Mobile Commerce Adoption : An exploratory study of adoption requirements for the mobile commerce pre-paid service

Abstract

This thesis presents a study of adoption determinants for mobile commerce, focusing on end-users of a mobile commerce pre-paid service. The main objective of the study is twofold; to identify end-user’s adoption determinants and increase the validity of an adoption model by applying it to the results of the study.

In order to investigate the field of mobile commerce service adoption, information related to its’ end-users was gathered. The study is based on literature studies, service tests, open-ended interviews with experts within the field and marketing meetings at Telenor Mobil’s mobile commerce department as sources of input, influencing the design of the study. As a result, a case study was designed. A series of focused interviews and participant observations with end-users of the service, open-ended interviews with employees at Telenor Mobil’s mobile commerce department was performed, in addition to gathering of documents and archival records on end-users.

To fully understand the adoption process of mobile commerce, Pedersen and Methlie [2002] suggest studying the mobile commerce service end-users in three context-dependent adoption perspectives. These perspectives view the individual as a technology end-user, a consumer and a network member. Each perspective is illustrated by a relevant model, consisting of a modified version of the decomposed theory of planned behaviour for the technology end-user, the customer life cycle model for the consumer and a social network analysis as a basis for the network member. Regarding Pedersen and Methlie’s framework as tentative, assuming that its uniformity and nature propositions were correct, the framework was applied to the results of the study in order to validate its concepts.

The findings of the case study indicate strong support for triangulating the three perspectives suggested by Pedersen and Methlie [2002]. Many determinants were identified, the strongest based on experimental and instrumental motives. Timing of service exposure was also found important in influencing both initial and post-decisional phases of consumer adoption. Validity of the framework was supported.