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With a basis in the theory of reasoned action (TRA; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), the technology acceptance model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989) is one of the most prevalent behavioral models applied to explain users’ technology acceptance (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). The TAM offers a robust, parsimonious, dominant, and simple model for explaining human behavior in action, especially in e-shopping or e-commerce environments (Davis, 1989). Despite its parsimoniousness though, researchers question the universality of the TAM, especially in cultures marked by high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and high collectivism (McCoy, Galletta, & King, 2007). Venkatesh (2000) also cites the TAM’s parsimony as a critical limitation of the theory. Noting this limitation, as well as the simplicity and robustness of the TAM theory, scholars have attempted to add variables from related theories to capture other key determinants that might influence consumers’ purchasing intentions (Tong, 2010), such as perceived risk (Featherman & Pavlou, 2003; Pavlou, 2003) and trust (Gefen, 2004; Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003). Pavlou (2003) notes the increasing incorporation of both trust and perceived risk in the TAM, though as people grow more accustomed to e-commerce, they may perceive fewer risks (Ko, Jung, Kim, & Shim, 2004). Online retailing has continued to grow exponentially, such that the 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016 are expected to increase to 2.14 billion by 2021 (Rosengren, Lange, Hernant, & Blom, 2018). Furthermore, trust and perceived risk appear pertinent for millennial consumers, who tend to be risk-takers and thus perceive less risk than previous generations (Aruna & Anitha, 2015). To test these ideas, we conduct this research in Vietnam, where a large portion of the population is young (median age is about 29 years), and urbanization is accelerating. Furthermore, Vietnam is an emerging country, located in a strategic political and economic position in Southeast Asia, attracting many multinational companies in the world to invest and do business. Vietnam has a population of 100 million people, high economic growth rate, good Internet infrastructure covering 60% of its population, and 72% of its population uses smartphones, so e-commerce characterized by interactions between businesses’ websites and customers is expected to significantly grow in the coming time. (Bui et al., 2020). Thus, a reassessment of whether perceived risk and trust should be included in the TAM, conducted in this southeast Asian country, is pertinent and justified, and it may assist in generalizing prior findings to similar, rapidly developing countries.
We also focus on Vietnam because more than half of its population uses the Internet as of 2017. Forsythe, Liu, Shannon, and Gardner (2006) reveal that more frequent shoppers who spend more money on online shopping perceive more significant benefits and less risk of Internet shopping. As Easley and Madden (2000) argue, we believe that researchers should be skeptical of results until they have been successfully replicated. By testing the applicability of the TAM in a non-Western, collectivist country, we seek to address several of these research gaps. According to Hofstede’s website, Vietnam scored 70 on power distance, 80 on collectivism, 30 on uncertainty avoidance, and 40 on masculinity. Therefore, we test the applicability of the TAM to Vietnamese consumers’ online shopping intentions, while we also consider whether it is appropriate to include perceived trust and risk as antecedents of TAM constructs in this developing Southeast Asian country.