2011 International Conference on Social Science and Humanity

IPEDR vol.5 (2011) (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore

Mobile Commerce Usage in Malaysia

Assessing Key Determinants
Uchenna Cyril Eze

Mohd Aliff Ten bin Mohd Yusof Ten

Faculty of Business and Law

Multimedia University
Melaka, Malaysia
uc_chinwe@hotmail.com

Faculty of Business and Law

Multimedia University
Melaka, Malaysia

Yew-Siang Poong
Faculty of Information Science and Technology
Multimedia University
Melaka, Malaysia
yspoong@gmail.com
AbstractDespite the fact that there have been many
researches done on mobile commerce abroad, there is much to
explore and investigate in the case of Malaysia. The aim of this
paper is to present findings on key determinants of mobile
commerce usage in Malaysia. This study adopted quantitative
approach and conducted survey among consumers Malaysia.
This research shows that perceived ease of use, personal
innovativeness, perceived trust, perceived cost, social
influences and perceived usefulness are key determinants
influencing consumers to adopt mobile-commerce.
Keywords-mobile commerce; technology acceptance; Malaysia;
behavioural intention;

I.

INTRODUCTION

In contrast with electronic commerce, mobile commerce

(m-commerce) presents unique features such as ubiquity,
personalization, flexibility and localization. Mobile
commerce works by connecting wirelessly to the internet,
usually through telecommunication operators, to deliver
product and service. Though mobile commerce appears to
have favourable features compared to electronic commerce,
Anil, Ting, Moe and Jonathan [1], Liang and Wei [2]
discovered that mobile commerce have failed to meet its
potentials, disregarding a few personal applications, such as
ringtone downloads.
The birth of 3G in Malaysia can be traced back to year
2002. In this year, the Malaysian Communications and
Multimedia Commissions (MCMC) assigned two of the
three available 3G spectrum block to telecommunication
players in Malaysia. However, the usage of 3G services in
Malaysia has not evolved as hoped. In terms of mobile
penetration rate, Malaysia is the second highest after
Singapore in South East Asia Goi [3]. However, the numbers
are small when it comes to mobile commerce usage in
Malaysia, despite the availability of proper infrastructure and
rich mobile contents Mohd and Osman [4] as well as positive
intentions to use mobile services Ravendran [5].

Given the situation mentioned in the previous paragraph,

the authors of this research is curious to investigate the
factors that influence the usage of mobile commerce among
Malaysian consumers. In order to fulfill this objective, this
research attempts to review existing technology adoption
theories and apply the theories in Malaysia context.
II.

INTENTION TO USE MOBILE COMMERCE

In the domain of electronic commerce, Pavlou [6]

explained that it is appropriate to examine consumers
intention to use a technology because intention possesses the
willingness of a consumer to complete the whole transaction
process. In contrast, examining actual use may often be
unable to achieve due to unfavorable factors, such as slow
web page retrieval [6]. Furthermore, behavioural intention
has been empirically proven to predict actual usage ([7], [8],
[9], [10]). Intention, therefore, is deemed appropriate to
capture consumers perception in using mobile commerce. In
order to align with the objective of this study, we define our
dependent variable specifically as intention to use mobile
commerce.
III.

THEORETICAL MODEL DEVELOPMENT

A. Personal Innovativeness
Agarwal and Prasad [11] describe personal
innovativeness as a trait that leads to innovative behavior in
the context of microcomputer interactions, expressed as the
willingness of an individual to try out any new information
technology. Rogers [12] explained that individuals with
personal innovativeness are able to handle high levels of
improbability and are able to cope better with accepting
something new. In a study by Citrin, Sprott, Silverman and
Stem [13], it is shown that personal innovativeness is able to
predict consumer adoption of internet shopping.

