Global Journal of Management and Business Research, B: Economics and Commerce, Volume 21 Issue 5

Indulgence versus restraint Indulgence (IVR) versus restraint is the sixth and last cultural dimension by Hofstede G. This dimension reveals how society reacts to basic human needs and what social norms are followed. Societies that have weaker controls over feelings and needs are considered as indulgent countries, while countries with strict social norms considered as restraint (Hofstede, 2010). According to Hofstede G and Yavuz (Hofstede G, 2011; Yavuz, 2014) studies in indulgent society friends, leisure, equal gender roles, freedom of speech are considered as important. On contrary, restrained countries focus more on: savings, moral discipline, and order in the nation. As restraint countries mostly value duty over pleasure and interested in savings, we hereby propose the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 11: Online purchase is prevalent among restraint SCO member states. III. R esearch M ethodology a) Data source and description The following research model will be used to test above eleven hypotheses: The World Bank Global FINDEX data is current most significant dataset on financial inclusion and used to analyze economic situations of individual countries and regional or financial blocs such as ASEAN, SAARC and WAEMU. (Jukan M et.al, 2016; Asli D. et.al , 2017; Dharmendra S. et.al, 2020; Abu H., 2021; Sionfou S., 2021). The B2C e-commerce adoption and usage among SCO member states are analyzed based on measurement “if the participant purchased something online in the past year” from latest FINDEX dataset. Moreover, the five independent demographic variables and account ownership data are also derived from FINDEX. In total this study analyzed 11227 face-to-face interviews with SCO citizens (China 3627, India 3000, Kazakhstan 1000, Pakistan 1600, and Russia 2000); whereas 26 respondents didn’t mention their age, 32 education level and 161 respondents’ online purchase data are missing. The details are stated in Table 3. Six independent variables such as cultural country-level dimensions (power distance and uncertainty indexes, individualism, masculinity, orientation term and indulgence) are derived from Hofstede’s site (www.hofstede-insights.com) and measured in scale from 0 to 100. Moreover, we assume that GDP per capita and account ownership is correlated with internet penetration and online purchase, and thereby include them as control variables in the study. The detailed definitions of variables are included below: Table 3: Definitions of variables Variable Definition Source Dependent variable E-commerce adoption Participant purchased online in the past year=1; no=0 FINDEX Independent variables (Demographic factors) Age Age of participants FINDEX Gender Male=1,female=0 FINDEX Education Primary=1,secondary=2,tertiary=3 FINDEX Employment Employed=1;unemployed=0 FINDEX Income level Poorest=1;Second=2;Middle=3;Fourth=4;Richest=5 FINDEX Independent variables (Cultural factors) Power distance The degree to which citizens accept country’s distribution of power. Hofstede Individualism Ties between people in society, where as individuals take care of themselves or families. Hofstede Masculinity The degree to which gender has an influence on society's roles. Hofstede Uncertainty avoidance The degree to which individuals respond and tolerate uncertainties and ambiguities. Hofstede H1-H5 H6-H11 Figure 1: Research model CULTURALFACTORS GDP per capita; Account ownership B2C E- COMMERCEADOPTIONAMO NGSCOMEMBERSTATES DEMOGRAPHICFACTORS Demographic and Cultural Factors Influencing the Adoption of B2C E-Commerce in SCO Region © 2021 Global Journals 32 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXI Issue V Version I Year 2021 ( ) B