Resuscitating location-based service mechanisms to harness trust in mobile commerce adoption

Abstract

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has created the opportunity to transact anywhere, anytime, transcending barriers of space and time. However, this freedom has been found to be intrusive in the lives of mobile users, acting counterproductively to trust building and exacerbating the reluctance to adopt m-commerce. The research design was a quantitative study that pivoted around the concept of location-based services (LBS) for mobile users and was focused on understanding specific behaviours around usage and trust under pre-determined conditions of connecting (particular place, particular time), push and pull mechanisms, brand loyalty and social network recommendations. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire with a non-probability sample of 189 individuals. Factors including push and pull LBS mechanisms, brand loyalty and social network recommendations were found to exhibit significant influence on mobile users trust and propensity to transact in m-commerce. No empirical support was found between the connecting conditions with mobile users and adoption of m-commerce, eliciting future research in this area. These results contribute to the body of research regarding mobile commerce by extending the existing understanding of its use through application with push and pull location-based services.