Cross-Border Digital Commerce as Retail International Finance: Trustworthiness, Country-of-Origin Signals, and Online Purchase Intention in a High-Risk Emerging Market

As cross-border e-commerce expands in emerging economies, consumer participation increasingly depends on perceived transaction risk linked to digital payments, settlement, dispute resolution, and institutional enforceability. This study reconceptualizes online purchase intention (OPI) as a decision embedded in retail international finance. Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), it integrates Internet Trustworthiness Behavior (ITB) and Country of Origin (COO) as risk-relevant signals shaping consumer judgment under cross-border uncertainty. Survey data from 390 digitally active consumers in the Dominican Republic were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that ITB strengthens perceived behavioral control, attitudes toward online purchasing, and subjective norms, while also exerting a direct positive effect on OPI. COO emerges as a strong direct predictor of OPI, functioning as a heuristic indicator of country credibility when formal safeguards appear weak. Contrary to standard TPB expectations, perceived behavioral control negatively predicts OPI, suggesting that greater digital competence may heighten awareness of expected losses and limited recourse in high-risk environments. The findings advance international business and finance research by showing how micro-level trust practices and macro-level country signals jointly shape consumer risk management in cross-border digital markets, with implications for inclusive participation and consumer protection.