Technology affordance, national polycontextuality, and customer loyalty in the cross-border e-commerce platform: A comparative study between China and South Korea

Given the intense competition in the cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) market, researchers have been exploring information technology (IT) functionalities to promote perceived value and customer loyalty. Building upon technology affordance theory, we develop a two-dimensional taxonomy of CBEC affordance with four archetypes: cross-culture information guidance, cross-culture shopping guidance, triggered attending, and social comparison. We refer to the polycontextual lens and propose a research model to explain how CBEC affordances and national polycontextuality jointly influence perceived value and customer loyalty. We empirically validate the conceptual model with two samples: 232 customers from China and 215 customers from South Korea. Our findings suggest that CBEC affordances significantly strengthen consumer loyalty by enhancing their perceived value. Specifically, cross-culture information guidance and cross-culture shopping guidance have more substantial effects on Chinese customers’ perceived value than South Korean customers’. Conversely, triggered attending and social comparison exert stronger influences on perceived value for South Korean customers.