Exploring Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Banking by Tariq Bhatti - Article Example

ARTICLE CRITIQUE Article critique: Exploring Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Banking Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 27, 10, 2010 Exploring Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Banking Introduction This article, ‘Exploring Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Banking’ is written by Tariq Bhatti from College of Business Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arabs Emirates(Bhatti 2007). The article is available and downloadable from http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jibc/2007-12/bhatti_Final.pdf. It elaborates the various factors that determine mobile commerce adoption by users, highlighting the challenges that have influenced and perhaps hindered its uptake, as well as various explanations behind these challenges. The writer has carried out a survey to ascertain the effects of various factors that determine the adoptability of mobile commerce among various user brackets with diverse experience, different gender, educational background and age groups. These include, among others, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, personal innovativeness, subjective norms, behavioral control and the intention to adopt mobile commerce. To some extent, the results from the survey are meant to help planners and marketers to allocate significant resources towards reducing barriers and development of m-commerce. The article is very precise on problem definition. It stipulates the challenges that have been encountered in adoption of mobile commerce in the given setting. The style of presentation used is very good, as the arguments are presented in a chronological order all the way from the beginning to the end, giving the thesis and going ahead to illustrate the research from the beginning to the end (Bhatti 2007). The article is very important in strategic marketing and for general advancement of organizational effectiveness because the study carried out in the survey intends to find out various issues elated to mobile commerce. Mobile commerce is one of the fastest growing areas of ecommerce; according to the website ‘How Fast is M-commerce Growing? 2010 IR Mobile Conference Tells’ (2010), which every researcher and student involved in marketing cannot dare to underestimate. Mobile commerce will be a key support in any successful business in any business cities and countries like the United Arabs Emirates. The research therefore is important as it explains, through detailed analysis, why users may be reluctant to embrace mobile commerce. It is therefore up to marketing personnel to come up with appropriate marketing strategies to counter the mentioned challenges. Literature Review The article gives a reasonable description of mobile commerce and its impact in the commerce world. This is explained in depth by the writer, giving a reasonable and credible explanation of the role and position of mobile commerce in the world today, as well as the factors that have led to a rapid rise of mobile commerce and the expectations of today’s world in terms of mobile technology. Using the Technology Acceptance Model, the article has explained in detail the various factors that determine and influence mobile commerce adoption by users. Most of the arguments provided by this model are based on character and behavioral analysis of the representative sample, which include the users’ perception of the technology and its relevance and usefulness to them, in their current context. These are important factors that determine the adoption of any given technology by its intended users. Although the literature review is, to some extent, comprehensively addressed, several aspects of it are just but wanting. The technology acceptance model used was developed and has been used since 1989. While it is an effective tool, the model may not be able to capture the complicated dynamics of today’s world. The parameter used then may have shifted, just as it is well known that the world then was just a shadow of where we live today. Although the article has covered various factors widely in the literature review, that will affect mobile commerce adoption, there is a considerable amount of factors that have not been put into consideration. The adoption of any technology is largely dependent on the purchasing power of the users, just like in any other commercial system. However appealing something might be, the consumers may not adopt it if it is not within their reach. This is critical in any mobile based technology, since the capability of mobile devices vary greatly from one handset to another. The owners of high end devices like smart phones generally tend to have higher purchasing power and therefore might be more likely to adopt mobile commerce than users of the lower end devices. This is a strong factor which should have strongly been put into consideration. The location of a consumer would also greatly affect the adoption of m-commerce. The survey done was conducted in nearly one geographical location, which does not give a global view on adoption of mobile commerce. It is obvious that adoption of mobile technology is highly dependent on geographical location. This is like where there are a lot of services provided, compared to regions where there are just a few and basic services provided on mobile commerce. The articles also takes into account the theory of planned behaviour, which proposes that a person’s behaviour intention is jointly influenced by subjective norms and perceived behaviour control. However, there is a mention of theory of reasoned action, which is mentioned but not explained or referred to elsewhere in the whole article. This seems irrelevant in the article. Methods The methodology applied is quite