Factors influencing the adoption of mobile commerce applications in Cameroon

As smartphone penetration continues to double in Sub-Saharan Africa, many businesses are looking into this channel for conducting their business activities. In Cameroon, all the top e-commerce giants have deployed smartphone applications to facilitate m-commerce activities. However, little is known about the factors that influence m-commerce adoption in the country. As such, this study had as objective to determine the key factors that influence consumer's adoption of m-commerce applications in Cameroon. Using data from 372 respondents, a modified version of the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) was validated in the Cameroon context. The findings showed that social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived risk and perceived trust were significant predictors of the behavioural intention to adopt m-commerce applications. Also, the results showed that consumers who had a high intention to adopt m-commerce were more likely to recommend the technology to others. For researchers, the study depicts the relevance of extending existing technology acceptance models like the UTUAT2 with appropriate factors in different technological and geographical context. For practitioners, the study identifies customer-specific and environmental factors that m-commerce providers in Cameroon and other regions with similar characteristics could consider when designing and implementing strategies for attracting consumers to use their m-commerce applications.