The Development and Evaluation of a Mobile Commerce Conceptual Model for Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Electronic commerce (E-commerce) is regarded as one of the key factors propelling global economic growth, particularly that of Saudi Arabia (SA). The significant growth of e-commerce has changed the nature of interactions between consumers and companies. Today, a new concept is being implemented by the current generation, which is mobile commerce (m-commerce). M-commerce is a new form of e-commerce that has evolved from the smartphone and e-commerce technologies. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people accessing the Internet, communicating on social networks, and interacting on social media platforms via their mobile devices. There are several reasons why m-commerce is expected to increase significantly, one of which is the widespread use of mobile phones and the obvious benefits of having access to the Internet anytime, anywhere. According to the literature, m-commerce has not been extensively examined, and most studies on m-commerce have concentrated on analysing certain factors. In addition, the study covered three different perspectives that have not previously been addressed together in the one study: smartphone users, IT experts, and SME managers. Therefore, additional study is required to examine and assess m-commerce from a theoretical and empirical standpoint in order to broaden our understanding of this important and rapidly-expanding field of study. Hence, this research examined a comprehensive range of factors that influence the uptake of mobile commerce, especially in Saudi Arabia, by developing and evaluating a conceptual and holistic model for m-commerce that is aligned with one of the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, which is to increase the contribution of SMEs to the Kingdom's GDP from 20% to 35% by 2030. Based on a comprehensive literature review, a new initial m-commerce model was proposed for Saudi Arabia. The model includes a variety of factors: monetary, authentication mechanisms, customer experience, culture, interactivity, infrastructure, usability, and human-computer interaction (HCI) and viability. The main aim of this research was to identify the most important factors that facilitate the successful implementation of m-commerce in Saudi Arabia in the future. The mixed-methods approach, “sequential explanatory design”, was chosen for this study to answer the research questions and obtain the participants’ opinions about the initial m-commerce model by collecting and analysing data in two stages: a quantitative stage, followed by a qualitative stage. In the first stage, quantitative data was obtained via an online questionnaire to help the researcher discover smartphone users' and IT experts' opinions of the m-commerce model, and to determine the factors that should be included in it. The researcher used a sample comprising 1144 participants (708 smartphone users and 436 IT experts). After that, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to identify the factors that must be maintained in the model following the factor-reduction process. This study used SPSS version 27 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for data analysis. The quantitative method was applied to answer the first research question. In the second stage, qualitative data was obtained to investigate the online survey findings in order to acquire a better understanding of the established factors. This involved semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 managers of SMEs to ensure the validity and comprehensiveness of the m-commerce model and answer the three research questions. The thematic analysis technique was employed to analyse the collected data using NVivo (version 14), a qualitative data analysis software. A few adjustments were made to the improved model in response to the perspectives of the managers of SEMs as a result of the thematic analysis of the data. Finally, the enhanced m-commerce model was refined based on the interview data. Both theoretically and practically, the findings of this study significantly advance the field of m-commerce in Saudi Arabian industries and contribute to Saudi Vision 2030. In this thesis, the limitations of this research are acknowledged, and several suggestions for additional research are offered. Finally, a set of recommendations is presented to assist users, organisations, and governments to implement m-commerce sustainably now and in the future to achieve Saudi Arabia's vision 2030. Finally, to strengthen the research findings, this model will be examined in future in the context of Gulf countries that have characteristics similar to those of Saudi Arabia.