User adoption of mobile commerce in Bangladesh : integrating perceived risk, perceived cost and personal awareness with TAM

This paper develops and tests a model for predicting user adoption of mobile commerce (i.e. e-commerce using mobile phones) in developing countries. The model takes up the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and extends these through the inclusion of three further determinants: perceived risk, perceived cost and personal awareness to enable prediction of the likelihood of mobile commerce adoption by users in the developing world. 575 usable surveys were gathered from the urban, semiurban and rural areas of Bangladesh. Perceived risk and perceived usefulness were found to be the most influential factors effecting mobile commerce adoption, while the effect of perceived ease of use and personal awareness was found to be low although significant. The study reconfirmed the need of extending TAM model, in the context of mobile commerce, to address both it’s transactional and non-transactional components. Service providers need to ensure high levels of security and privacy to reduce user’s perceptions of risk. Mobile commerce services and technologies should be upgraded to world standard to make them more useful to users.