The effects of technology readiness and technology acceptance on NFC mobile payment services in Korea

Abstract

The Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payment is the integration of NFC enabled smartphones and credit/debit/prepaid cards. Korea is a pioneer in rolling out the NFC mobile payment. Global mobile industries pay attention to whether Korean mobile users accept the new payment service. This study investigates the factors for technology acceptance using an integrated model of technology readiness and technology acceptance. Structured equation modeling is used to analyze the collected data. The four constructs of technology readiness (innovativeness, optimism, discomfort, and insecurity) have significant impact on the perceived ease of use and the two technological characteristics of NFC mobile payment (responsiveness and smartness) also have significant impacts on the perceived usefulness. However, only the perceived usefulness affects significantly on the intention to use. The perceived ease of use affects indirectly on the intention to use through the perceived usefulness. The result of this study suggests that to be a successful payment service, the NFC mobile payment service has to be much more focused on the usefulness against other alternative payment methods.