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Personality and E-shopping: Insights from a Nationally Representative Study

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Digital Transformation and Global Society (DTGS 2019)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1038))

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Abstract

According to previous research, a high degree of Openness and Neuroticism, and a low degree of Agreeableness are personality determinants of e-shopping. This study aims to explore the relationship between the Five-factor model of personality (i.e. Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) and e-shopping in a Swedish context. In a nationally representative sample, a questionnaire was distributed to 3400 citizens. The response rate was 53 percentage (N = 1812). The questionnaire included measures of the Five-factor model of personality (BFI-ten) and e-shopping. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to test if the Five-factor model of personality predicted e-shopping. The dependent variable was self-reported frequencies of e-shopping during the last 12 months. The first analysis showed that Openness is predicting e-shopping. However, this effect disappeared, when age, educational attainment and income were controlled for. Our conclusion is that the Five-factor model of personality is a poor predictor of e-shopping and that e-shopping frequencies are unrelated to the personality of internet users. Methodological limitations are discussed, for instance the use of a single-item for measuring e-shopping and a short-scale for measuring personality. There are difficulties comparing our findings with previous findings, since the concepts personality and e-shopping have not been defined uniformly. The analyses revealed significant variation in definitions, measurements and methodologies. Caution should also be taken in generalizing the present results to other countries and other time periods.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Psychology, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen 1, 541 28, Skövde, Sweden

    John Magnus Roos

  2. Division of Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 58, Gothenburg, Sweden

    John Magnus Roos

  3. Centre for Consumer Research, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 606, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden

    John Magnus Roos

  4. Department of Business Administration and Textile Management, University of Borås, Allégatan 1, 503 32, Borås, Sweden

    John Magnus Roos

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  1. John Magnus Roos
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Correspondence to John Magnus Roos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Daniel A. Alexandrov

  2. ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Alexander V. Boukhanovsky

  3. ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Andrei V. Chugunov

  4. National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Yury Kabanov

  5. National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Olessia Koltsova

  6. National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Ilya Musabirov

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Roos, J.M. (2019). Personality and E-shopping: Insights from a Nationally Representative Study. In: Alexandrov, D., Boukhanovsky, A., Chugunov, A., Kabanov, Y., Koltsova, O., Musabirov, I. (eds) Digital Transformation and Global Society. DTGS 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1038. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37858-5_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37858-5_21

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37857-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-37858-5

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