Evaluation on readiness of mobile wallet using NFC technology: using technology readiness index (TRI) / Nur Azila Meor Hamzah

Due to the rapid growth of technology, telecommunication companies compete on offering various services in order to support and meet the latest sophisticated technology requirement in order to retain the customer by capturing their interest. The trend on usage of mobile application has been widely spread throughout the world. The newly talk of the town topic is mobile wallet using NFC technology. This type of digital services on payment transaction as easy as ‘touch and go’ process where we only need to wave the mobile phone embedded with NFC chip to the point-of-sale NFC terminal reader. At present, this type of mobile wallet application is still in early adoption stage in Malaysia. The purpose of this study is to identify the readiness on mobile wallet in Malaysia that will be introduced by the telecommunication companies soon. Technology Readiness Index (TRI) method has been chosen as instrument to conduct the readiness on this technology among Malaysian. The hypothesis has been identified based on TRI basic model. This study used quantitative survey as methodological approach. Respondents of the survey collected from various backgrounds. As the main target area, this survey has been focused on respondents of Klang Valley. The total of 226 questionnaires returned met the scope of this study. The analysis of this survey supported by four factors namely optimism, innovativeness, discomfort and insecurity to test out the proposed model. The influence of mentioned four factors concludes that new technology is ready to embark based on the reaction on consumer readiness towards technology introduced. This study has implication on recommendations to mobile wallet providers such as telecommunication companies, bankers and merchants to decide on this new technology investment and implementation.