Research by Dr. Vipul Patel of Shanti Business School, Ahmedabad, on 'Consumer Behavior with respect to “Mobile Wallet Services”

Dr. Vipul Patel, Associate Professor in the area of Marketing & research at Shanti Business School, Ahmedabad, conducted a research on “Young Consumers’ Intention to Use Mobile Wallet Services”. With the launch of the ‘Digital India’ Programme, it was important to understand the growing and popular trends which are spreading across the length and breadth of the country and in different age groups.Mobile wallet service is the latest phenomenon produced by mobile technology in India. Mobile wallet is a mobile-based virtual wallet that works through apps. The consumer is required to open an account with any mobile service provider and credit desired amount of money in their account. The consumer can then make payments as easy as a few taps on his mobile to pay vendors listed with the mobile wallet service provider.

This research was conducted to understand factors affecting intention to use mobile wallet services by youngsters. Data were collected from 274 young undergraduate students between the ages of 18 to 22 from Ahmedabad city of Gujarat in the month of September 2015. Young students were of particular interest as they are heavy mobile users and they are more likely to adopt new technology (i.e., mobile wallet). The factors included in the study were performance expectancy (the degree to which an individual believes that using the mobile wallet services) will help him or her to attain gain in job performance), effort expectancy (the degree of ease associated with the use of the mobile wallet service), social influence (the degree to which an individual perceives the importance of others
appreciating he or she should use the mobile wallet services), facilitating condition (the degree to which an individual believes that a technical infrastructure exists to support the use of the mobile wallet services).

This study found that consumers perceived that the mobile wallet services are useful and increased their efficiency as a buyer. Smart phones are very popular among youngsters now, and they feel very easy to learn and use mobile wallet services. This study also found that ‘facilitating condition’ has significant and positive effect on intention to use mobile wallet services. Mobile wallet service providers must therefore create technical infrastructure that supports the usage of mobile wallet services. It was also found that ‘social influence’ did not have any impact on intention to use of mobile wallet services among youngsters. This implies that youngsters perceive that usage of  mobile wallet service do not enhance their social status and prestige. Therefore, mobile wallet service providers must associate the adoption decisions with gaining social status to promote the adoption of mobile wallet services.