerce: a cross-cultural analysis

Over recent decades, the Internet has emerged as a widely-used e-commerce tool for information searching and decision-making concerning consumer goods and services. Taking into account B2C consumers, greater access to information has generated significant competitive advantage for the firms that operate in the global marketplace. Recognizing the knowledge-intensive nature of online business, information is managed with the intention of delivering unique customer experience. The existing literature puts forward that the search for information represents a fundamental step in the decision-making process. Research shows that in the global marketplace, individuals from different cultures rely on different typologies of information for making shopping decisions. However, few studies have investigated whether, in order to fulfill different information needs, e-commerce informative elements should be localized or standardized depending on the cultural context. In an attempt to fill this gap in knowledge, this paper takes a customer behavior approach to investigate how individuals from Finland, Italy and Japan search for information within the specific context of e-commerce