Critical factors of WAP services adoption: an empirical study

Mobile commerce is becoming increasingly important in business. This trend is particularly evident in the service industry. To cope with this demand, various platforms have been proposed to provide effective mobile commerce solutions. Among these solutions, wireless application protocol (WAP) is one of the most widespread technical standards for mobile commerce. Following continuous technical evolution, WAP has come to include various new features. However, WAP services continue to struggle for market share. Hence, understanding WAP service adoption is increasingly important for enterprises interested in developing mobile commerce. This study aims to (1) identify the critical factors of WAP service adoption; (2) explore the relative importance of each factor for users who adopt WAP and those who do not; (3) examine the causal relationships among variables on WAP service adoption behavior. This study conducts an empirical test of WAP service adoption in Taiwan, based on theory of planned behavior (TPB) and innovation diffusion theory (IDT). The results help clarify the critical factors influences on WAP service adoption in the Greater China economic region. The Greater China economic region is a rapidly growing market. Many western telecommunication enterprises are strongly interested in providing wireless services in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei. Since these cities share a similar culture and the same language, the analytical results and conclusions of this study may be a good reference for global telecommunication enterprises to establish the developing strategy for their eastern branches. From the analysis conducted in this study, the critical factors for influences on WAP service adoption include connection speed, service cost, user satisfaction, personal innovativeness, ease of use, peer influence, and facilitating condition. Therefore, this study proposes that strategies for marketing WAP services in the Greater China economic region can pay increased attention to these factors. Notably, this study also provides some suggestion for subsequent researchers and practitioners seeking to understand WAP service adoption behavior.