The Impact of Gender Differences on Adoption of Information Technology and Related Responses: A Review

Abstract

Over the recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of women belonging to the Internet population. With this increase, researchers have begun to investigate the role of gender in information technology (IT) adoption and its related innovations, including e-commerce. Despite the large body of research on the topic, we know of no work that specifically reviews the literature regarding gender differences in these domains. To address this gap, we systematically reviewed the recent literature (in the period 2000–2017) regarding gender differences in IT adoption and six related behaviors and responses: online shopping adoption, online trust, attitude and satisfaction with e-commerce, website design preferences, and information processing strategies. Findings from the current review indicated that, in general, men are more likely to try a new IT and shop online than women, although the findings have been far somehow contradictory. Overall, men tend to have more positive evaluations of websites than women. According to the current review, gender differences play an important role in moderating certain relationships between different influencing variables. We highlight areas requiring future research and discuss the findings in the context of several theoretical perspectives.