M-commerce adoptionTAM vs technology provider perspective through cognitive maps

Resumen

Mobile commerce context has specific characteristics that affect technology adoption. This paper study the factors associated with the adoption of Mobile Commerce using a new perspective and a new methodology since Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [1]. The design of this study has considered common limitations of previous relevant studies. TAM´s classical studies are based on subjective data from final user feedback. We suggest a new study �out of the box� based on information from interviews with industry providers: executives of an international mobile telecommunications company and an the president of an international content provider company. It is justified by two reasons: the privileged position of mobile industry managers in terms of knowledge about technology advances, market information and global market response, and the fact that this industry providers´ knowledge has direct effects on user behaviour through marketing actions: Publicity, Price, Promotion and Product. As a result technology industry is guiding final user behaviour affecting to adoption. Cognitive maps add a qualitative perspective hardly found on technology adoption researches. This technique is used here to analyse the way managers construct their mental map about mobile adoption in order to compare it with TAM results. Cognitive maps technique make concepts appear freely from interviewed. Those concepts are connected trough arrows. It allows researchers to compare the built concepts from industry managers with TAM variables. The structured methodology insures internal validation and consistency. The research questions we ask are: Which are the factors that affect MC adoption from the point of view of the industry providers? And are they coincident with the factors given by TAM literature?