Abstract:
Encouraged by the crucial need to understand merchant adoption of
mobile payment, this study explores the role trust play in the adoption of mobile
payment by merchant and the enablers for merchant’s trust in mobile payment
systems. This was done by Conceptualising the characteristics of the service
provider and technology characteristics as the two dimensions that could
influence merchant adoption of mobile payments. The study was done through
the lenses of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Trust-Theoretic
Model and adopted a qualitative approach where two merchants were selected
from the health sector. The findings demonstrate that the role of merchant trust is
very critical for adoption due to m-payment technology and security risk. Hence,
sufficient trust-building structures in mobile payment space are essential for the
adoption of mobile payment by merchants. Moreover, the findings indicate
mobile service provider characteristics and the mobile technology characteristics
are both imperative toward building trust in mobile payment systems for merchants’
adoption. The study also found that the trust of both technology and
service provider has a far more critical influence on merchants’ adoption of
mobile payments than perceived usefulness or ease of use. The study, therefore,
recommends that service providers should consider the opportunity to nurture
merchant trust because merchant trust acts as a fundamental enabler for the
adoption of mobile payments. Other implications are also discussed.