Building Usage Attitude for Mobile Shopping Applications: an Emerging Market Perspective

Mobile commerce has gained pace in recent years, providingan extended interaction channel between consumers and online retailers. Regardless of a significant increase in mobile internet usage, the adoption of mobile e-commerce (MC) services has not been as far-reached in the growing economies of the world. Recently, research in the e-commerce applied Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) indicated contradicting results.Some research studies found perceived usefulness has a significant effect on online purchase attitude, whereas in another study it was insignificant. We understand this, among many other factors, to be a consequence of the different levels of internet usage and its penetration in the region. We performed this study in Pakistan origin, a growing economy, where internet usage has significantly increased in the last decade or so. The e-commerce industry reviews pointed out that low consumer trust and poor logistics might be the key constraints in B2C mobile e-commerce adoption in Pakistan. Based on these grounds we adapted TAM by including consumer trust belief in mobile e-commerce and excluding perceived ease of use, as many research studies reported it insignificant for online shopping context. The proposition developed that trust in online shopping has an impact on improved perceptions about the usefulness of this interaction channel between online buyers and sellers. This positive usage attitude facilitates favorable online purchase intentions. The research conducted based on empirical evidence from Pakistan, and the model was developed on the bases of TAM, consumer trust in MC, and perceived usefulness and trust in mobile e-commerce. An online questionnaire survey was distributed to gather responses. Data analysis was performed with the partial least square technique or structured equation modeling. The research findings show that belief in trustworthiness of e-commerce has a more significant impact on usage attitude for mobile e-commerce as compared to PU. This implicates that online retailers in Pakistan should focus more on developing trust of their prospects by providing trust cues and other trust-building mechanisms. The research model empirically studied on evidence from Pakistan was first of its kind . In the future, the research can be conducted on specific categories of items (such as apparel fashion, technology base products) or services (such as traveling, hotels) developing effective strategies for retailers in B2C mobile e-commerce.