V1-265

B. Subjective Norms
According to Ajzen and Fishbein [14], subjective norm is
determined by his or her perception that salient social
referents think he or she should or should not perform a
particular behavior. Taylor and Todd [15] further elaborated
that the referents could be either superiors or peers. Besides
this, Hartwick and Barki [16] stated that if the potential user
has no prior experience, the influence of subjective norms
would be stronger due to the existence of referents. A user
also would most likely to recommend a service to his
acquaintance if he or she is satisfied with the service Fan,
Saliba, Kendall and Newmarch [17].
C. Perceived Cost
In previous work done by Dekimpe, Parker and Sarvary
[18], it was said that high income enables potential adopters
to spend more thus making it easier for them to adopt a new
innovation. Luarn and Lim [19] explained that cost factors
include the cost of obtaining mobile device, the maintenance
costs, usage costs and upgrading costs in the future.
Antonelli [20] also argued that standard of living and
economic development level influence adoption timing as
well as diffusion speed. Anil, Ting, Moe and Jonathan [1]
found that cost is one of the factors which influenced the
adoption of mobile commerce in Singapore. Due to this,
Muthaiyah [21] concluded that in order to have an effective
penetration level of mobile technology, it was compulsory
for a certain minimum level of income.
D. Perceived Trust
According to Nicholson, Compeau and Senthi [22], trust
is a critical construct in multiple discipline areas. According
to Morgan and Hunt, [23] and OMalley and Tynan [24],
trust is defined as a confidence between the parties that the
other party is reliable and that the parties will act with a level
of integrity when dealing with each other. Heffernan [25]
summarized that within the realm of relationship marketing,
trust has been recognized as an important variable for the
success of relationships in the supplier literature [26], the
channel literature [27], end consumer relationships literature
[28] and lateral relationships literature [29].
In the works of McKnight and Chervany [30], it is stated
that trust beliefs must exist from the consumers side in order
for a transaction to occur subsequently. Based on the views
of McKnight and Chervany, [30] and Poong, Eze and Talha
[31], trust is when one believes that the other party has one
or more characteristics beneficial to oneself while trusting
intention means one is willing to depend on, or intends to
depend on, the other party even though one cannot control
that party.

with each other. An innovation can be judged in the

continuum of easy to use to difficult to use. Innovation that is
perceived to be easy to use will gain faster acceptance by the
potential adopters due to lower learning curve imposed. In
this research context, perceived ease of use is defined as the
degree to which a consumer believes that using e-commerce
to purchase products or services would be effort-free. Davis
[7] posits that perceived ease of use does not have direct
effect on behavioural intention to use. Empirical studies in ecommerce, however, found that perceived ease of use do
increase consumers behavioural intention to shop online (e.g.
[33]) empirical work found support of the relationship
between perceived ease of use and consumers intention to
shop online
F. Perceived Usefulness
Perceived usefulness is defined as the perceived of
usefulness of a system as the degree to which consumers
believe that using the new technology will enhance their task
performance. Existing research shows that that perceived
usefulness has an effect on consumers intention to adopt, for
example as in Venkatesh and Morris [34]. Consumer
evaluates his or her options in terms of perceived of
usefulness and base their choices of behavior on the
desirability of the perceived usefulness. Due to this fact,
perceived usefulness will have an effect on their choice to
adopt mobile commerce. Therefore, perceived usefulness is
classified as the level to which a consumer believes that by
adopting Mobile Commerce, it will help the consumer to
improve his or her job performance.
G. Theoretical Model
Based on the literature review, key determinants have
been identified as possible key determinants of mobile
commerce adoption in Malaysia. The determinants include
personal innovativeness, subjective norms, perceived cost,
perceived trust, perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness. Following the argument in the literature review,
the dependent variable in this study is intention to use
mobile commerce. Fig. 1 depicts the theoretical model in
this study.
Consequently, the hypotheses for this study are:
H1: Personal innovativeness will have a positive effect on
the intention to use Mobile Commerce in Malaysia.
H2: Subjective norm will have a positive effect on the
intention to use Mobile Commerce in Malaysia.

