The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm

IMDS
109,3

What drives Malaysian

m-commerce adoption?
An empirical analysis

370

Toh Tsu Wei

Received 13 June 2008

Revised 22 August 2008
Accepted 11 September
2008

Panasonic R&D Centre Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Govindan Marthandan
Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Alain Yee-Loong Chong

Faculty of Computing and IT, INTI International University College,
Nilai, Malaysia

Keng-Boon Ooi
University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Malaysia, and

Seetharam Arumugam
Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to empirically examine the factors that affect the consumer intention to
use (IU) mobile commerce (m-commerce) in Malaysia. The five factors examined in this study are
perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease-of-use (PEOU), social influence (SI), perceived cost and trust.
Design/methodology/approach The study sample consists of 222 respondents with a response
rate of 84.09 per cent. Data were analyzed by employing correlation and multiple regression analysis.
Findings The findings revealed that PU, SI, perceived financial cost and trust are positively
associated with consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia. In addition, PEOU and trust were found to
have an insignificant effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.
Research limitations/implications The generalizability of the findings is limited as the study
focuses only on Malaysia.
Practical implications Based on the findings, companies involved in m-commerce should focus
on improving the usefulness of the system, trust (i.e. security and privacy protection) and reducing the
cost of m-commerce services to improve the adoption of m-commerce.
Originality/value The findings made a contribution in terms of allowing us to understand the factors
that can contribute to the adoption of mobile commerce. This study successfully extend the TAM model in
the context of mobile commerce by incorporating one trust-based construct (trust), one behavioural control
construct (perceived financial cost) and one subjective norm construct (SI). This extended TAM model
provides a greater understanding of user acceptance of mobile commerce in Malaysia.
Keywords Mobile communication systems, Consumer behaviour, Malaysia
Paper type Research paper
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 3, 2009
pp. 370-388
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910939399

Introduction
The current business environment is getting more competitive. In order for many
companies to stay competitive, businesses have always strived to improve themselves

by creating better products and services for their customers. With the recent emergence
of the wireless and mobile networks, a new platform for business to trade their product
and service known as m-commerce is beginning to gather attentions from businesses.
Unlike e-commerce where the connectivity is through internet, m-commerce is
connected wirelessly in a mobile environment using mobile devices. M-commerce has
much potential in developing countries as small- and medium-sized companies in
remote areas can use them to reach many potential customers (United Nations, 2002).
Prior to the development of m-commerce, e-commerce was depended on costly
infrastructure and equipments such as computers and fixed line network. m-Commerce
offers more ubiquity and accessibility to the users when compared to e-commerce. The
accessibility of m-commerce is an advantage over e-commerce as e-commerce
applications usually need a wired end-user device (Schwiderski-Grosche and Knospe,
2002). As mobile devices are small in size and light in weight, it is also very convenient
for users to carry around the device (Schwiderski-Grosche and Knospe, 2002). Given
that mobile devices are usually owned by individual and not shared between different
users, m-commerce allows the services to be catered towards the users needs (e.g. ring
tones) (Schwiderski-Grosche and Knospe, 2002).
Although there are lots of potentials for businesses in m-commerce, when compared to
developed countries such as Japan and South Korea, m-commerce in Malaysia is still at its
infancy stage (Wong and Hiew, 2005). The adoption of technologies such as 3G and WiMax
are still relatively low in Malaysia when compared to these developed countries. Past
studies have attempted to investigate the factors that can influence the adoption of
m-commerce. However, many of these studies are carried out mainly in countries such as
the USA, China and Taiwan. Most of the earlier studies have attempted to study the factors
influencing m-commerce adoption through traditional adoption models such as technology
acceptance model (TAM), theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and diffusion of innovation
(DOI). However, except for a few recent studies (Liao et al., 2007; Khalifa and Shen, 2008),
there has been a general lack of strong empirical work to enable the establishment of
models to find out the factors that can explain the adoption of m-commerce.
The purpose of this study is to fill existing research gap by empirically establishing
a model to explain the factors impacting the adoption of m-commerce in Malaysia. An
empirical analysis is conducted to test the hypotheses of the adoption. This paper is
organized as follows:
.
providing a literature review on adoption factors of m-commerce;
.
developing a research model based on literature review;
.
addressing the research methods;
.
discussing the research findings; and
.
discussing the practical and managerial implications of this study.
Literature review
m-Commerce
As m-commerce is a relatively new concept, there have been various definitions of
m-commerce. Abu Bakar and Osman (2005) defined m-commerce as exchange or
buying and selling of commodities and services through wireless handheld devices
such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistant (PDAs). Moshin et al. (2003)
stated that the most common definition of m-commerce actually represents the

