E-Commerce Calls for Cyber-Security and Sustainability: How European Citizens Look for a Trusted Online Environment

Idiano D’Adamo, Rocío González-Sánchez, Maria Sonia Medina-Salgado and Davide Settembre-Blundo
Additional contact information
Idiano D’Adamo: Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Rocío González-Sánchez: Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Maria Sonia Medina-Salgado: Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Davide Settembre-Blundo: Department of Business Administration (ADO), Applied Economics II and Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Davide Settembre Blundo

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: The pandemic has changed the citizens’ behavior, inducing them to avoid any real contact. This has given an incredible impulse to e-commerce; however, the complexity of the topic has not yet been adequately explored in the literature. To fill this gap, this study has a twofold purpose: (1) to investigate how European countries comparatively perform in e-commerce, and (2) to describe what are the most important challenges for the further expansion of e-commerce. To this end, we adopted a hybrid methodology based on multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and a Likert scale survey. The first method allows to us rank the e-commerce performance of different European countries, while the second one looks at the problems and barriers that characterize online shopping. The results of the study show that European countries have different sensitivities to the issue of cyber-security, and among them it is possible to identify three groups with different levels of attention to the critical issues of e-commerce. The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark belong to the group of countries most responsive to e-commerce. This request is part of a broader framework of transition toward sustainable development, i.e., a reliable digital environment where citizens and businesses can exercise their rights and freedoms in complete security. Finally, from a theoretical perspective, this paper adds a new baseline to the literature on the state of the art of e-commerce in Europe that addresses the effects of the pandemic. From a managerial point of view, decision makers can find in the results of this analysis a support for the setting of business strategies for the expansion of firms in certain markets and guidance for public authorities when defining regulatory policies for e-commerce.

Keywords: cyber-security; e-commerce; Europe; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6752/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/12/6752/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:12:p:6752-:d:575174

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().