The impact of religiosity on interpersonal trust in B2C context: A cross-culture analysis

Religion has long been playing a significant role in influencing human behavior. However, its business value as a predictor of buyer behavior has not been sufficiently examined in e-commerce context. The main contribution of this paper is to show the connection between the degree of religiosity and interpersonal trust (cognitive and affect-based trust) in Business to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce. The study uses responses obtained from a convenient sample from Muslims and Christians in two different societies, Pakistan and Australia respectively. The data of the survey were analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS) approach. The results indicate that interpersonal trust related to religiosity in a web-based retailer can vary with culture, at least as represented by affiliation to a religion. It is suggested that religiosity should be considered as possible determinant of trust in online shopping in the future.