Malaysian
m-commerce

371

IMDS
109,3

372

extension of electronic commerce. In other words, m-commerce is seen as an

e-commerce over the wireless devices (Varshney and Vetter, 2002). However, Feng et al.
(2006) suggested that m-commerce is more than e-commerce due to its different
interaction style, usage pattern and value chain. Feng et al. (2006) stated that
m-commerce is a new and innovative business opportunity with its own unique
characteristics and functions, such as mobility and broad reachability.
Moshin et al. (2003) extended the term of m-commerce to mobile business. Mobile
business according to Moshin et al. (2003) is the business-related communication that is
conducted among individuals and companies that does not necessarily involve
financial transaction. Tiwari and Buse (2007) stated that m-commerce is an integral
subset of m-business since the services provided by m-business covered both
commercial and non-commercial areas. It can be seen that mobile business has a larger
scope since all aspects of m-commerce take place in mobile business.
Tiwari and Buse (2007) argued that the transaction of monetary value was
inappropriate in defining m-commerce because it ignores the commercial nature of
marketing measures and after-sales services. Besides, the completed transaction may
cost nothing such as free software, games and music. Furthermore, they also argued
that statement with wireless telecommunication networks mislead people that
transactions had to be completed exclusively through wireless telecommunication
networks. This limits the scope of m-commerce to only immaterial products (e.g.
information), which normally ignore the material products.
From the above definitions and discussions, the definition of m-commerce in this
study follows the definition of Tiwari and Buse (2007, p. 33) since it comprises various
sources about the nature of m-commerce. Thus, m-commerce is defined as any
transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services,
which is initiated and/or completed by using mobiles access to computer-mediated
networks with the help of mobile devices.
Factors affecting the adoption of m-commerce
Past studies included various frameworks and models to clarify the factors or determinants
influencing the acceptance of technology in consumer context. Most of them are based on
theories such as TAM (Davis, 1989), TPB (Ajzen, 1991) and DOI (Rogers, 1995).
TAM proposed that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease-of-use (PEOU)
are both able to predict the behavioural IU a technology of users. PU is the extent to
which an individuals expectation that the use of the technology will improve ones job
performance whereas PEOU is the belief that using the technology will be free of effort
(Davis, 1989; Fusilier and Durlabhji, 2005).
TPB was extended from theory of resonated action (TRA). Besides, technological
factors, TPB also focused on social and individual factors (Khalifa and Shen, 2008).
The theory of planned behaviour stated that behavioural intention to perform an
activity is determined by attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm
(Ajzen, 1991; Fusilier and Durlabhji, 2005).
Attitude is defined as a persons feelings about performing behaviour. Perceived
behavioural control is defined as the perception of how easy or difficult it is to perform
a behaviour (Fusilier and Durlabhji, 2005, p. 234) and subjective norm is defined as
ones beliefs about whether significant others think that one should engage in the
activity (Fusilier and Durlabhji, 2005, p. 234).

DOI theory stated that there are five perceived attributes of an innovation that can
determine the rate of adoption (Rogers, 1995; Chong and Ooi, 2008). The five perceived
attributes of the innovation are relative advantage, compatibility, complexity,
trialability and observability (Rogers, 1995). Relative advantage is the degree to which
an innovation is perceived as being better than the idea it supersedes. Compatibility is
defined as the degree to which an innovation is perceived as consistent with past
values, past experience, and the needs of the potential adopters. The complexity of an
innovation is whether the innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to use and
understand. Trialability refers to whether an innovation may be experimented with
on a limited basis. Lastly, observability is whether the results of an innovation are
visible to others (Rogers, 1995).
There are strengths and weaknesses for each of the models discussed above.
Mathieson et al. (2001) stated that TAM is being widely used in adoption studies as it is
information system (IS) specific and is based on a theory of social psychology.
However, Mathieson et al. (2001) argued that TAM is limited by the lack of barriers
that inhibit the individual from using an IS if he or she choose to do so.
Although TPB model does not have the strengths possessed by TAM but it
provides two constructs that did not appear in TAM model: subjective norms and
perceived behavioral control (Mathieson et al., 2001). TPB include more effects and
variables than TAM that may be important in some situation. Taylor and Todd (1995)
have compared TAM with TPB in their adoption of computing resource centre study
and found that TAM explains 53 per cent of the variance in behavioral intention while
TPB explains 57 per cent. In order to make TPB more IS specific; they introduced a
new model which integrated TPB with TAM by including 13 constructs. Even though
this new model managed to explain 60 per cent of the variance in behaviour intention,
it increased the model complexity greatly (Mathieson et al., 2001). Hence, this approach
is not considered in this study.
Instead of adopting Taylor and Todds approach, another approach is to extend
TAM by adding appropriate constructs derived from TPB or DOI. This extended TAM
retains the underlying simplicity of the TAM and improve the ability to predict and
explain IS usage at the same time (Mathieson et al., 2001). Prior empirical studies have
validated the better prediction capabilities of extended TAM (Wang and Barnes, 2007;
Chang, 2004; Kurnia et al., 2006; Liao et al., 2007; Wong and Hiew, 2005; Mallat et al.,
2006; Cho et al., 2007; Lin and Wang, 2005; Luarn and Lin, 2005).
In order to enhance the prediction of usage intention of m-commerce in Malaysia
while retaining the model simplicity, this study selects the approach that extends the
TAM by including three additional constructs: social influence (SI), perceived cost and
trust, SI and perceived cost are the constructs derived from TPB and DOI theories.
Besides, incorporating three additional constructs into original TAM, there are
another two major differences between the original TAM and the proposed research
model. Firstly, since m-commerce is still at its infancy stage in Malaysia (Wong and
Hiew, 2005), the investigation of intention to use (IU) m-commerce is chosen to
examine the adoption of m-commerce instead of actual use in the study (Lu et al.,
2003; Liao et al., 2007). Secondly, the attitude construct has been removed from the
model for simplicity purpose (Luarn and Lin, 2005). The new extended TAM in this
study is shown in Figure 1.

Malaysian
m-commerce

373

IMDS
109,3

Perceived
Usefulness

Perceived
Ease of Use

374
Social
Influence

H1
H2
H3
H4

Trust

Figure 1.
Research model

Consumer
intention to use
m-commerce

H5

Perceived
Cost

Hypotheses development
Perceived usefulness
PU is defined as the degree of which an individual believes that using a system would
improve his or her job performance (Davis, 1989). The effect of PU on IU has been
validated in many existing studies (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005; Guriting
and Ndubisi, 2006). For example, Wong and Hiew (2005) suggested that the usage of
m-commerce is strongly driven by the usefulness of the mobile service, which includes
ubiquity, personalization, localization, timeliness and network stability.
Hence, in this study, PU is defined as the extent to which individual believes that the
use of m-commerce will improve his or her job performance and daily activities. This
construct not only assess the extrinsic characteristics of m-commerce, but it also shows
how m-commerce can help the users to achieve task-related goals, such as effectiveness
and efficiency (Ho and Kwok, 2003). Hence, the hypothesis is proposed as:
H1. PU has a positive effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.
Perceived ease-of-use
Although an individual may believe that an application is useful, he or she might also
find that the system is difficult to use (Davis, 1989). PEOU has been considered as an
important determinant in adoption of past information technologies such as intranet
(Chang, 2004), 3G (Liao et al., 2007), online banking (Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006;
Jahangir and Begum, 2008), wireless internet (Lu et al., 2003), internet commerce (Cho
et al., 2007) and m-commerce (Lin and Wang, 2005; Wang and Barnes, 2007; Kurnia
et al., 2006; Mallat et al., 2006; Luarn and Lin, 2005). According to Rogers (1995),
complexity of one particular system will become the inhibitor that discourages the
adoption of an innovation.
Once again borrowing from Davis (1989), PEOU refers to the degree to which an
individual believes that using m-commerce would be free of physical and mental effort.
For example, someone may find using services on mobile devices tedious and complex
due to the constraints of physical features of m-commerce such as its small display

