Individuality, willingness to take risk, and use of a personal e‐card: A Lebanese study

To address the issue of risk intention using personal e‐cards and to test the effect of the individuality of decision makers in the Lebanese context.

The data of this research were collected by means of personal interviews using questionnaire. The sample involved 197 managers from various industries. The researchers developed a discriminant function equation to investigate risk taking behavior in the use of e‐cards. The function classifies individuals into risk takers and non‐risk takers on the basis of their psychographics and demographic characteristics. Risk was measured using the risk‐assessment scenario developed by MacCrimmon and Wehrung. Risk intention was measured by asking: “What is the likelihood of your being willing, in the near future, to pay for items on the internet using a personal e‐card?”. Seven items were used to measure psychographics and lifestyle information. Factor analysis was used as a data‐reduction technique, followed by multiple regression analysis (discriminant function) to determine the relative importance of the independent variables.

The study demonstrated that, although respondents valued risk and were willing to take a chance, they did care about security. Further analysis showed that highly educated managers (university education) and Christians were slightly more willing to pay by e‐card on the internet than were less‐educated and Muslim managers.

It has to be borne in mind that using dissimilar groups will make the validity of the procedure questionable. Replicating the same study under different conditions (different groups in Lebanon or outside Lebanon) will make prediction more reliable.

The discriminant analysis in this study has helped to explain the difference between risk taking and non‐risk‐taking managers in Lebanon.

This paper addresses a new issue about risk intention and offers practical explanation. It fulfils an identified need in the Literature. Lebanon is a small country with one of the most developed internet markets in the Arab world but Lebanese People hesitate to transfer money via the internet. The current study was therefore conducted to address the issue of risk intention using personal e‐cards and to test the effect of the individuality of decisionmakers in the Lebanese context.