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Top1. Introduction
With the arrival of the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 era, commercial vendors have been challenged to apply electronic commerce practices dedicatedly through portable devices by online-to-offline (O2O) conceptual service model. Under the trends of the Web 2.0 era along with the prevalent use of social media, social commerce (s-commerce) has become a steadfast market. In light of s-commerce, a variety of innovative applications and strategies have accordingly entered the market, beginning a promising new area of research. Busalim and Hussin (2016) conducted a systematic review of s-commerce research published from 2010 to 2015 and concluded that most studies have stressed user behavior and website design, while other themes have been given limited attention. Therefore, this study examined a specific purchasing pattern that individual consumers apply, namely the use of quick response codes (QR codes), accessed through a user’s social networking service (SNS) from his or her portable device, to undertake actual purchasing behavior.
Mobile commerce (m-commerce) refers to e-commerce activities performed using mobile/portable devices (Kim, Chan, & Gupta, 2007; Yen, Wu, Cheng, & Huang, 2010). M-commerce is executed in coordination with other technological applications that belong to the O2O service model such as QR codes for mobile shopping. The O2O model involves purchasing a product online and receiving it at a specific physical location. Business markets currently apply the O2O model and the use of QR codes, which have become a shopping model. QR codes are a type of two-dimensional barcode. Each QR code is a square grid that consists of black and white pixels and distinctive black and white squares at three of its corners, which enable decoding software to position their scans. Thus, mobile device users can apply QR codes in a variety of purposes. Currently, empirical studies of using QR code consumption still have its practical needs (Liébana-Cabanillas, Sánchez-Fernández, & Muñoz-Leiva, 2014a, 2014b; Yang, 2012). No studies have employed this perspective to establish conceptual models that explore or predict the consideration factors and user intentions for QR-code shopping. Most studies on related shopping approaches such as mobile payments (Kim, Mirusmonov, & Lee, 2010; Liébana-Cabanillas et al., 2014a, 2014b; Schierz, Schilke, & Wirtz, 2010) and mobile shopping (Yang, 2012). The studies tend to employ single theories such as the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the behavior belief model, and the technology acceptance model (TAM) as their theoretical bases. Moreover, studies on m-commerce have indicated that people’s use of mobile information systems is affected by their perceived costs (PCs), perceived risks (PRs), and perceived innovation (PI) regarding the use of the information technology (Chong, Chan, & Ooi, 2012; Lu, Yao, & Yu, 2005; Lu, Yang, Chau, & Cao, 2011; Tan, Ooi, Chong, & Hew, 2014; Wu & Wang, 2005). Accordingly, few studies have investigated the use of QR codes in O2O shopping integrating TAM and TPB to explore the PI of individual consumers regarding mobile shopping. The consumption model in simultaneous consideration of PCs, PRs, and the main consumer groups is of importance in mobile shopping. Therefore, this study examines the consumer motivations to use QR codes in mobile shopping with the following two objectives: (a) to clarify the factors associated with the behavioral intentions (BIs) of consumers regarding using QR codes in O2O shopping on the basis of an integrated model of the TAM and TPB; and (b) to explore the effects of predisposing factors such as PI, PCs, and PRs on consumers regarding their use of QR codes in O2O shopping.