Developing Successful Mobile Payment Technologies - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages

I have scrutinized over 50 academic journals in the area of social psychology, technology adoption, and mobile payments to retrieve a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. To this, I have identified the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Technology Acceptance Model, The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, the Task-Technology Fit model, and the Diffusion of Innovations as centerpieces in the academic literature. Founded on these the evolution of the concept has been ongoing where several antecedents have been identified to either facilitate or impede the adoption of mobile payment technologies.

Different attempts have been made to conceptualize these complexities, however, none incorporate a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents of adoption of mobile payment technologies identified in the mobile payment literature with both a payer and payee-centric approach which comprehends the payer-payee context. Acknowledging this, I have integrated a framework founded upon social psychology rationales, technology adoption theories, and mobile payment literature to increase understanding of why new mobile payment technologies are adopted by payers and payees.

Applying my framework to real-life cases I have found several interesting findings such as (1) payer and payee adoption are interrelated, (2) payee adoption is highly influenced by usefulness mediated through task-technology fit and especially the presence of expected functions, (3) payee adoption can be influenced by payer’s costs and the technologies’ consistency with payer’s lifestyle, (4) lack of ease of use is a barrier of adoption, in contrast, to ease of use as a driver of adoption.

Most importantly my findings are evidence that the adoption of mobile payment technologies is highly contextual and suggest that developers direct attention towards closer cooperation with payers and especially payees. As such, mobile payment developers should gain a keen understanding of the payees’ business and develop mobile payment solutions that support this. Furthermore, mobile payment developers should consider what value mobile payment technology brings to payers and include usefulness, economic benefits, and information value in these considerations. Relying solely on mobility value to drive payer adoption is inadequate according to my findings.

The mobile payment service markets are currently undergoing a transition with a history of numerous tried and failed solutions, and a future of promising but uncertain possibilities. Despite the increased introduction of new mobile payment technologies, adoption remains modest (Mallat & Tuunainen, 2008). The unstable and insecure nature of this market leaves businesses, managers, and developers eager to know what makes one technology a success. Hence, from a business perspective it is indisputably important to understand: Why are new mobile payment technologies adopted?

In the mobile payment literature there is a bias towards studying the above question from either one of two perspectives; the payer or the payee. Consequently, existing academic literature tries to explain why new mobile payment technologies are adopted by isolating the two extremes (i.e. the payer and the payee), thereby neglecting the continuum and the relationship between payer and payee (Dahlberg et al., 2007).

Furthermore, a significant part of technology adoption research is based on the social psychology Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and its most popular extension; the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). TAM has been accused of diverting researchers’ attention and creating an illusion of progress in knowledge accumulation (Benbasat & Barki, 2007). Attempts to expand TAM to adapt it to the constantly changing IT environments have led to a state of theoretical chaos and confusion, epitomized below: Ironically, a synthesis of these efforts has resulted in a model [UTAUT] that essentially brings us back full circle to TAM’s origins (Benbasat & Barki, 2007).

To begin with I (1) review existing technology adoption theories and the theoretical rationales underpinning these, as well as the mobile payment literature, I then (2) formulate a unified model that integrates elements across several reviewed models and theories, and finally(3), I apply the unified model to an illustrative case and evaluate the results.

...Download file to see next pages Read More