screen or difficulty in keying in data. Consequently, m-commerce must be easy-to-use

or learn and the following hypothesis is proposed:

Malaysian
m-commerce

H2. PEOU has a positive effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.

Social influence
SI according to Lu et al. (2003) is equivalent to subjective norm and is defined as an
individuals belief about whether significant others think that one should engage in the
activity. Subjective norm is studied in both TRA and TPB as the important
determinant to explain the adoption of a system. Chang (2004) found that social factor,
which is derived from TPB, can enhance the validity of the TAM in intranet usage.
Based on DOI theory, SI can be divided into two forms: mass media and
interpersonal influence (Rogers, 1995). Mass media influence includes newspapers,
magazines, academic journals, television, radio, internet, and other applicable
mediums. Interpersonal influence normally comes from social network such as peers,
friends, superiors and so on (Rao and Troshani, 2007). Fan et al. (2005) stated that user
is more likely to suggest and recommend a service to others, if he or she is satisfied
with the service. Their finding also revealed that SI had more impact on users
acceptance of m-commerce than PU and PEOU. Khalifa and Cheng (2002) also found
that SI had strong effect on consumer IU the m-commerce. Hence, the following
hypothesis is proposed:
H3. SI has a positive effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.
Perceived cost
Price or cost factor is one of the reasons that could slow down the development of
m-commerce. Cost factor may consist of initial purchase price (e.g. handset fee),
ongoing usage cost (subscription fee, service fee and communication fee), maintenance
cost and upgrade cost (Luarn and Lin, 2005).
Pagani (2004) stated that price or cost factor was one of the main determinants of 3G
services adoption. Anil et al. (2003) also stated that cost is one of the factors influencing
the adoption of m-commerce in Singapore. Sathye (1999) stressed the importance of
price or cost factors in adoption of innovations. He stated that cost is one of the reasons
that prevent consumers from Singapore and Australia to use internet banking.
Carlsson et al. (2006) also found that cost related issues is more important than privacy
and security issues when it comes to the adoption of 3G services among users in
Finland. In this study, the cost factor is tested in Perceived cost construct which is
defined as the extent to which individual perceive that using m-commerce is costly.
Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H4. Perceived cost has a negative effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.
Trust
Trust is an important element affecting consumer behaviour and it determines the
success of technologies adoption such as e-commerce (Holsapple and Sasidharan,
2005). There are various definitions of trust in existing literatures. Cho et al. (2007)
defined trust from the business point of view, and defined it as buyer-seller
relationships as the perception by a prospective buyer of credibility and benevolence in
the target of trust. Pavlou (2003) stated that trust in e-commerce is the belief that

375

IMDS
109,3

376

allows consumers to willingly become vulnerable to the online retailers after having
considering the retailers characteristics. This definition is consistent with the
construct of trust as a salient belief that includes goodwill trust (benevolence) and
credibility (honesty, reliability, and integrity) (Chew, 2007; Pavlou, 2003). The
definition of trust from Pavlou (2003) captured two distinct but inseparable facets of
trust in ecommerce. It involves the traditional view of trust in a specific party (online
companies) as well as implicitly encompasses trust in the integrity of the transaction
medium (internet security technology) (Chew, 2007; Pavlou, 2003). Trust is more crucial
and complex in environment such as e-commerce and m-commerce than general and
traditional commerce due to its uncertain environment (Lu et al., 2003; Cho et al., 2007)
and information asymmetry (Cho et al., 2007). The buyers and sellers normally
complete the transaction through these technologies will not necessary meet each other
face to face. The buyers will thus be worried that their personal information and money
will be transferred to third party without their knowledge (Luarn and Lin, 2005).
Sathye (1999) identified security concern as the biggest obstacle to adoption of online
banking in Australia. According to Lu et al. (2003), m-commerce is exposed to greater
danger of insecurity than e-commerce and therefore the importance of trust is relatively
higher in m-commerce. Luarn and Lin (2005) found that perceived credibility (security and
privacy) has a stronger effect on consumer IU mobile banking than PU and PEOU. In this
study, trust is defined as the extent to which an individual believes that using m-commerce
is secure and has no privacy threats. Since the impact of trust on IU an online technology is
hard to be ignored in this study, the following hypothesis is developed:
H5. Trust has a positive effect on consumer IU m-commerce in Malaysia.
Methodology
Sampling and data collection
A survey instrument was developed for testing the hypothesis developed. In order to
ensure the content validity of the scale used, it is advised to largely adapt the items for
each construct from prior researches (Luarn and Lin, 2005). Hence, in this research,
23 survey items for six constructs in the questionnaire actually come from the prior
empirical studies, and are modified to fit the context of m-commerce. Table I shows the
sources of where the questions were adapted from.
The target population of this study are individuals who are mobile device users.
The reason why these users were considered was due to the fact that they were
Constructs

