• Foreign users are generally young, well educated and often male.
• Education is a key factor in Internet usage.
• Cyber cafés and public access boost usage worldwide.
• With liberalization and privatization - competition increases and technology improves.
• The middle class worldwide is increasingly going online.
• E-commerce is becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
• The Internet is recognized as a mass medium.
• New demographics are being created, as not only white-collars go online.
With the growth of internet shopping it has become increasingly important to understand the factors which influence consumer purchase decisions in the web context. There is currently a growing literature on the role that trust plays in encouraging consumers to engage in e-commerce transactions. Various models have been proposed which aim to identify both the antecedents and outcomes of trust displayed towards e-commerce web sites. Increased trust is generally shown to increase positive user attitude, which in turn is linked to increased willingness to buy. Studies have shown the antecedents of trust include variables such as the perceived reputation and size of the vendor organisation. The current paper explores the role of cultural variables as antecedents of trust with the main emphasis being on religious affiliation. Participants recruited from Christian, Muslim and other faiths were asked to interact with online bookstores identified as Christian, Muslim or Neutral. Trust and attitudes towards the web sites were measured and this data was used to test the hypothesis that same-religion sites would be trusted and liked more than other religion or neutral sites. This hypothesis was partially supported, but only for the Muslim participants. It was found that the Muslim group expressed significantly more trust in the Muslim site compared to the Christian site. They also expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards the Muslim online bookstore than the other two sites.[29]