E. Perceived Ease of Use

Perceived ease of use is undoubtedly the most researched
characteristics in Information Technology related innovation.
Davis [7] included perceived ease of use in TAM model
while Rogers [12] studies perceived complexity in diffusion
of innovation. Moore and Benbasat [32], however, regard
both perceived ease of use and perceived complexity are the
same, in the sense that they are only conceptually opposite

V1-266

Gender
Male
Female
Age
20-25 years
26-30 years
31- 35 years
36-40 years
Ethnicity
Malay
Chinese
Indian
Others
Income (RM)
< 1500
1500 1999
2000 2499
2500 2999
> 3000
Mobile Service
Provider
Maxis
Celcom
Digi
U-Mobile
Expertise
Information
Technology
Engineering
Business and
Management
Others

Personal
Innovativeness
Subjective
Norms
Perceived Cost

Intention to use
Mobile Commerce

Perceived
Trust
Perceived Ease
of Use
Perceived
Usefulness
Figure 1. A theoretical model of mobile commerce usage in Malaysia

H3: Perceived cost will have a negative effect on the

intention to use Mobile Commerce in Malaysia.
H4: Perceived trust will have a positive effect on the
intention to use Mobile Commerce in Malaysia.
H5: Perceived ease of use will have a positive effect on
the intention to use Mobile Commerce in Malaysia.
H6: Perceived usefulness will have a positive effect on the
intention to use Mobile Commerce in Malaysia.
IV.

METHODOLOGY

A total of 320 survey questionnaires, using both online

and paper survey, were distributed to consumers in Malaysia
using a snowball sampling method. The sampling method
was chosen due to the fact that it is easier to penetrate the
targeted group of respondents by using their acquaintances.
Targeted respondents are Malaysians who possess mobile
communication device. The questionnaire consists of two
sections, in which the first section comprises of demographic
questions. Second section consists of items to measure
constructs identified in the literature review using a fivepoint Likert scale. Pilot testing was done prior to the actual
survey to ensure item reliability and validity.
V.

Demographic

DATA ANALYSIS

TABLE II.

Percentage

51.2
100.0

83
115
58
4

31.9
44.2
22.3
1.5

31.9
76.2
98.5
100.0

90
96
69
5

34.6
36.9
26.5
1.9

34.6
71.5
98.1
100.0

52
62
76
48
22

20.0
23.8
29.2
18.5
8.5

20.0
43.8
73.1
91.5
100.0

99
109
44
8

38.1
41.9
16.9
3.1

38.1
80.0
96.9
100.0

90

34.6

34.6

69
86

24.5
33.1

61.2
92.2

15

5.8

100.0

Cumulative
Percentage

V1-267

RELIABILITY STATISTICS FOR INDEPENDENT AND

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

Variable
Perceived Ease-of-Use
Personal Innovativeness
Perceived Usefulness
Perceived Trust
Perceived Cost
Subjective Norm
Intention
TABLE III.
Constructs
PEOU
PI
PU
PT

RESPONDENTS DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Frequency

51.2
48.8

respondents were those from the Information Technology

field with 34.6 %.
Subsequently, item reliability is assessed using Cronbach
Alpha to measure item internal consistency. Table II depicts
the reliability indices for each of the item. The statistics
show that all items exhibit acceptable reliability, suggesting
high internal consistency among items. Next, factor analysis
using Varimax rotation is used to assess items validity, in
order to ensure each item loads into its intended construct.
The factor loading for each item is greater than 0.50 and
loads into its intended construct.
Table III shows the correlation matrix among constructs.
The correlation values are less than 0.500, with values range
from 0.096 to 0.403, indicating no serious multicollinearity
issues in the data set.

Of 280 returned questionnaires, a total of 260

questionnaires were deemed fit, resulting in an 81.25% of
distributed questionnaires. Table I presents the demographic
profile of the respondents. From the table, it is shown that
most of the respondents are male (51.2 %). As for ethnicity,
the highest number of respondents was Chinese (36.9%). As
for the income level, majority of the respondents were from
the RM2000- RM 2499 income group. Based on the data
collected, it is evident that most of the respondents are
Celcom subscribers (41.9 %).The most number of
TABLE I.

