Global Heterogeneity in the Emerging M-Commerce Landscape

Mobile phones, mobile Internet access, and mobile commerce (m-commerce) are growing much faster than their fixed counterparts. Several characteristics of mobile networks make them more attractive than fixed networks for less-developed countries and for those countries that want to “leapfrog” the leading IT nations. To exploit the new mobile communications infrastructures, companies from developed as well as developing countries are rapidly integrating m-commerce technology into their business models. Countries around the world, however, exhibit considerable heterogeneity in their adoption of mobile phones and mThis chapter appears in the book, Wireless Communications and Mobile Commerce, edited by Nansi Shi. Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING 2 Dholakia, Dholakia, Lehrer and Kshetri Copyright © 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. commerce technology. Examined in this chapter is the current stage of mobile technology and m-commerce diffusion across the world, and analyzed are factors influencing the diffusion process. In this chapter, the ways in which the m-commerce landscape of a nation—defined by the penetration rate of mobile phones, the specific combinations of different generations of mobile technology, and the blending of various standards within a given generation—is shaped by politicoeconomic, sociocultural, and policy-related factors are reviewed. INTRODUCTION The rapid global diffusion of mobile telephones in the last two decades of the 20th century laid the foundation for a new type of technology-aided commerce. Going beyond the computer-mediated electronic commerce (e-commerce) of the 1990s, this new type of mobile commerce (m-commerce) was characterized by novel, location-based services delivered by a variety of handheld terminals (Dholakia & Dholakia, 2003). By 2000, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo had already established a huge network of m-commerce service providers and users that relied on that company’s i-mode platform (Bradley & Sandoval, 2002). Just as networked computers and browser-accessible content provided the preconditions for the takeoff of e-commerce, mobile telephones that are data-ready and connected to digital communications networks provide the preconditions for m-commerce. In recent years, other handheld mobile devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and enhanced alphanumeric communicators (such as Blackberry devices), supplemented mobile telephones. An increasingly diverse array of such mobile devices is anticipated from the research laboratories of telecommunications, computer, and electronic firms. Drawing on comparative macrodata from about 30 selected countries, in this chapter, the heterogeneity of factors that influence cross-national differences in the adoption of mobile communication infrastructure and m-commerce applications is explored. It will be seen, in particular, that the distinction between developed, newly developed, and developing countries does not translate into a corresponding continuum of national leaders and laggards in mobile technology adoption. Instead, comparative analysis reveals interesting features of the emergent global m-commerce landscape: 20 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the publisher's webpage: www.igi-global.com/chapter/global-heterogeneity-emergingcommerce-landscape/31433