Socio-Cultural Factors that Influence the Adoption of m-Commerce in Nigeria

The rapid uptake of mobile devices globally, has propelled interest in emerging mobile opportunities through which businesses can broaden their customer reach. However, the differing pattern of m-commerce adoption in developed versus developing economies; rapid growth in mobile telephony uptake; and potential for adoption of m-commerce in developing economies, necessitate an understanding of emerging, unique, but less researched factors that can significantly influence the perception, behaviour, acceptance and consequent uptake/adoption of m-commerce within developing economies like Nigeria. Mixed methods of survey (quantitative) and semi-structured interview (qualitative) was employed. Prior to data collection, n=48 factors that contribute to successful adoption of m-commerce and specific to businesses in developing countries like Nigeria were identified from a rigorous literature review, and placed into four themes: organizational (including managerial), technological, environmental, and consumer factors. Data collection was conducted in two phases. During phase 1, a total of n=12 interviews were conducted on owners or managers of micro and small businesses (MSBs) across Nigeria. The interview data was thematically analysed based on three themes – organizational, technological and environmental factors, and further categorised as facilitators and barriers. During phase 2, n=230 questionnaires were administered on owners or managers of MSBs across Nigeria to gain further insight into facilitators and barriers identified from Phase 1. Questionnaire reliability and validity was undertaken prior to data collection. Data analysis was conducted on n=197 responses (due to incomplete entries), using relative frequency statistics to highlight the significance of the factors based on their level of impact. The socio-cultural factors identified are personal relationship, ostentatious culture, and multi-SIM culture, informed by results that showed that 80.95% of respondents placed emphasis on physical contact (personal relationship); 88.57% of respondents keep up with global trend (ostentatious culture); and 81.16% respondents highlighted the affordability of device technology (multi-SIM culture). This paper discusses these results and further highlights effective strategies that businesses in Nigeria adopt to engage positive factors (facilitators), and address negative factors (barriers) in order to harness the huge potentials that m-commerce uptake provides. Overall, existing businesses and those seeking to operate in cultures similar to the Nigerian context e.g. India, can focus and leverage these factors to significantly facilitate their adoption of m-commerce, and deliver promising benefits to their businesses.