133
127

Mean
3.779
3.669
3.628
3.334
3.267
3.672
3.641

0.839
0.824
0.826
0.801
0.826
0.891
0.825

No of Item
5
5
5
5
4
4
4

CORRELATION MATRIX AMONG CONSTRUCTS

PEOU
1

PI
0.313
1

PU
0.365
0.255
1

PT
0.206
0.183
0.222
1

PC
0.258
0.292
0.320
0.096

SN
0.403
0.333
0.385
0.287

PC
SN

PEOU: Perceived Ease of Use, PI: Perceived Innovativeness, PU: Perceived Usefulness,
Perceived Trust, PC: Perceived Cost, SN: Subjective Norm

0.281
1
PT:

This study adopts multiple regression analysis to test the

hypotheses. The r-square value of the multiple regression
model is 0.649, implying that the constructs identified in this
study explain 64.9% of the variance of intention to use
mobile commerce. Analysis shows that the relationship
between perceived innovativeness and intention to use
mobile commerce is significant at p<0.05, with a beta value
of 0.172, thus supporting H1. H2 is supported as well, with a
beta value of 0.300 (p=0.000). The relationship between
perceived cost and intention to use mobile commerce is
statistically significant (=0.265, p=0.000), supporting H3.
H4 and H5 are supported with beta values 0.138 (p=0.001)
and 0.164 (p=0.000) respectively. Finally, statistically
significant relationship is also observed between perceived
usefulness and intention to use mobile commerce (=0.205,
p=0.000), thus supporting H6.
VI.

explained variance ranging from 13.8% to 30% on the

dependent variable. Overall model explains 64.9% of the
mobile commerce adoption, though there are still 35.1% of
the variance is not captured by this model. Nonetheless, this
study contributes to the existing mobile commerce literatures
by providing an insight from Malaysian perspectives. The
findings complements previous works performed in
Malaysia limited number of studies in Malaysia compared to
other studies performed in developed countries.
The findings from this study are essential for
practitioners whom intend to venture into mobile commerce
in Malaysia. As the demographic data indicates, the result of
this study is a representation of targeted mobile commerce
users. As Malaysia is going into 4G network in November
2010, the opportunities for mobile commerce are vast,
provided that practitioners understand potential users
behavioral intention to use mobile commerce. As suggested
by the result, an effective promotion among targeted users to
use mobile commerce would create more impact on mobile
commerce adoption, followed by reasonable service charges
and developing useful applications.

DISCUSSION

Empirical data from this study strongly support the

proposed theoretical model. As hypothesized, personal
innovativeness, perceived ease of use and perceived trust are
important predictors for mobile commerce usage among
Malaysian consumers. Interestingly, perceived usefulness,
perceived cost and subjective norms have higher explained
variance compared to the other three predictors. Perhaps,
respondents are familiar with technology interface; hence
perceived ease of use may not be the strongest predictor.
Personal innovativeness is more of a personal trait that exists
in a handful of individuals but not in others [11]. It may be
the number of respondents with high personal innovativeness
is low for this sample. Another possible reason could be
respondents in this study are mentally ready to adopt mobile
commerce since Malaysian telecommunication operators
begin to roll out lower costs of mobile broadband in year
2010 compared to previous years. Consistent with the
findings from Poong, Eze and Talha [31], perceived trust has
a low explained variance compared to other predictors in
electronic commerce as well. This could be due to the fact
that less awareness is instilled among Malaysian consumers.
A specialized study to discover the understanding of online
commerce trust may be conducted in the future. On the other
hand, Malaysian consumers are more concerned with the
cost and usefulness of using mobile commerce, as evidenced
from the empirical data. This is consistent with the medium
average household income of between 3750 Ringgit
Malaysia or USD1209 per month [35]. With the rising living
cost, Malaysian consumers are more conscious on optional
services. Malaysians tends to be collectivists in general.
Hence, social influence or subjective norms asserts
substantial influence in adopting innovation, such as mobile
commerce.
From the perspective of theory advancement, this study
confirmed some salient predictors of key beliefs in mobile
commerce adoption. The predictors in this study have

