Demography and internet use. From a sociological point of view, internet is used by an
individual to search for information online and stay connected to the world. As the individual
grow older, the social network decreases and there is no point for them to stay connected,
resulting in lower perceived usefulness of the internet. Moreover, individuals who are older tend
to see themselves as having the limitation in learning due to reduction in cognitive capabilities. It
is actually the lower self-efficacy they perceived in them as they believe cognitive functionality is
decreasing as they age (Hertzog & Hultsch, 2000). “Since many older individuals have limited
experience using computers and the internet, is it likely that they have self-efficacy concerns
related to learning how to use the internet” as pointed out by Porter & Donthu (2006). The
authors also added that “it is likely that learning to use the internet creates an anxiety-provoking
situation that many would choose to avoid because of perceived difficulty associated with the
task”. When they refused to learn on internet, older entrepreneurs are prone to maintain their
traditional brick-and-mortar business. Thus, it can be concluded that age has a relationship with
the degree of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of e-commerce respectively.
Individual difference, in terms of ethnicity, is seen as another factor influencing how individuals
perceived usefulness and ease of use of e-commerce. Porter & Donthu (2006) has been using
African-American and Hispanic-Americans as the race factor in internet adoption and the authors
found out that these minorities in America tend towards collectivist behavior and thus, they are
expected to have less favorable perceptions of the internet which yielded a lower usage rate as
compared to their larger Americans counterpart. Therefore, differences in race or ethnicity will
have impacts towards the degree of e-commerce adoption as well. Consequently, it can be
concluded that ethnicity has a relationship with the degree of perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use of e-commerce respectively.
According to Lal (1999) and Lal (2005), entrepreneur’s qualification has a significant influence
whereby the author measures the knowledge base as the qualification standard. The author also
pointed out that the entrepreneur’s qualification will impose considerable relationship in the
degree of e-commerce or information technology adoption and hence, perceived usefulness and
perceived ease of use of e-commerce have a direct positive relationship to entrepreneur’s
qualification. The fact provided by Lal (1995 & 2005) is supported by Porter & Donthu (2006) as
well in which the authors suggested that the decision to adopt a new technology is related
strongly to the amount of knowledge one has as adopters with higher educational levels tend to
have the ability to understand “how to” knowledge more quickly than those with less education.
As a result, it can be concluded that education level has a relationship with the degree of ecommerce
perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use respectively.