An empirical study on success factors to enhance customer trust for mobile commerce in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTES) in Jordan

Abstract

Even though mobile technologies and wireless communication are growing at a very rapid phase all over the world, still the development of mobile commerce is hindered by a lot of aspects. Researchers all over the world are actively studying on this domain to understand the factors that affect the acceptance of Mcommerce. A lot of studies have recognized that 'trust' is an crucial factor that impacts the acceptance of Mcommerce in a lot of domains, including the Small and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs). Nevertheless it is not an easy task to make the customers to trust M-commerce for various reasons. Furthermore, trust has been identified as a major obstacle of mobile commerce applications. Drawn from previous literatures on trust in the information system and M-commerce, this study proposed a new model for investigating trust in M-commerce acceptance by SMTEs in developing countries, which focused on Jordan. The study distributed the questionnaire to 361 respondents employed in Jordanian SMTEs. The trust factors were investigated to assess their influence on user’s trust in M-commerce applications for SMTEs via descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Results of the analysis revealed that all factors, except for ‘structural assurance’ and ‘calculative-based trust’, affect the user’s trust in such applications. The study provides a clear understanding of decision maker’s perception about M-commerce acceptance in their businesses. This study is important in a global context, as SMTEs in Jordan are going for exporting their product in the global marketplace