عوامل تعیین کننده وفاداری مشتری در تجارت موبایل در مالزی   Determinants of Mobile Commerce Customer Loyalty in Malaysia  

Driven by iPhone and other smartphones which can access the Internet easily, mobile phone revolution is on its way. Mobile devices have surpassed being just a utility-based communication tool (Chong et al., 2012). Current technology has enabled downloading of mobile applications to be used as productivity tools, social-networking programs, or just simply for games. Telecommunication companies are hastily building network infrastructure that allows wider coverage and faster connection in order to foster mobile commerce development. The present development of mobile commerce or, more commonly known as m-commerce, offers more pervasive accessibility to users compared to e-commerce (Wei et al., 2009). Eventually, m-commerce migrates and enhances online transaction from wired to wireless (Schwiderski-Grosche & Knospe, 2002). Furthermore, mobile devices are smaller and more convenient to carry (Schwiderski-Grosche & Knospe, 2002). Given these conveniences, m-commerce has further evoked and enhanced e-commerce activities without the restrictions of time and place. Researchers have adopted some broad definitions of m-commerce since its emergence, for example, Keen et al. (2001) defined m-commerce as an extension of e-commerce from wired (fixed location) to wireless (could be accessed anywhere and anytime). Some researchers have simplified m-commerce as a “wireless electronic form of ecommerce” or just an additional innovative paradigm emerged somewhere within e-commerce (Feng et al., 2006). Tiwari & Buse (2007) commented on the inappropriateness in defining m-commerce as the “transaction of monetary value” as it ignores the natural measurement of commercial or business and after-sales services. For instance, some completion of m-commerce might not be cost-oriented like free downloading software, application, or music sharing. In this study, we follow the discussion and definition of m-commerce synthesized by Wei et al. (2009). Mcommerce is defined as “any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobiles access to computer-mediated networks with the help of mobile devices”. Indeed, m-commerce has become increasingly important in today’s business environment. With the rapid adoption of the Internet and the familiarization of consumers with mobile devices, m-commerce market is set to become one of the most promising and lucrative growth markets (Kim et al., 2007). In Malaysia, although mcommerce is relatively in its infancy stage (Wei et al., 2009), the m-commerce market is expected to grow rapidly by 59.6% in 2015 (Wong, 2014). The increase of the m-commerce market size in Malaysia is driven by the high mobile phone penetration rate in the country. With government support, m-commerce in Malaysia has a very promising future and is set to be the engine of growth worldwide (Goi, 2008). With the growth in m-commerce, the competitions among m-commerce retailers are also growing intensively. Retaining customers has become an issue for online retailers as it is more expensive for them to attract new customers as compared to the brick-and-mortar stores (Luarn & Lin, 2003). In addition, customer loyalty is important as it would strongly impact the profits and long-term growth of a company (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000). A little increase in customer loyalty rate can boost up a company’s profit (Eid, 2011). In short, the success of mcommerce depends on customer loyalty to m-commerce retailers (Lin & Wang, 2006). Therefore, it is necessary for m-commerce retailers to maintain long-term relationship with their customers in the m-commerce environment (Kim, 2010). The importance of customer loyalty has been recognized in marketing literature for many years. However, the empirical validation for m-commerce customer loyalty has not been addressed extensively (Lin & Wang, 2006). Based on the review of past studies, most of the studies have examined the factors that influence the adoption of mcommerce (Lai & Lai, 2014; Chung, 2014, Zhang et al., 2012, Chong et al., 2012; Wei et al., 2009). Although examining the user behavioral intention towards the adoption of a technology is common, it is also important to understand the customer retention in m-commerce context (Chong, 2013). Therefore, this paper aims to bridge the gap by investigating the factors that influence m-commerce customer loyalty in Malaysia by integrating service quality and relationship quality constructs.