NFC technology acceptance for mobile payments: a brazilian perspective.
| Autor | de Luna, Iviane Ramos |
Purpose--This study investigates the acceptance of NFC technology for ayment through mobile in a Brazilian context, which allow knowing the factors that influence directly or indirectly in that acceptance.
Design/methodology/approach--Through an online and selfadministered questionnaire and using the snowball sampling procedure on social networks, the final sample consisted of 423 mobile phone users in Brazil and the technique used to prove the hypotheses was the Structural Equation Model.
Findings --The results show that attitude, personal innovation in IT and perceived usefulness are determinants of future intention to use the NFC technology for payments in Brazil.
Originality/value--The proposed model has a predictive power of intention to use NFC payment of 71%, demonstrating that it includes background with a large predictive power of acceptance of NFC technology which led us to highlight the main implications for the management and development of new studies in this field.
Keywords--Mobile payments, NFC, TAM, new technologies acceptance.
1 Introduction
To enhance the process of adoption and use of mobile payment services, it is important for both businesses and consumers to deepen their knowledge of these services. Based on this idea, the present study aims to investigate the acceptance of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology for mobile payments in Brazil so as to determine the factors that directly or indirectly influence its acceptance. After extensive research on the subject and experiencing the reality of mobile payments, we realized that there are no specific studies on NFC's acceptance in Brazil. It is for this reason that this study is relevant both for Brazilian academia and the mobile industry.
It is obvious that mobile phone adoption is rapidly growing in Brazil as it is throughout the world. The many features included in these devices that help make daily life easier, more enjoyable and fun explain their widespread use (Luna, Montoro-Rios, & Liebana-Cabanillas, 2016). There are now 7.4 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide and between 2015 and 2021. The IoT (Internet of Things) indicates a further increase in smartphone adoption that will reach 16 billion. This suggests that by 2018 smartphones will be the largest category of electronic connected devices (Ericsson, 2016).
Brazil is among the five countries in the world with the highest number of mobile phones. The others are China, India, Indonesia and the USA (Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], 2016). Brazil's mobile market potential is evident. It is the largest in Latin America and is the fourth largest in the world according to GSM A Association in its latest edition of the Brazil Mobile Observatory (2012). In fact, Brazil ended the first quarter of 2016 with a total of 257.81 million active mobile telephone lines (Agenda Nacional de Telecomunicacoes [ANATEL], 2016), with about 23 million 4G mobile connections that by the end of 2016 is expected to reach 42 million, according to data from the GSMA Intelligence (2016).
This growth will be driven by increased penetration of smartphones in the country that will leap from 55% in 2015 to 62% by the end of 2016 despite pressure on prices in the macroeconomic environment. With consumers replacing their mobile phones with smartphones and consequently with the move towards faster networks (a significant increase in the new 4G connections is expected), it is assumed that total 3G and 4G mobile connections will reach 223 million by the end of 2016. This represents a growth of nearly 16 % compared to 2015 (GSMA Intelligence, 2016).
Specifically, in Brazil smartphones have played an important role in the development of the market and have had a deep impact on consumer behavior. Of the total smartphones users, 80% have searched for a product or service of interest, 41% have recommended or reviewed the company to others, and 55% have made purchases from an online or physical store (Google, 2012). The scenario indicates that the smartphone market is huge, global and strategically important to all interested in monetizing digital content and distribution services and mobile marketing programs. In this sense, the scenario is favorable to mobile payments as it eliminates use of the physical wallet, replacing it with a single device, the smartphone.
Mobile payments allow consumers to eliminate or reduce the need of cash (Pham & Ho, 2015), offering convenience and speed (Teo, Tan, Ooi, Hew, & Yew, 2015), performance and secure transfer of information from the simple transaction to situations with high volume of payments such as restaurants or large retailers (Leong, Hew, Tan, & Ooi, 2013). Both business and consumers benefit from a considerable reduction in operating time, thus achieving clear benefits in productivity (Oliveira, Thomas, Baptista, & Campos, 2016), adding value to small and medium-sized businesses. For these reasons mobile payments have a large growth potential. Moreover, according to the survey conducted by the Statista Corporation (2015), the global mobile payment revenues are expected to reach 721 billion USD in 2017 making it one of the most important means of conducting mobile financial transactions.
