Mobile Shopping Convenience Behavior: The Quest for a Conceptual Framework

Despite the overwhelming prediction of increasing trends for mobile shopping activities among customers based on the advantages provided by the mobile shopping channel, there is an urgent need for the re-assessment on the roles of technology adoption models and theories in explaining the adoption of mobile shopping among customers. Moreover, there is a lack of empirical testing for investigating the influence of the multidimensional convenience construct on customers’ mobile shopping adoption based upon the utilitarian motivations, where convenience is one of the main antecedents for utilitarian-based customers to use a particular shopping channel. The objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that attempts to explain the mobile shopping adoption of customers by focusing on the unique advantages of mobile devices over PC that allows for better online shopping experience for customers. This study will look into the possibility of synthesizing different adoption models (TAM, UTAUT and IDT) and their constructs into a single cohesive theoretical framework that would be able to explain the mobile shopping channel adoption of customers through the unique characteristics that the channel possess over PC-based online shopping. The paper has identified several theories and concepts (Lazy User Theory, utilitarianism and utilitarian shopping motivations) which fit such requirements. Furthermore, this paper will also employ the multidimensional construct of convenience within the framework in order to explain the mobile shopping adoption intention of customers.