SURVEY EVIDENCE OF MOBILE PAYMENT ADOPTION IN SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the conditional relationship between consumers’ and merchants’ awareness and knowledge levels, as well as the relationship between knowledge and behavioral intentions in the adoption of mobile payments. A survey was conducted in two countries, Singapore and Malaysia, to collect data on merchants’ and consumers’ awareness level, level of understanding, adoption status and overall perception of mobile payments. A total of 347 responses were gathered from the survey, after which descriptive and regression analysis were performed on the data collected. The results show that conditional on higher level of awareness of mobile payments, consumers and merchants have higher level of knowledge of mobile payments. The findings also show that conditional on higher level of knowledge on mobile payments, consumers and merchants have higher willingness to adopt mobile payments. These findings complement the existing literature by studying the additional relevant factor, knowledge, among the relationship between awareness and behavioral intention. Besides, additional insights are also gained from this survey. First, unlike the conventional wisdom, the older people in Malaysia have higher level of awareness for mobile payment. Second, higher level of perceived benefits for mobile payments are also related with higher subjective knowledge among both consumers and merchants. Third, cash, debit card and mobile payment are found to be the three most used payment methods by consumers in Singapore and Malaysia. Lastly, the two main information sources contributing to initial awareness of mobile payments among consumers in Singapore and Malaysia are the Internet and word-of-mouth. These insights can be used effectively by either policymakers or mobile payment service providers to design further interventions to encourage more adoption of mobile payments.