Building trust in m-commerce: contributions from quality and satisfaction

Purpose – Mobile commerce (m-commerce) represents a new area of business opportunity. Past research has often focused on customer acceptance and its antecedents, rather than factors that build trust in m-commerce. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of factors influencing customer trust towards vendors on the mobile internet. Design/methodology/approach – M-commerce relies on mobile technology and well-maintained service quality. This paper has applied the service quality model (SERVQUAL) and technology acceptance model (TAM), coupled with proposed quality factors in relation to m-commerce that, according to the literature, influence customer trust, to empirically test the formation of trust. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using online survey data from 212 experienced m-commerce customers. Findings – The results showed that despite customisation, brand image and satisfaction all directly affecting customer trust towards the vendor in m-commerce, customisation and brand image equally had a stronger direct effect on trust formation. In addition, interactivity and responsiveness had no direct impact, but had an indirect impact via satisfaction on trust towards the vendor. Practical implications – This paper contributes a theoretical understanding of factors that activate the development of trust towards the vendor. For vendors in general the results enable them to better develop customer trust in m-commerce. Originality/value – The paper verifies the effects of satisfaction and proposed quality factors on customer confidence in m-commerce. Moreover, this article validates the determinants of satisfaction.