Table I.
Constructs and their
sources

Number of items

Intention to use
Perceived usefulness

4
5

Perceived ease-of-use

Social influence

Perceived financial cost

Sources
Davis (1989), Liao et al. (2007) and Kurnia et al. (2006)
Taylor and Todd (1995), Khalifa and Cheng (2002),
Wang and Barnes (2007), Kurnia et al. (2006) and
Wong and Hiew (2005)
Wang and Barnes (2007), Luarn and Lin (2005), Chew
(2007) and Lin and Wang (2005)
Luarn and Lin (2005), Lin and Wang (2005) and
Wong and Hiew (2005)
Davis (1989), Mallat et al. (2006), Liao et al. (2007) and
Moon and Kim (2001)

considered to be more likely to adopt m-commerce in the future than those without a
mobile device.
The surveys for this study were distributed at mobile phone service providers shops
located in various shopping malls in Malaysia. The survey was given to every fourth
customer who enters the shop. For users who did not want to fill in the form in the
shop, e-mail addresses of these users were requested and the survey form was emailed
to them. A total of 219 hardcopy surveys were distributed in the shops while another
45 softcopy surveys were sent via e-mail. Out of these 264 samples, 42 samples were
rejected due to partial response and/or missing data, thus giving a total response rate
of 84.09 per cent.
As cited in Hinkin (1995), an ideal sample size should have an item-to-response
ratios ranged from as low as 1:4 to as high as 1:10 for each set of scales to be factor
analyzed. In this research, there were 23 items to be measured; hence sample size from
92 to 230 respondents would be sufficient for factor analysis.
Variable measurement
Independent variables
The independent variables were based on factors derived from existing literatures. The
questions were modified to fit the context of m-commerce. For instance, the scales for
consumer IU m-commerce were measured using the items adapted from the original
TAM (Davis, 1989).
A total of 19 questions were developed to capture the four adoption factors under
investigation. Each question was measured by five-point Likert scale. For instance,
1 denoted as strongly disagreed, 2 denoted as disagree, 3 denoted as neutral,
4 denoted as agree and 5 denoted as strongly agree. Statements that were
negatively stated were reversed coded during the analysis, such as the items for
perceived cost. These negative worded items are important in reducing the response
bias since the respondents have to read the items carefully in case they are phrased the
other way round (Field, 2005).
Dependent variable: consumer IU m-commerce
The measurements for consumer IU m-commerce were measured using items adapted
from the original TAM (Davis, 1989). In this study, some of items for IU in the
questionnaire were also consistent with that of Kurnia et al. (2006), Luarn and Lin (2005),
Liao et al. (2007), Khalifa and Shen (2008) and Shin (2007). The consumer IU item was
measured using five-point Likert scale where 1 strongly disagree, 2 disagree,
3 neutral, 4 agree and 5 strongly agree. Four questions were used to capture the IU
m-commerce by the mobile device users. The reliability coefficient for the scale was 0.83.
Data analysis
Profile of respondents
The demographic profile of the surveyed respondents is presented in Table II, which
includes gender, age group, marital status and highest level of academic qualification.
The total sample for the survey consists of 222 respondents.
The gender distribution of the survey respondents is 55.0 per cent males and
45.0 per cent females. The results also indicated that the samples have age
predominantly between 21 and 25 years, which is 65.8 per cent. More than 80 per cent

Malaysian
m-commerce

377

IMDS
109,3

Variables
Gender
Age

378
Marital status
Highest level of academic qualification
Table II.
Demographic profile
for respondents

Frequency

Percentage

122
100
11
146
49
11
2
3
199
23
20
31
145
26

55.0
45.0
5.0
65.8
22.1
5.0
0.9
1.4
89.6
10.4
9.0
14.0
65.3
11.7

Male
Female
# 20 years
21-25 years
26-30 years
31-35 years
36-40 years
$ 41 years
Single
Married
Under certification qualification
Diploma/advanced diploma
Degree/professional qualification
Master degree

of the respondents are single. Majority of the respondents have college or higher
education level: 14.0 per cent are diploma or advanced diploma holder, 65.3 per cent
have degree or professional qualification level and 11.7 per cent have postgraduate
level of education. Only 9 per cent of respondents have attained high-school level.
In this research, all the respondents have at least one mobile device. Most of them
possess and use cell phone (95.5 per cent). The substitutions for cell phone are PDA and
smart phone. Table III shows the services categories that are experienced by the
respondents. Communication and entertainment services are the most popular services
used by the survey respondents, which is coincident with earlier statement that
communication services (e.g.: SMS, MMS) and entertainment application (e.g.: contest
and downloads of icon, graphic and ringtone) contribute the most to the total mobile
application revenue (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2004).
The data also show that the number of Maxis subscribers is the highest in the
sample with 59.9 per cent. About 27.9 per cent are Digi subscribers, 9.5 per cent are
Variables
Mobile services

Pricing scheme
Subscribed telco

Mobile services
Table III.
Availability of mobile
devices and services

Cell phone
PDA
Laptop
Smartphone
Postpaid
Prepaid
Digi
Maxis
Celcom
Others
Information services
Entertainment
Transaction services
Location-based services
Communication services

