What Makes People Actually Embrace or Shun Mobile Payment: A Cross-Culture Study

Abstract

Mobile payment is becoming increasingly popular, but it encounters the resistance from certain user groups. This study examines the factors that influence both the technology acceptance and actual usage aspects of mobile payment adoption from the perspective of the general systems theory. Based on a literature review, it conceptualizes the embedding relationships among relevant behavioral processes, personal characteristics, and extrinsic factors and develops a research model. Together, the extrinsic factors in terms of culture, subjective norm, and socioeconomic status and main personal characteristics including demographics, personality traits, and past behavior are hypothesized to have direct and moderating effects on mobile payment acceptance and usage. The observations collected from China and the USA support most of the hypothesized relationships and reveal interesting cross-culture differences. Whereas users in the USA appear to be more rational and risk-averse, people in China seem more subject to social influence. The findings contribute to the mobile payment literature by deepening the understanding of adoption stages and expanding the scope of explanatory variables beyond technology acceptance.