The Impact of Age on Electronic Commerce Participation: An Exploratory Model

This exploratory study examined the impact of age on e-commence participation and its antecedents: usefulness, ease of information access, and trust. The three age groups considered were the young who were 18 to 25, the mature who were 50 to 69, and the elderly who were 70 and older: Of the three age groups, mature consumers had the highest perception of the usefulness of e-commetre but the lowest perceptions of trust. The elderly perceived less ease of information access and were less likely to participate in electronic commerce than the other age groups. Greater perceptions of usefulness and trust were found to be positively related to participation. In addition, trust had positive impacts on ease of information access and usefulness. While ease of information access had a positive impact on usefulness, it had no direct impact on e-commerce participation.