In recent years, consumers have used their smartphones as personal digital assistants and shopping devices. In the US, 79% of smartphone users are also mobile consumers, most often though by means of specific retail applications in stores such as Best Buy, Kohl or Macy's. Through mobile applications, the shopper can check prices, discounts, additional information and reviews of products, compare product features, and ask opinions from friends (Kang, Mun, & Johnson, 2015; Kerviler, Demoulin, & Zidda, 2016).
On the other hand, smartphone manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and Google have recently launched mobile payment services (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay) raising the awareness of customers about the options of m-payment (Kerviler et al., 2016). However, only half of the users actually buy with these devices (Emarketer, 201 5) and only about 15% use m-payment regularly (First Annapolis, 2016). In this sense, mobile shopping seems to have a greater impact on traditional sales (in physical stores) than on mobile commerce sales (Groi?, 2015; Kerviler et al., 2016).
The latest study by Accenture (2015) shows that consumers see themselves using less traditional means of payment and turning to digital payment in the future, in spite of the fact that it is not commonly used today. By the end of that decade, Accenture expects a significant increase in m-payments. However, entities involved in the commercialization of mobile payments still need to dedicate more effort to understand the consumer and how to manage the increase in an enduring way.
Currently, the development of applications and new business models related to m-commerce (mobile commerce) such as mobile payments is in full growth. There are many solutions in the market using different means and technologies. NFC technology, also called contactless pay men t, is a common factor among them. Payment methods developed by three of the world's major mobile technology industries (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay) are examples. Similarly, startups are also investing in this technology despite little success coupled with criticism as in the case of the Google Wallet app launched in 2011.
NFC technology has become one of the most promising technologies in recent years due to the business opportunities in its application for mobile phones and reliance on important features in the short term beyond the mobile payment (Luna et al., 2015). NFC could present traders with the means for its consumers to communicate directly with companies through products, applications or mobile payments. For example, when examining a NFC chip in a package, the client could send real-time information directly to the manufacturer, generating extremely valuable information since the technology allows discerning both what is happening with their products after they have leave the shelves and the buying habits of their customers (Simpson, 2015). It is for these reasons that we chose to study this technology.
Mobile payments in Brazil are still in the embryonic stage. This is understandable since the ecosystem of mobile payments requires the creation of accords between various players. It is essential to develop an interest and synergy between banks, technology businesses, credit card companies, telephone services, startups, governments, businesses, customers and other stakeholders.
Payment with mobiles is a relatively new area of research, compared to other similar subjects such as online trading, Internet banking or mobile banking. Some authors consider that this is a subject that is in its infancy (Slade, Williams, & Dwivedi, 2013), in spite of the significant advances in recent years in this field (Dahlberg, Guo & Ondrus, 2015) Furthermore, many experts consider mobile payment as having the greatest potential in this sector ((Liebana-Cabanilla, Ramos-De-Luna, & Montoro-Rios, 2015). Only a few studies on the subject have appeared in recent leading academic journals (Slade, Williams, Dwivedi & Piercy, 2014; Luna et al., 2016, Oliveira et al., 2016). Yet they coincide on the need to develop a better understanding of the factors that determine mobile payment adoption.
The need to study mobile payments in Brazil has been noted in other research (Bourreau & Verdier, 2010) that compares the number of credit/debit cards with the number of mobile phones in developed and developing countries. The results reveal a larger amount of credit/debit cards than mobile phones in developed countries and the opposite in less developed countries. This therefore presents an interesting opportunity to promote mobile payment as an electronic payment solution to a population that does not benefit from banking services. In addition, access to, and use of new...
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