impressive. Basically, a questionnaire was developed and administered to university students, giving a wide range of respondents from different backgrounds, social and economic status. However, one major limitation is that a university setting will always provide a situation where people have similar goals, perhaps have similar fallacies, financial ability and basically are in a similar society. It would have been more credible to administer the questionnaire in a varied environment spanning geographical barriers, just as it is administered across a wide range of age group. Geographic factors are as important as demographic factors. The method used was satisfactorily good. Various scales are used and the method used is clearly explained in the article in order to give credibility to the research. Analysis The survey included an exploratory factor analysis to purify the instruments used. The method of data analysis that was applied is clearly explained, giving credibility to the finding obtained. This is important because wrong analysis would end up giving the wrong inferences and thus a flawed conclusion. The hypotheses which were developed were examined against the finding and it is seen that many of them are supported by the study. The study found out that some factors like perceived usefulness had no effect on intention to use mobile commerce, while subjective norms, perceived ease of use and perceived behavioral control significantly affected the intention to use mobile commerce. I strongly agree with these findings as they are in line with other various researches carried out prior to this, as the article says. However, the writer does not give references in all cases on other researches that correspond to his own findings. This reduces the credibility of these claims. Conclusion and References From the data analysis performed, the objective of the research is achieved. The article excellently gives the various factors that determine the adoption of mobile commerce by the users and gives various recommendations to marketers, managers and developers. It provides a useful guide to marketers on how and where to concentrate their marketing energy in order to promote mobile commerce. It also enables the managers to know where to allocate resources for maximum results, while the mobile commerce service providers get to know where to emphasize on in order to make applications more useful and easier to use by the consumers, gaining an inch over their competitors. The article greatly contributes to the wider body of knowledge area in strategic marketing. This is because the article gives various people involved in mobile commerce marketing the finer details on where to market and what to concentrate on. This is very useful in assisting to concentrate the scarce resources on the most productive channel or avenue. The findings are of great importance to any person who wants to venture into mobile commerce, or who is already established and wants to improve his performance in the field. The findings are also in consistence with other findings carried out on adoption of technology. The findings of this specific study may not be well known, but these are general findings which can apply to adoption of many forms of technology. While the study was relevant and very useful, the benefits of the study may not be so obvious, since there have been similar studies done which yielded similar results. However, it is important to note that the findings are very important as they serve to confirm other researches done prior to this and other marketing techniques used, which do not have a firm scientific backing. Although the findings are not well known, they cannot be termed as trivial but are of great importance as far as mobile commerce is concerned. The article is written in good, easy to follow and understand layout. However, the data analysis carried out is not clearly outlined and can pose some difficulty to a lay person who has no technical know-how. The findings of the research are clearly outlined and explained, and their implications reasonably explained. The article should not pose great difficulty to anyone with some basic level of knowledge in research methodology, or is conversant with marketing research. There is a lot to benefit from the article, both to academic and practitioners. The practitioners get to know how and where to concentrate their marketing efforts, which services to offer and what will influence adoption of technology. This is vital knowledge to practitioners who are aiming at maximizing their productivity. The importance of the article to the academic world is also enormous. The article gives a basis for further researches which can be carried out and also can provide expert opinion on matters of mobile commerce. These findings can also be used to develop strategic marketing plans and more important, to come up with new teaching strategies or to improve the current one. The article is well referenced, according to Harvard citation style, and most of the facts stated are fully backed up with supporting reference, in order to give credibility to the findings and avoid flawed results. This makes the article credible enough and the findings are adoptable. However, there are some very few cases where the author does not give sufficient references, like where he says that the findings are fully in line with other findings from other researches. The article should give full reference in every case where another research is quoted, for the purpose of credibility and to make confirmation easier. References How fast is M-Commerce Growing 2010, How Fast is M-Commerce Growing? 2010 Mobile IR Conference Tells|eCommerce Blog, viewed 27th October 2010, Bhatti, T 2007, ‘Exploring Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mobile Commerce’, JIBC, Vol. 12, No.13, viewed 27th October 2010, Read More