Frequency

Percentage

212
29
101
3
109
113
62
133
21
6
66
101
90
38
201

95.5
13.1
45.5
14
49.1
50.9
27.9
59.9
9.5
2.7
29.7
45.5
40.5
17.1
90.5

Celcom subscribers and 2.7 per cent of the respondents are subscribers of other telcos.
About 50.9 per cent of the respondents are using prepaid scheme while 49.1 per cent are
on post-paid plan.
Scale reliability and factor analysis
The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach a measurements. The
reliability coefficients (a) of each independent variable are as follows: PU (0.905);
PEOU (0.849); SI (0.798); perceived cost (0.887) and trust (0.909). The reliability
coefficients of all the independent variables are above 0.70, which concurs with the
suggestion made by Nunnally (1978).
Construct validity measures the degree to which a scale measures what it intends
to measure (Garver and Mentzer, 1999) and it is assessed by factor analysis in this
research. In order to assess the construct validity, 19 items are examined by principal
components extraction with varimax rotation. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) has a
measure of 0.825, which is above the threshold of 0.5 (Field, 2005). The Bartletts test is
significant in this study with x 2 2,621.292 ( p-value , 0.001). Therefore, the KMO
value of 0.825 and significance of Bartletts statistic confirm the appropriateness of the
factor analysis for the data set.
Tables IV and V show the factor loading for each item, and they are sorted by size.
Any item that fails to meet the criteria of having a factor loading value of greater than
0.5 and loads on one and only one factor will be dropped from the study (Liao et al.,
2007). Table V shows that 19 items are sorted and clustered into five components:
Factor 1 (PU), Factor 2 (SI), Factor 3 (trust), Factor 4 (perceived cost) and Factor 5
(PEOU). Table V shows that the dependent variable are clustered into 1 factor
(consumer IU m-commerce).
The eigenvalue for each factor is greater than 1.0 (3.591, 2.816, 2.701, 2.486, 2.427),
which implies that each factor can explain more variance than a single variable. The
cumulative percentage of variance explained by five factors is 73.791 per cent. In other
words, more than 70 per cent of the common variance shared by 19 items can be
accounted or explained by these five factors. Based on above results, the construct
validity is established.
Correlation analysis
Since a single construct in the questionnaire was measured by multiple items, the
average score of the multi-items for a construct was computed and used in further
analysis such as correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis (Wang and
Benbasat, 2007). Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine the
relationship between the variables (Wong and Hiew, 2005; Jahangir and Begum,
2008). As cited in Wong and Hiew (2005) the correlation coefficient value (r) range from
0.10 to 0.29 is considered weak, from 0.30 to 0.49 is considered medium and from 0.50 to
1.0 is considered strong. However, according to Field (2005), correlation coefficient
should not go beyond 0.8 to avoid multicollinearity. Since the highest correlation
coefficient is 0.601 which is less than 0.8, there is no multicollinearity problem in this
research (Table VI).
All the associated pairs of variables were significant at level 0.05, except for the
relationship between perceived cost and other factor such as PU, PEOU, SI and trust.
However, all the hypothesized relationships developed were found to be statistically

Malaysian
m-commerce

379

Note: Independent variables

Perceived ease-of-use

Perceived financial cost

Trust

Social influence

Using m-commerce would improve my efficiency in

my daily work
Using m-commerce enables me to do my work
conveniently
Using m-commerce would enhance my effectiveness
in my daily work
Using m-commerce save my time
In general, I believe m-commerce will be useful
Friends suggestion and recommendation will affect
my decision to use m-commerce
Family members/relatives have influence on my
decision to use m-commerce
I will use m-commerce if my colleagues use it
Mass media (e.g. TV, newspaper, articles, radio) will
influence me to use m-commerce
I will use m-commerce if the service is widely used
by people in my community
I believe payments made through m-commerce
channel will be processed securely
I believe transaction conducted through m-commerce
will be secure
I believe my personal information will be kept
confidential while using m-commerce technology
The communication or access fee is expensive for me
The subscription fee is expensive for me
The cost of handset is high for me
It is/might be easy o learn to use m-commerce
m-Commerce is understandable and clear
m-Commerce is/might be easy-to-use

Perceived usefulness

Table IV.
Factor analysis
Scale items

0.840
0.936
0.928
0.836
0.859
0.791
0.745

0.898

0.911

0.577

0.689

0.770
0.728

0.844

0.818
0.783
0.658

0.837

0.858

Factor loading

2.427

2.486

2.701

2.816

3.591

Eigen values

12.776

13.083

14.214

14.820

18.899

Percentage of variance

380

Variable

IMDS
109,3

Factor Eigen
loading values

Variable Scale items

Intention Assume that I have access
to use
to m-commerce systems,
I intent to use them

0.811
I intend to use m-commerce
if the cost is reasonable for
me
I believe I will use mobile
commerce in the future
I believe my interest
towards m-commerce will
increase in the future

Malaysian
m-commerce

Percentage
of variance Sources

2.679

66.964

Davis (1989), Bhattacherjee

(2001), Mallat et al. (2006),
Kurnia et al. (2006), Luarn
and Lin (2005), Liao et al.
(2007), Khalifa and Shen
(2008), Moon and Kim (2001)
and Shin (2007)

0.711
0.877
0.863
Table V.
Factor analysis

Note: Dependent variable

Perceived
usefulness
Perceived
usefulness
Perceived
ease-of-use
Social influence
Perceived cost
Trust
Intention to use

1
0.601 *
0.372 *
2 0.041 *
0.364 *
0.645

381

Perceived
ease-of-use

Social
influence

Perceived
cost

Trust

Intention to
use

0.601 *

0.372 *

2 0.041 *

0.364 *

0.645 *

1
0.235 *
0.001 *
0.418 *
0.490 *

0.235 *
1
20.107 *
0.243 *
0.400 *

0.001 *
2 0.107 *
1
0.034 *
2 0.174 *

0.418 *
0.243 *
0.034 *
1
0.499 *

0.490 *
0.400 *
0.499 *
1

Note: *Correlation significant at the level 0.001 (two-tailed)

significance at level p , 0.01. In other words, PU (r 0.645, p , 0.001), PEOU

(r 0.490, p , 0.01), SI (r 0.400, p , 0.001) and trust (r 0.499, p , 0.01) were
correlated to consumer IU m-commerce significantly and positively while perceived
cost (r 2 0.174, p , 0.01) was correlated to consumer IU m-commerce negatively.
Based on Table IV, the correlation between PU and intention was the strongest
(R-value 0.645, p , 0.01. This is followed by the relationship between PEOU and
PU (r 0.601, p , 0.01).
Multiple regression analysis
Multiple regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. Multiple regression
analysis is applied to analyze the relationship between a single dependent variable and
several independent variables (Hair et al., 2005). Multiple regression analysis was
therefore selected as it is viewed as an appropriate method for this study. The
summary of results analysis is shown in Table VII.