VII. CONCLUSION
This purpose of this study is to discover factors that
impact Malaysians to adopt mobile commerce. Mobile
commerce possesses the characteristics of mobility and
broad reach. While other countries may already enjoying
high speed wireless telecommunication network, Malaysia
has just received another 4G service from telecommunication
service provider in 27th November 2010. Nonetheless,
according to a market research, there are 85.1% of
Malaysians are using mobile phones, two places behind
Singapore [36]. This shows that potential of mobile
commerce in Malaysian market is very huge. Being in the
development stage, this study on consumers behavioral
issues appears to be suitable as reference both for researchers
and practitioners [37]. As the result of this study shows,
social relationships and networks are important criteria for
mobile commerce adoption in Malaysia. This is consistent
with other mobile commerce studies conducted in
developing countries, such as Ghana, in which people are
low in individualism [38].
This study could be extended to include more relevant
constructs, since there are still 35.1% of variance are
unexplained in this theoretical framework. One of the hints
presented from the result is to include more social related
constructs, since Malaysian is still considered as a
collectivist society. Another possible detailed research could
be done in identifying moderating variables based on
existing constructs in this theoretical framework. The output
may be interesting, both for research and practice, to
discover predictors that could boost users to adopt mobile
commerce in Malaysia.
REFERENCES
[1]

V1-268

S. Anil, L.T. Ting, L.H. Moe, and G.P.G. Jonathan, Overcoming

barriers to the successful adoption of mobile commerce in Singapore,
International Jounral of Mobile Communications, vol. 1, 2003, pp.
191 231.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]
[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]
[13]

[14]
[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

T. Liang and C.P. Wei, Introduction to the special issue: Mobile

commerce applications. International Journal of Electronic
Commerce, vol. 8, 2001, pp. 7.
Goi, C.L. Review on the implementation of mobile commerce in
Malaysia, Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, vol. 13, 2008,
pp. 1 -10.
F. Mohd and S, Osman, Towards the future of mobile commerce (mcommerce) in Malaysia, Proc. IADIS International Conference, Web
based communities, 2005, pp. 276 280.
A. Ravendran, Local mobile commerce market to see shift in trends,
New Straits Times, 2nd May, 2002.
P.A. Pavlou, Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce:
Integrating trust and risk with the technology acceptance model,
International Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol. 7, 2003, pp. 101
134.
F.D. Davis, Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user
acceptance of information technology, MIS Quarterly, vol. 13, Sep.
1989, pp. 319 340.
Y. Malhotra and D. Galletta, Extending the technology acceptance
model to account for social influence: theoretical bases and empirical
validation, Proc. 32nd Hawaii International Conference on System
Sciences, 1999, pp. 1 14.
M. Yi, and Y. Hwang, Predicting the use of web-based information
systems: self efficacy, enjoyment, learning goal orientation and the
TAM, International Journal of Human Computer Studies, vol. 59,
2003, pp. 431 449.
V. Venkatest, C. Speier, M.G. Morris, User acceptance enablers in
individual decision making about technology: Toward an integrated
model, Decision Sciences, vol. 33, 2002, pp. 297 316.
R. Agarwal and J. Prasad, The role of innovation charateristics and
perceived voluntariness in the acceptance of information
technologies, MIS Quarterly, vol. 16, 1997, pp. 227 247.
E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, New York: The Free Press,
1995.
A. Citrin, E. Sprott, N. Silverman, E. Stem, Adoption of Internet
Shopping: The role of consumer innovativeness, Industrial
Management & Data System, vol. 100, 2000, pp. 294 300.
I. Ajzen and M. Fishbein, Understanding attitudes and predicting
social behavior, Eagle Wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980.
S. Taylor and P.A. Todd, Understanding information technology
usage: A test of competing models, Information Systems Research,
vol. 6, 1995, pp. 144 174.
J. Hartwick and H. Barki, Explaining the role of user participation in
information system use, Management Science, vol. 40, 1994, pp.
440 465.
Y. Fan, A. Saliba, E.A. Kendall and J. Newmarch, Speech interface:
an enhancer to the acceptance of mobile commerce application, Proc.
International Conference on Mobile Business, 2005.
M.G. Dekimpe, P.M. Parker and M. Sarvary, Global diffusion of
technological innovations: A coupled hazzard approach, Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 37, Feb. 2000, pp. 47 59.
P. Luarn and H.H. Lin, Toward an understanding of behavioral
intention to use mobile banking, Computer in Human Behavior, vol.
21, pp. 873 891.
C.
Antonelli
Investment
and
adoption
in
advanced
telecommunications, Journal of Economics, Behavior and
Organization, vol. 20, Feb. 1993, pp. 227 245.

