Perception and attitude towards e-commerce: A case of postgraduate students in UUM

E-commerce is defined as business activities conducted using electronic data transmission technology. It includes any form of business transactions in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact. Even though it has been a few years since the commercialization of the Internet, Malaysians still mainly regard it as a means of communication and entertainment and not yet as a medium for business interactions. Thus, the proliferation of e-commerce activities has created a need to understand how and why people participate in e-commerce. This research is designed to analyze perception and attitude towards e-commerce among postgraduate students, based on organizational, environmental and personal factors. The results of this study revealed that the postgraduate students perceived e-commerce positively with the overall mean score of 82.6 (min=17, max= 109). They also possessed positive attitude towards e-commerce and are supportive of the e-commerce development (mean= 16.66, min=3, max=21). However, there is still room for improvement particularly in disseminating e-commerce information, enhancing information technology and e-commerce understanding among the people, strengthening cyber regulations as well as encouraging superior organizational commitment to support e-commerce development