key: cord-0840950-vv57oiv7 authors: Lhuillier, André title: The Moderating Role of Social Distancing in Mobile Commerce Adoption date: 2022-01-06 journal: Electron Commer Res Appl DOI: 10.1016/j.elerap.2021.101116 sha: 0a9f8892fde26e89546f27dc37c69a06c8b764ff doc_id: 840950 cord_uid: vv57oiv7 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. The penetration of mobile devices has been another technology that has reached high levels 2020, the same year ended with a total year-over-year growth over 40% (Ali, 2021) . 42 The work presented contributes mostly to the understanding of mobile commerce behavior 43 during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Particularly, the behavior and perception of 44 consumers, along with attitudes regarding mobile shopping when under social distancing 45 procedures before the availability of vaccines. As the data was collected in the early stages of the 46 pandemic, there were no vaccines, and the only alternatives were social distancing and use of masks. Thus, the study here presents a unique understanding of how and how much did positive 48 attitudes towards social distancing affect MC use. We believe this is valuable insights for 49 marketers that currently have or plan to develop MC operations; particularly on how to adapt their 50 offerings towards customer's most sensitive concerns. Our objective was to test the distinct effects that each of the influences presented in the Theory 52 of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework (Ajzen, 1991) such behavior (Ajzen, 1991) which is defined as the perception of self-efficacy and overall 152 capacity to use MC in our study. These factors influence the intention to purchase using mobile 153 devices, which in turn is a mediator toward actual behavior of using MC. Thus, using the TPB between the attitude over a particular technology and the magnitude of the intention to utilize it. 185 We believe that this naturally applies to technology associated with mobile devices and mobile 186 commercial services. Given our selection of the survey scale for perceived subjective norms 187 over MC, the test for this influence evaluates a negative relation to behavioral intention. Consequently, H3 hypothesis states that consumer's perceived subject norms toward mobile 189 shopping exert a negative effect on their behavioral intention towards mobile. Finally, the 190 mediator role of behavioral intention is also tested over the fourth hypothesis (H4); which 191 presents that customer's intention has a positive effect over purchase behavior as the null. Prior to data collection, participants' consent was obtained. Before the survey was taken, participants were asked to read the consent form acknowledging their understanding of involved 254 responsibilities and rights regarding the survey. After this, participants completed the survey that 255 took approximately 10 minutes. First, demographic information questionnaires were filled by the 256 participants. After this, they were requested to answer the presented items related to the measures 257 specified in Section 3.3. Once results were obtained, we proceeded to analyze the data. First, we used To further test the expected factor structure of all three latent variables, a confirmatory 320 factor analysis (CFA) using maximum likelihood estimation in R version 3.6.1 was performed to Table 2 ). To further examine common method variance, a Harman's Single Factor Test was used. The 328 result suggested that the largest total variance extracted by one factor was 17% (less than 50%), 329 which indicated a good discriminant validity. 330 We used average variance extracted (AVE) to assess convergent validity (Fornell and  Individuals' technology acceptance impacts their intention to perform mobile shopping behavior.  Customers' attitudes toward social distancing exert a negative effect on their behavioral intention.  Extend the theory of planned behavior with the m-commerce (MC) behavior factor.  Empirical evidence of consumer attitudes during the pandemic before the availability of vaccines. Explain the intention to use smartphones for mobile shopping Developing a Website Service Quality Scale: A Confirmatory 485 Factor Analytic Approach A bayesian analysis of attribution processes Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior The theory of planned behavior. 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