[21] S. Muthaiyah, Key success factors of 3rd generation mobile network

services for m-commerce in Malaysia, American Journal of Applied
Science, vol. 1, 2004, pp. 261 265.
[22] C.Y. Nicholson, L.D. Compeau, and R. Senthi, The role of
interpesonal liking in building trust in long-term channel relationship,
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 29, 2001, pp. 3
15.
[23] R.M. Morgan, and S.D. Hunt, The commitment-trust theory of
relationship marketing, Journal of Marketing, vol. 58, 1994, pp. 20
38.
[24] L. OMalley and C. Tynan, A reappraisal of the relationship
marketing construct of commitment and trust in New and Evolving
Paradigms: The emerging future of marketing, Three American
marketing association special conferences, T. Meenaghan, Eds. 1997,
pp. 486 503.
[25] T. Heffernan, Trust formation in cross-cultural business-to-business
relationships, Qualitative market research: An international Journal,
vol. 7, 2004, pp. 114 125.
[26] S. Ganesan, Determinants of long-term orientation in buyer-seller
relationships, Journal of Marketing, vol. 58, 1994, pp. 1 19.
[27] B.A. Weitz and S.D. Jap, Relationship marketing and distribution
channels, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 23,
1995, pp. 305 320.
[28] L.L. Berry and A. Parasuraman, Marketing services: Competing
through quality, New York, NY: Free Press, 1991.
[29] F.E. Webster, The changing role of marketing in the corporation,
Journal fo Marketing, vol. 56, 1992, pp. 1 17.
[30] D.H. McKnight and N.L. Chervany, What trust means in ecommerce customer relationships: An interdiciplinary conceptual
typology, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol.6,
2001-2002, pp. 23 59.
[31] Y.S. Poong, U.C. Eze, M.Talha, B2C e-commerce in Malaysia:
Perceived characteristics of innovating and trust perspective,
International Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol. 7, 2009, pp. 392
427.
[32] G.C. Moore and I. Benbasat, Development of an instrument to
measure the perceptions of adopting an information technology
innovation, Information systems research, vol. 2, 1991, pp. 192
222.
[33] M.I. Klopping and E. McKinney, Extending the technology
acceptance model and task-technology fit model to consumer ecommerce, Information Technology, Learning and Performance
Journal, vol. 22, 2004, pp. 35 48.
[34] V. Venkatesh, M.G. Morris, Why dont men ever stop to ask for
directions? Gender, social influence, and their role in technology
acceptance and usage behavior, MIS Quarterly, vol. 24, 2000, pp.
115 137.
[35] The Edge Malaysia,
http://www.cpiasia.net/english/images/media/mm_83_730.pdf, Nov
2008, pp. 83, Accessed: 29th November 2010
[36] Clarestalwj, Malaysia Mobile Penetration, Digital Media Across
Asia,
http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia+Mobile+Penetration .
May, 2010, Accessed: 29th November 2010.
[37] E.W.T. Ngai and A. Gunasekaran, A review for mobile commerce
research and applications, Decision Support Systems, vol. 43, 2007,
pp. 3 15.
[38] R. A. Baodi, R. Boateng, R. Hinson and R. A. Opoku, Preliminary
insights into m-commerce adoption in Ghana, Information
Development, vol. 23, 2007, pp. 253 26

V1-269