Embracing mobile shopping: what matters most in the midst of a pandemic?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-09-2021-0558 |
| Published date | 26 May 2022 |
| Date | 26 May 2022 |
| Pages | 1645-1664 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Xiu Ming Loh,Voon Hsien Lee,Garry Wei-Han Tan,Keng-Boon Ooi,Samuel Fosso Wamba |
Embracing mobile shopping:
what matters most in the midst
of a pandemic?
Xiu Ming Loh and Voon Hsien Lee
Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman,
Kampar, Malaysia
Garry Wei-Han Tan
UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
School of Finance and Economics, Nanchang Institute of Technology,
Jiangxi, China and
School of Economics and Management, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China
Keng-Boon Ooi
UCSI Graduate Business School, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
School of Finance and Economics, Nanchang Institute of Technology,
Jiangxi, China and
College of Management, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan, and
Samuel Fosso Wamba
Toulouse Business School, Midi-Pyr
en
ees, France
Abstract
Purpose –The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significantchanges to the lives of many people. One of
which is the accelerated digitalization in the commerce sector. Hence, this study looks to determine the
antecedents that affect users’mobile shopping actual use during a pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach –The research model was founded on the integration of the Protection
Motivation Theory and Transactional Theory of Stress. This is in addition to further extending the integrated
research model with other constructs to develop a multi-dimensional framework that accounted for the health,
personal, technological and social dimensions. The data was collected from users of mobile shoppingthrough
an online survey which was then analyzed via Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling.
Findings –This study provides empirical support to establish the major role of COVID-19 pandemic in
affecting the actual usage of mobile shopping. Furthermore, the determinants of actual usage of mobile
shopping were found to be multi-dimensional. In particular, the Importance-Performance Map Analysis
revealed that emphasis should be place on perceived vulnerability.
Originality/value –As other studies focused on users’intentions, this study looked into the factors that
influence the actual usage of mobile shopping. Furthermore, this study emphasizes on the contextualization of
time and situation in addition to a multi-dimensional approach toward the subject matter. Overall, this study
offers practical insights to stakeholders to better tailor their mobile shopping services in times of a pandemic
and advances the literature on actual usage of mobile shopping.
Keywords Mobile shopping, Mobile commerce, Protection motivation theory,Transactional theory of stress,
COVID-19 pandemic
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In recent years, the general public has experienced significant transformations following the
rapid advancements in the capabilities of smartphones. More specifically, smartphones can
now perform a wide variety of tasks such as mobile commerce (m-commerce) and mobile
shopping (m-shopping) (Tan and Ooi, 2018). Following that, the retail industry has been
significantly disrupted as shoppers are shifting toward m-shopping to purchase products
Embracing
mobile
shopping
1645
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 12 September 2021
Revised 3 March 2022
1 April 2022
Accepted 28 April 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 122 No. 7, 2022
pp. 1645-1664
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-09-2021-0558
and services (Hew et al., 2019). Since December 2019, the COVID-19 virus has spread to many
parts of the globe and infected many people. On 11 March 2020, the World Health
Organization (WHO) categorized the outbreak as a pandemic in view of 118,000 recorded
COVID-19 cases in over 110 countries and territories globally (Ducharme, 2020). Countries all
around the world implemented a variety of measures to curb the virus from spreading further
(Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020). Particularly in Malaysia, a lockdown dubbed the Movement
Control Order (MCO) was imposed on 18 March 2020 with aggressive measures such as
closing international borders, restricting local travel and shutting down schools (Zack, 2020).
Following that, m-shopping reported a spike in terms of sales amid the rapid rise in
COVID-19 cases coupled with the implementation of the MCO (Lim, 2020). Lazada, My
Seafood Mart and Lotus (formerly known as Tesco) were among the companies that recorded
increased transactions on their mobile channels since the MCO started. However, the
relationship between the increase in mobile purchases and COVID-19 outbreak had not be
confirmed (Naharul, 2020). Thus, it would be presumptuous to assume that causation exists
without conducting any research on this matter. With that said, this study will provide
significant insights to many stakeholders in the business sector. This is because applying the
Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to the actual usage (AU) of m-shopping would establish
whether the increase in m-shopping usage is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, several approaches will be derived from this study’s findings to help businesses
further improve on their mobile marketing strategies.
Theoretically,past studies on m-shopping(e.g. Marriott and Williams,2018; Shang and Wu,
2017) investigated adoption and continuous intention in generic settings. However, few to no
studies have lookedinto the variables that affect theAU of m-shoppingduring a pandemic. In
actuality, the use of technology occurs in a variety of situations and by a broad spectrum of
users. Hence, context-specific research is important as it focuses on the interrelationships
among technology, users and usage situations (Venkatesh et al.,2021). Besides, this study’s
employmentof the PMT in the context of m-shoppingduring a pandemicis arguably the first of
its kind.Additionally, past studieson technostress (TS)(e.g. Pirkkalainen et al., 2019;Zhao et al.,
2020) tend to focus on the organizational setting whereby individuals are required to use a
particulartechnology for work purposes and tasks.Therefore, this study also servesto extend
the literature by examining TS in the voluntarycontext of m-shopping.
2. Literature review
2.1 Protection motivation theory (PMT)
The PMT is a prominent theory that has been used to investigate online security behaviors
(van Bavel et al., 2019;Menard et al., 2017), health-related behaviors (Powell et al., 2016;
Camerini et al., 2019), behavioral intention to adopt mobile health service (Zhang et al., 2020)
and pro-environmental behaviors (Shafiei and Maleksaeidi, 2020;Verkoeyen and Nepal,
2019). It was initially proposed by Rogers (1975), who posited that when a person is faced with
a threatening event, he/she will carry out two appraisal processes. These processes focus on
the threat itself (threat appraisal) and the individual’s ability to respond to the threat (coping
appraisal). Both appraisals will subsequently determine whether the individual will approach
the situation in an adaptive or a maladaptive manner. In particular, adaptive behaviors are
responses that serve to protect oneself against the threat, while maladaptive behaviors inhibit
the person from enacting a recommended response (Menard et al., 2017).
The threat appraisal typically involves “perceived vulnerability”,“perceived severity”as
well as intrinsic and extrinsic “rewards”of maladaptive behaviors. According to Shafiei and
Maleksaeidi (2020),“perceived severity”refers to one’s perception of the threat’s magnitude,
whereas “perceived vulnerability”refers to the likelihood in which a person is susceptible to
the threat. In this study, people’s perceptions of the vulnerability and severity of a COVID-19
IMDS
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