Table VI.
Pearson correlation
coefficient

IMDS
109,3

382

In order to test for multicollinearity among the predictor variables, variance-inflation

factor (VIF) and tolerance were applied. The multicollinearity statistics showed that the
tolerance indicator for PU, PEOU, SI and perceived cost and trust are all greater than 0.1,
and their VIF values are less than 10. The result indicates that no multicollinearity
problem has occurred (Neter et al., 1996; Ott and Longnecker, 2001).
The F-statistics produced (F 50.892) was significant at 1 per cent level (Sig.
F , 0.1), thus confirming the fitness for the model. Therefore, there is a statistically
significant relationship between the adoption factors and the consumer IU
m-commerce. The coefficient of determination R 2 was 54.1 per cent. Thus, the
adoption factors can significantly account for 54.1 per cent in the consumer IU
m-commerce.
The results shows that PU ( p , 0.001), SI ( p 0.008), perceived cost ( p 0.0001)
and trust ( p , 0.001) all significantly affect the intention of use of m-commerce of users.
Based on Table V, it indicated that the most important adoption factors that affect the
consumer IU m-commerce are PU and trust, followed by perceived cost and SI.
PEOU however, was found not to be significantly associated with consumer IU
m-commerce.
Discussion
PU was found to be the most significant determinant to predict consumer IU
m-commerce in Malaysia. This result is expected and supports prior researches that
extended TAM in the context of m-commerce (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang,
2005; Lu et al., 2003; Khalifa and Shen, 2008) and e-commerce (Guriting and Ndubisi,
2006; Jahangir and Begum, 2008). These studies have indicated that PU played a vital
role in influence the behavioral intention of adopting a technology. Consumer IU
m-commerce will only increase when they find it useful. This is because m-commerce
has unique characteristics such as ubiquity and immediacy, which users can retrieve
information immediately and conduct the transaction anytime and anywhere.
In conclusion, the better m-commerce could support them, the more useful they
perceive m-commerce to be and increase their IU it. Hence, service providers and
vendors attention should focus on designing the reliable system that will meet the
users needs, as well as providing the useful and quality information to users.
PEOU was found to have an insignificant effect on consumer IU m-commerce.
This result contradicted the prior studies (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005;
Mallat et al., 2006; Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006; Jahangir and Begum, 2008). However,
it is consistent with Cho et al.s (2007) finding, which suggested that there is no

Predictor variables

Table VII.
Multiple regression
analysis

Perceived usefulness
Perceived ease-of-use
Social influence
Perceived cost
Trust

t-value

Sig.

Tolerance

VIF

0.441
0.007
0.134
20.151
0.279

7.253
1.280
2.667
23.244
5.372

0.000
0.202
0.008
0.001
0.000

0.575
0.593
0.838
0.984
0.790

1.740
1.687
1.193
1.016
1.266

Notes: Overall model F 50.892; p , 0.01; R 2 0.541; adjusted R 2 0.530

significant impact of PEOU on the IU m-commerce. It is surprising that PEOU was

found to be not significant in influencing the adoption of m-commerce in the study,
even though PEOU has been validated as major behavioral belief to influence users
intention to adopt in various technologies in both origin and the extended TAM
models. It can be inferred that since majority of the mobile device users in the study are
younger (between ages of 20 and 30), it is possible that m-commerce can be learned
easily by them and thus the ease-of-use has not impact on whether they will use
m-commerce or not.
Since youth are more aware of new innovation, they may have experienced various
technologies and therefore have a good foundation of knowledge on how to use the
technology. Thus, the ease-of-use or difficulty level of using m-commerce would not
influence their decision to use them.
SI exhibited a significant correlation on IU m-commerce. The finding provides
evidence to support prior studies (Shin, 2007; Khalifa and Cheng, 2002; Kurnia et al.,
2006), which suggested the importance of SI in predicting the adoption of m-commerce.
As mobile device users in this study are mostly between the age of 21 and 30, they are
considered to be in the lead segment (Wong and Hiew, 2005) and are easily vulnerable
to SI (Lu et al., 2003). As stated earlier, they are more sensitive to the new trends and
normally involved in rapid shift of trends and styles (Shin, 2007). Influence that comes
from mass media or peers may easily influence their decision to use m-commerce.
Hence, it is important for the services providers and vendors to consider the SI factor to
encourage the adoption of m-commerce in Malaysia.
Perceived cost is one of the barriers that prevent Malaysian from using m-commerce.
The results in the study are consistent with prior researches (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin
and Wang, 2005; Wong and Hiew, 2005), which have identified the negative relationship
between the financial cost of using m-commerce and the consumer IU m-commerce. The
results show that increasing in the cost such as cost of handset, subscription fee and
communication fee will result in the decrease in adoption rate of m-commerce. Therefore,
most of the respondents intend to use m-commerce if the cost of m-commerce is
reasonable for them. The perceived cost can be reduced through the creative
promotional and pricing strategies.
Trust factor was found to be important predictor to explain the adoption of
m-commerce in many existing technology adoption studies (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Cho
et al., 2007; Lin and Wang, 2005). The finding in this study supports these existing
findings and showed that there is a strong positive relationship between trust and the
consumer IU m-commerce.
m-Commerce is still a relatively immature technology and is still at the early stage
in Malaysia; therefore, trust is very important to motivate Malaysian users to use the
services provided by m-commerce in such uncertain environment. In order to increase
the usage rate of m-commerce in Malaysia, the service providers and vendors should
concentrate on building trust by developing m-commerce system with valuable
function to assure the security and privacy of the users.
Implication
According to Muthaiyah (2004), it costs tens of billions to build and develop the required
m-commerce infrastructures in Malaysia. Since lots of efforts and money have been
invested in m-commerce system, it is essential to ensure that people are using them.

