Culture and behavioural intent to adopt mobile commerce among the Y Generation: comparative analyses between Kazakhstan, Morocco and Singapore

This study aims to investigate perceived risk and trustworthiness in relationship to the diffusion of innovation theory to understand the determinants of behavioural intent to adopt mobile commerce among the Y Generation. It also seeks to investigate the impact of culture on mobile commerce adoption.

Five hundred and thirty randomly distributed questionnaires in six tertiary education institutions in Kazakhstan, Morocco and Singapore were used. Multivariate analysis of variance was conducted using SPSS and structural equation modelling using AMOS 7.0 to test for construct validity and for hypothesis testing.

Perceived risk, trustworthiness and Rogers' five perceived characteristics of innovation (namely, observability, trialability, compatibility, complexity, relative advantage) determined behavioural intent to adopt mobile commerce among the Y Generation. Culture had a moderating effect on these determinants in Kazakhstan and Morocco.

This study has not yet explored cost, goods offerings and payment systems that may influence users' intention to adopt mobile commerce. Differential experience of respondents with different mobile portals would have differential effect on the perceived ease of use of mobile commerce, affecting the result of this study.

This study suggested that the Y Generation are concerned about privacy violation and risk associated with mobile commerce. Mobile service providers should consider trials and permission‐based mobile marketing to imbue trust in mobile commerce.

This study integrates trustworthiness and perceived risk with Rogers' DOI innovation characteristics, resulting in greater understanding of the behavioral intent to adopt mobile commerce among the Y Generation. Further, few studies delved into the comparative impact of culture on the behaviour intent to adopt mobile commerce among the Y Generation in Asian and African countries.