The impact of national culture on mobile commerce adoption and usage intensity

Abstract

The usage of mobile commerce increases around the world. However, little is known about why adoption and usage of mobile commerce services differ across countries. We address this question by analyzing the impact of national culture on mobile commerce adoption and usage intensity. Using a dataset that comprises individual consumer survey data from 43 countries across six continents and country-level data on Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions, we study cross-cultural adoption and usage patterns pertaining three mobile commerce services, i.e. mobile banking, mobile shopping and mobile payment. Our results show that adoption and usage intensity are indeed affected by different cultural dimensions. Specifically, the adoption of mobile commerce services is negatively influenced by a country’s level of uncertainty avoidance, while consumers’ usage intensity is driven by indulgence. This implies that providers of mobile commerce services need to tailor their market entry and market cultivation strategies accounting for each country’s specific culture.