E-commerce possesses considerable potential for developing the internationalisation and integration of consumer markets by bringing sellers and consumers from different countries directly into contact with each other without the requirement for intermediaries. However, cross-border online purchases remain low compared to domestic online purchases. Large differences between individual countries are also observed in the percentage of consumers who purchase cross-border. While previous studies of e-commerce have concentrated on the decision to buy on-line, this study concentrates on the decision to purchase cross-border compared to purchasing on-line only domestically. To this end, a statistical qualitative response model is developed and tested against a large data set of consumers living in the thirty countries belonging to the European Economic Area. The results demonstrate the importance of country level determinants in addition to the personal characteristics of the consumer in terms of their age, gender, profession, educational background, location and trust in non-domestic suppliers in the decision to purchase cross-border. Among the country level determinants, domestic market size, economic development and ethnic fractionalization of the country are all shown to play an important role. The results have important practical implications for e-commerce sellers as well as public authorities. The country-specific socio-economic determinants can help to better assess the potential market for cross-border selling and guide public policies aimed at stimulating cross-border selling as a means to integrate consumer markets in the European Economic Area.

通过使卖方和来自不同国家的消费者直接相互联系而无需中介，电子商务具有发展消费者市场的国际化和整合的巨大潜力。但是，与国内在线购买相比，跨境在线购买仍然很低。各个国家之间的跨境购买比例也存在很大差异。虽然先前的电子商务研究集中于在线购买的决策，但与仅在国内进行在线购买相比，本研究的重点是购买跨境的决策。为此，针对生活在属于欧洲经济区的三十个国家的大量消费者，开发并测试了统计定性反应模型。结果表明，国家/地区决定因素除了消费者的个人特征（在年龄，性别，职业，教育背景，地理位置以及对非国内供应商的信任度）方面，在决定跨国购买方面也很重要。在国家层面的决定因素中，国内市场规模，经济发展和国家的种族分化都显示出重要作用。结果对电子商务销售商和公共机构具有重要的实际意义。