Abstract
This research examines differences in the adoption of online reselling between old and young millennials across countries in Europe. National cultural values and government policies are included in the analysis as reasons for differences between countries. Responses from 35,390 individuals from 14 European countries are used to test a multilevel model. The results indicate that young millennials are less likely to resell online. Individualism and public investment in R&D have positive effects on reselling adoption, whereas uncertainty avoidance has a negative effect. Uncertainty avoidance and investment in R&D and in education explain differences between countries in reselling adoption by young versus old millennials.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude for financial support received from MINECO (ECO2017-83993-P), and the Government of Aragón and the European Social Fund (GENERES Group S-54_20R). Furthermore, the authors want to thank EUROSTAT for the data provided for the analysis.
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Although there have been questions regarding the validity of using Hofstede’s findings, the results of his work have been supported quantitatively and qualitatively by numerous studies in various disciplines (Ford et al. 2003; Søndergaard 1994; Straub 1994).
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Appendix
Measurement of variables
Variable | Indicator |
|---|---|
Age | |
Young millennials | 18–24 years |
Old millennials | 25–34 years |
Culture | |
Masculinity | 0–10 (Hofstede insights/10) |
Individualism | 0–10 (Hofstede insights/10) |
Uncertainty avoidance | 0–10 (Hofstede insights/10) |
Government | |
Cybersecurity | Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) |
R&D public expenditure | R&D public expenditure as a percentage of GDP |
Public investment in education | Total government expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP |
Control variables | |
Education level | 0—lower secondary education at most 1—upper secondary and post-secondary education 2—tertiary education |
IT skills | 1—if the individual knows about installing a modem and about programming software 2—basic IT knowledge (using PowerPoint, Excel, etc., or copying and pasting information or documents) |
Frequency of Internet use | 2—daily use, or near-daily use 1—at least once a week (but not every day) 0—less than once a week |
Income | 1—if the individual receives any type of income 0—if he or she is a student with no income |
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Lucia-Palacios, L., Bordonoba-Juste, V. & Pérez-López, R. Consumer-to-consumer reselling adoption among European countries: differences between old and young millennials. Serv Bus 15, 253–279 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-021-00442-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-021-00442-z