Adoption of online purchasing in communities, and its socio-economic implications in regional Central Queensland, Australia

This paper analyses the general trends of online purchasing in Central Queensland (CQ) communities during 1999-2002 and identifies the socio-economic factors affecting online purchasing activities. The Online Purchasing Indicator, defined as a combination of percentages of online purchasers and of regular purchasers (>one item/month) within a group, is applied to compare these activities between these two groups. The study identifies that four factors, namely 'personal attributes', 'knowledge', 'trust' and 'need' may play important roles in online purchasing decisions. The research found that regional economic bleeding associated with low local adoption failing to provide justification for local business to adopt electronic purchasing support has not yet reached significant levels.