The moderating role of social distancing in mobile commerce adoption

The Covid-19 pandemic has pressured marketers and consumers adapt their purchasing habits. Known literature on mobile commerce (MC) highlights its advantage on convenience, which now is accompanied by health safety. Although MC has been outgrowing other online sectors, the early stages of the pandemic provided a new scenario. We study the relationship between consumer's attitudes about Covid-19 public health restrictions and the behavioral intention for MC adoption. Previous research on technology acceptance of online and mobile shopping have focused on aspects like safety and behavioral intention as key factors. Thus, we examine how attitude towards social distancing practices during the pandemic has affected consumers intentions to adopt of mobile commerce. We aim to study the degree on which this attitude affects previous intentions on purchasing or subscribing to services via mobile devices. For this, we present a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model of consumer MC adoption using social distance as a moderator. An empirical analysis using a survey of attitude and beliefs over mobile commerce and social distancing is presented, confirming the factors underlying using structural equation modeling. Results show that the attitudes toward social distancing are a significant moderator of purchasing through mobile devices; indicating that an individual's adherence to recommended practices during the pandemic does positively influence the adoption. MC is known for being a potential advantage to facilitate customer experience. According to our results, we believe marketers should reconsider or further develop MC infrastructure, highlighting its convenience and health safety role.