Increasing Customer Trust Towards Mobile Commerce in a Multicultural Society: A Case of Qatar

Abstract

Mobile commerce, which is a relatively new channel for business, is revolutionizing the global marketplace. In Qatar, the average annual consumer expenditure is impressive. Surprisingly, only a small portion of the Qatari population has demonstrated an interest in online shopping via mobile devices due to a lack of trust. In a multicultural nation such as Qatar, it is vital to explore the factors that can promote consumer trust in mobile commerce. The objective of this study is to present and validate a conceptual framework for trust based on the technology acceptance model. A survey was conducted to gather data, and the proposed trust model was empirically validated using the partial least squares approach. Our findings reveal that perceived security has the most significant positive direct relationship with trust formation, followed by social media influencers, whereas localization, luxury brands, perceived usability, and privacy indirectly influence trust through perceived security.

Keywords:

• M-commerce
• M-Trust
• TAM
• localization
• social media
• luxury brands
• PLS-SEM
• M-commerce security
• M-commerce privacy
• multicultural