Exploring the Determinants of Intent to Adopt Mobile Value-Added Services by Women's Micro and Small Businesses in Tonga

Introduction

This paper investigates the drivers influencing the adoption of mobile value‐added services (MVS) by women-managed and owned micro and small-sized businesses (WMSBs) in the Kingdom of Tonga—an emerging nation in the South Pacific. Deloitte (2011) defines MVS as every service delivered to the final consumers ahead of usual voice calls. The study focuses on the “Functionality MVS” which includes: (1) M‐commerce, i.e., payment and banking transactions using mobile phones, and (2) M‐enterprise, i.e., apps linked to the business. Naidu & Chand (2012) categorized Microbusiness and Small businesses in Tonga according to the number of workers in the companies, i.e., Microbusiness having ten workers or more petite and Small businesses have 11-50 employees.

Particular reasons stimulate the importance of the research. First, previously published works reveal that the adoption of MVS is significant in women-headed microbusiness in another Pacific country, i.e., Fiji (Sathye et al., 2018); and has a significant contribution to development in Africa (Andrianaivo & Kpodar, 2011). Information and communication technologies (including mobile phone technology) can be a strength multiplier in attaining the World Bank’s objectives of stopping intense poverty and increasing shared wealth, particularly in remote Pacific regions such as Tonga (Sudanshin and Lee, 2013). Next, the transfer of Functionality MVS to WMSBs will generate women emancipation and enable reduced impoverishment via sustainable income support (Sathye et al., 2018). Last, contemporary technology adoption literature mainly concentrated on contributory viewpoints, e.g., perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as motorists of intent to adoption (Lu et al., 2005).

Nevertheless, variables like societal values should be considered, and their effects on new technology adoption intent are reckoned in information system literature (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Examining the effects of those factors is still a vital subject in information system studies (Lu et al., 2005). This effort is crucial for MVS, specifically in the initial phase of adopting 4G and 3G mobile phones. The evidence from the Pacific island countries on this matter is scarce until now (Sathye et al., 2018). Thus, this study tries to fill the gap. It focuses on fostering theoretic construction for the determinants of intent to adopt MVS in WMSBs. Exclusively, this study examines: (i) the relationships among societal support (SOCI), perceived ease of use (PEAS), perceived usefulness (PEUF), and the intent to adopt MVS in WMSBs, and (ii) how SOCI (i.e., significant people such as family and friends) will affect PEAS and PEUF. The study contributes to the existing studies by proposing that SOCI has a positive impact on technology usage. Its effects also get conveyed via other variables like PEAS and PEUF.

The SOCI that circle of family and friend implement on a person’s intent to use technologies can be such that the person performs actions which are reckoned positive by the reference crowd (Kulviwat et al., 2009). The intent to adopt is frequently affected by the view of the other people in the peer group assumed the person needs to obey community values or to improve his/her impression in the social circle (Bearden et al., 1989). The variable SOCI signifies this occurrence.

This study is organized in the following order. Part 2 explains the reviewed literature and research model. Part 3 provides methodology; Part 4 explains the findings of the study. The discussion of the study is delivered in Part 5, while the conclusion and implications are provided in Part 6.