Use of Mobile Wallet Service by the Youth : A Study Based in Ahmedabad

IntroductionMobile phones are everywhere. In the last decade, their ownership and use have increased dramatically. Today, mobile phones are fast becoming an integral part of people' everyday lives. Barnes and Scornavacca (2004) noted that mobile phone is one of a handful of consumer products to have gained global acceptance within a relatively short period of time. Now-a-days, mobile phones are not only a tool for communicating with another person but are mainly multi-functional devices to enable both entertainment and work (Janiak, 2014). Mobile wallet service is the latest phenomenon produced by mobile technology. The mobile wallet is an electronic account on a mobile phone that can be used to store and transfer the money and has the functionality to supplant a conventional wallet. It is a mobile-based virtual wallet, where consumers preload a certain amount in their account created with the mobile wallet service provider, and spend it at online and offline merchants listed with the mobile wallet service provider. Mobile wallets allow consumers to use their phones to make payments for purchases of goods and services. Rs 1,200 crore plus will be the value of the Indian mobile wallet market by 2019. The figure stood at Rs 350 crore till last year. 30% is the annual projected growth in the Indian mobile wallet market from 2015 till 2019.Mobile wallet service is still in its early stages in India, and will likely go through fundamental changes as the technology continues to evolve. Research on mobile wallet services is also in its early stages, but the literature is growing. Although much research has been conducted on various aspects of mobile commerce and payment systems, research on the adoption of mobile wallet services is limited. The present study contributes to this research gap by examining the factors that could affect intentions of consumers to adopt mobile wallet services.This paper first presents a brief review of the literature on adoption of new technological innovation, followed by a discussion of conceptual framework and hypotheses. Next, the research methodology adopted to validate model affecting consumer intention to use mobile wallet services is discussed. The paper finally concludes with discussion of the findings, as well as limitations of the study and directions for future research.Theoretical Background and Research HypothesisThe main focus of this study is to identify the factors that are likely to influence consumer adoption of mobile wallets. The mobile wallet is a relatively new phenomenon in India, therefore, the current study focused on the intention to use mobile wallet among young people instead of actual use. Several theories have been proposed to explain user adoption and acceptance of new technologies (i.e., mobile wallet). The research model adopted in this study is rooted in Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989). TAM is often used by lots of researchers in the field of information system adoption. The TAM proposes that two particular beliefs, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) are the primary drivers for technology acceptance. According to Davis (1989), users' acceptance of a new technology depends primarily on its function (i.e., perceived usefulness) and secondarily on the ease or difficulty with which its function can be per formed (i.e., perceived ease of use). TAM model is replicated in various studies to provide empirical evidence on the impact of usefulness and ease of use on adoption of new technologies such as online banking, online buying, tele-banking, mobile internet, computer technology, broadband services to name a few. Interestingly, there is a common agreement among researchers that TAM model was valid in explaining individual's acceptance of newly emerging technologies (Guriting and Ndubisi, 2006; Cheong and Park, 2005; Nysveen et al., 2005; Pikkarainen et al., 2004; and Kleijnen et al., 2004). …