Malaysian
m-commerce

383

IMDS
109,3

384

In order to attract more users and encourage the use of m-commerce in Malaysia, it is
believed that merely introducing m-commerce to Malaysian may not be sufficient.
By using the derived results in the analysis, the service providers and vendors may focus
on the improvement of constructs or attributes that have positive impact on IU (Wong
and Hiew, 2005).
Since the PU is the most critical factor among all independent variables, the service
providers should develop the content and applications which users will find valuable
and usable to keep up with their fast-paced life style. Design of the services and
contents should be focused on the important and unique characteristics of
m-commerce, such as ubiquity, personalization and so on.
Besides, the usefulness of m-commerce, the findings also reflect the overwhelming
importance of trust in m-commerce. This implies that trust building between the
customers and vendors should be another major concern for the service providers
while improving the usefulness of the system. Without proper security and privacy
protection, users will not use the services provided by m-commerce. According to
Wang and Barnes (2007), the trust building strategies include advertising campaign,
privacy guarantees, company policies and statement and so on.
Furthermore, the strong relationship between perceived cost and m-commerce
adoption in the study suggests that the creative promotional and pricing strategies,
including cost reduction should be implemented to attract price-conscious customers.
The SI should be taken into account to encourage the adoption of m-commerce in
Malaysia too. For instance, the service providers should attract customers via various
social networks and channels, such as word of mouth and informal seminars (Lu et al.,
2003). On the other hand, the PEOU is found to be insufficient to influence the
consumer IU m-commerce in the study. Hence, the main attention of management
should be focused on development of usefulness of the system, trust building and cost
reduction, instead of focusing on making system easy-to-use or interact with.
Besides, the above implications for practices, this study provides several
implications for scholars too. This study successfully extend the TAM in the
context of m-commerce by incorporating one trust-based construct (trust), one
behavioral control construct (perceived cost) and one subjective norm construct (SI).
This extended TAM model is developed to achieve the greater understanding of user
acceptance of m-commerce in Malaysia while remaining the parsimony of the model in
the same time. In conclusion, the model in this study presents a considerable
improvement in explanatory power.
Limitation and future studies
This research was conducted in Malaysia and whether the results from this research
would be consistent with other countries mobile users would need to be verified
through further research. Future studies can focus on conducting a multi-country
comparison to test the influence of moderating factors such as the national culture from
the countries.
The future research should follow the longitudinal approach to predict beliefs and
behaviour over time since the model is this study is cross-sectional, which measures
the intention only at a single point in time (snapshot approach) (Luarn and Lin, 2005).
This study has demographic profiles of relatively young age (Table II). Thus, it is
possible that results taken from a different age group might have different result.

For example, respondents from the older age group might find it more difficult to use
m-commerce thus ease-of-use might be a factor influencing the adoption m-commerce.
It would therefore be useful to make a comparison study between users from different
age group in future study.
The result from this study could be due to the services provided by the mobile
service providers. For example, one service provider might offer more service than
the other. Therefore, future study can also do a comparative study to investigate if
there are any differences in the adoption of m-commerce between these different mobile
service providers. As perceived cost is found to be a factor influencing the adoption of
m-commerce, it would be interesting to do a comparison of the prices offered by these
different mobile service providers and see if the providers with lower m-commerce
service fees will actually have a higher adoption rate.
Research challenges in security for new generation mobile net works are limitless
with the speedier growth and development of m-commerce. As with many adoption
model, there is a risk that additional significant factors have not been included in this
model. New construct such as self efficacy (Luarn and Lin, 2005; Lin and Wang, 2005;
Khalifa and Shen, 2008; Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006), perceived enjoyment (Liao et al.,
2007; Shin, 2007) and compatibility (Mallat et al., 2006) which have been validated in
numerous prior studies could be considered in the future research.
References
Abu Bakar, F. and Osman, S. (2005), Towards the future of mobile commerce (m-commerce)
in Malaysia, Proceedings of IADIS: IADIS International Conference, Web based
Communities 2005, Algarve, Portugal.
Ajzen, I. (1991), The theory of planned behaviour, Organizational Behaviour and Human
Decision Processes, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 179-211.
Anil, S., Leow, T.T., Lim, H.M. and Goh, P.G.J. (2003), Overcoming barriers to the successful
adoption of mobile commerce in Singapore, International Journal of Mobile
Communications, Vol. 1 Nos 1/2, pp. 194-231.
Bhattacherjee, A. (2001), Understanding information systems continuance: an
expectation-confirmation model, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 351-70.
Carlsson, C., Walden, P. and Bouwman, H. (2006), Adoption of 3G services in Finland,
International Journal of Mobile Communication, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 369-85.
Chang, P.V. (2004), The validity of an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) for
predicting intranet/portal usage, Master thesis, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, NC.
Chew, K.W. (2007), Modified technology acceptance model as predictor of online purchase
behaviour: a Malaysian perspective, PhD thesis, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya.
Cho, D.Y., Kwon, H.J. and Lee, H.Y. (2007), Analysis of trust in internet and mobile
commerce adoption, Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System
Science, USA.
Chong, A.Y.L. and Ooi, K.B. (2008), Adoption of interorganizational system standards in supply
chains: an empirical analysis of RosettaNet standards, Industrial Management & Data
Systems, Vol. 108 No. 4, pp. 529-47.
Davis, F.D. (1989), Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of
information technology, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 319-39.

Malaysian
m-commerce

385

IMDS
109,3

386

Fan, Y., Saliba, A., Kendall, E.A. and Newmarch, J. (2005), Speech interface: an enhancer to the
acceptance of m-commerce application, Proceedings of the International Conference on
Mobile Business (ICMB05), Sydney, Australia.
Feng, H., Hoegler, T. and Stucky, W. (2006), Exploring the critical success factors for mobile
commerce, Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB06),
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Field, A. (2005), Discovering Statistics Using SPSS, 2nd ed., Sage, London.
Fusilier, M. and Durlabhji, S. (2005), An exploration of student internet use in India,
Campus-wide Information Systems, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 233-46.
Garver, M.S. and Mentzer, J.T. (1999), Logistics research method: employing structural equation
modeling to test for construct validity, Journal of Business Logistics, Vol. 20 No. 1,
pp. 33-58.
Guriting, P. and Ndubisi, A.O. (2006), Borneo online banking: evaluating customer perceptions
and behavioral intention, Management Research News, Vol. 29 Nos 1/2, pp. 6-15.
Hair, J., Black, W., Babin, B., Anderson, R. and Tatham, R. (2005), Multivariate Data Analysis,
6th ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Hinkin, T.R. (1995), A review of scale development practices in the study of organizations,
Journal of Management, Vol. 21 No. 5, pp. 967-88.
Ho, S.Y. and Kwok, S.H. (2003), The attraction of personalized service for users in mobile
commerce: an empirical study, ACM SIGecom Exchanges, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 10-18.
Holsapple, C.W. and Sasidharan, S. (2005), The dynamics of trust in online B2C e-commerce:
a research model and agenda, Information Systems and E-business Management, Vol. 3
No. 4, pp. 377-403.
Jahangir, N. and Begum, N. (2008), The role of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use,
security and privacy, and customer attitude to engender customer adaptation in the
context of electronic banking, African Journal of Business Management, Vol. 2 No. 1,
pp. 32-40.
Khalifa, M. and Cheng, K.N. (2002), Adoption of mobile commerce: role of exposure,
Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Science
(HICSS), USA.
Khalifa, M. and Shen, N.K. (2008), Explaining the adoption of transactional B2C
mobile commerce, Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 21 No. 2,
pp. 110-24.
Kurnia, S., Smith, S.P. and Lee, H. (2006), Consumers perception of mobile internet in Australia,
e-Business Review, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 19-32.
Liao, C.H., Tsou, C.W. and Huang, M.F. (2007), Factors influencing the usage of 3G mobile
services in Taiwan, Online Information Review, Vol. 31 No. 6, pp. 759-74.
Lin, H.H. and Wang, Y.S. (2005), Predicting consumer intention to use mobile commerce in
Taiwan, Proceedings of the International Conferences on Mobile Business (ICMB05),
Sydney, Australia.
Lu, J., Yu, C.S., Liu, C. and Yao, J.E. (2003), Technology acceptance model for wireless internet,
Internet Research: Electronics Networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 206-22.
Luarn, P. and Lin, H.H. (2005), Toward an understanding of the behavioral intention to use
mobile banking, Computer in Human Behaviour, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 873-91.
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (2004), Statistical Brief, available at:
www.cmc.gov.my (accessed 8 January 2008).

Mallat, N., Rossi, M., Tuunainen, V.K. and Oorni, A. (2006), The impact of use situation and
mobility on the acceptance of mobile ticketing services, Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii
International Conference on System Science, USA.
Mathieson, K., Peacock, E. and Chin, W.W. (2001), Extending the technology acceptance model:
the influence of perceived user resources, The DATA BASE for Advances in Information
System, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 86-112.
Moon, J.W. and Kim, Y.G. (2001), Extending the TAM for a world-wide-web context,
Information & Management, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 217-30.
Moshin, M., Mudtadir, R. and Ishaq, A.F.M. (2003), Mobile commerce the emerging frontier:
exploring the prospects, application and barriers to adoption in Pakistan, paper presented
at International Workshop on Frontiers of IT, Islamabad.
Muthaiyah, S. (2004), Key success factors of 3rd generation mobile network services
for m-commerce in Malaysia, American Journal of Applied Science, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 261-5.
Neter, J., Kutner, M.H., Nachtsheim, C.J. and Wasserman, W. (1996), Applied Linear Statistical
Models, McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA.
Nunnally, J. (1978), Psychometric Theory, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Ott, R.L. and Longnecker, M. (2001), An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis,
Thomson Learning Inc., Boston, MA.
Pagani, M. (2004), Determinants of adoption of third generation mobile multimedia services,
Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 47-59.
Pavlou, P.A. (2003), Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: integrating trust and risk
with the technology acceptance model, International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 101-34.
Rao, A. and Troshani, I. (2007), A conceptual framework and propositions for the acceptance of
mobile services, Journals of Theoretical and Applied Electronics Commerce Research,
Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 61-73.
Rogers, E.M. (1995), Diffusion of Innovations, 4th ed., The Free Press, New York, NY.
Sathye, M. (1999), Adoption of internet banking by Australian consumers: an empirical
investigation, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 7, pp. 324-34.
Schwiderski-Grosche, S. and Knospe, H. (2002), Secure mobile commerce, Special Issue of the
IEE Electronics and Communication Engineering Journal on Security for Mobility, Vol. 14
No. 5, pp. 228-38.
Shin, D.H. (2007), User acceptance of mobile internet: implication for convergence technology,
Interacting with Computers, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 472-83.
Taylor, S. and Todd, P.A. (1995), Understanding information technology usage: a test of
competing models, Information Systems Research, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 144-76.
Tiwari, R. and Buse, S. (2007), The Mobile Commerce Prospects: A Strategic Analysis of
Opportunities in Banking Sector, Hamburg University Press, Hamburg.
United Nations (2002), E-Commerce and Development Report 2002, available at: www.r0.unctad.
org/ecommerce/ecommerce_en/edr02_en.htm (accessed May 25).
Varshney, U. and Vetter, R. (2002), Mobile commerce: framework, applications and networking
support, Mobile Networks and Applications, Vol. 7, pp. 185-98.
Wang, S. and Barnes, S. (2007), Exploring the acceptance of mobile auctions in China,
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the Management of Mobile Business,
Toronto, Canada.

Malaysian
m-commerce

387

IMDS
109,3

Wang, W.Q. and Benbasat, I. (2007), Recommendation agents for electronic commerce: effect of
explanation facilities on trusting beliefs, Journal of Management Information System,
Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 217-46.
Wong, C.C. and Hiew, P.L. (2005), Diffusion of mobile entertainment in Malaysia: drivers and
barriers, Enformatika, Vol. 5, pp. 263-6.

388

Corresponding author
Alain Yee-Loong Chong can be contacted at: alain.chong@gmail.com

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com

Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints